Good morning!
So, it is 7:07am and I am normally sleeping right now! Unfortunately (admittedly at the age of 27) I had a bad dream and found myself rather awake. I figured why not put my state of wakefulness to good use. Yes that means I just put the dishwasher on. I don't have a whole lot to write about, but that has never stopped me before, so here we go!
CONGRATULATIONS to Teri & Kevyn!!! You guys must be thrilled, as I know both Nicole and I are most certainly thrilled for you. We cannot wait to meet little Sawyer :)
Hope you all had a very merry Christmas. Ours was restful. Wait, did I say restful? Because I actually meant stressful. Nicole and I were both sick in the weeks prior to Christmas such that were not able to leave the apartment for much of anything apart for some desperate Christmas shopping (which I'm proud to say we were able to pull off). Some points:
A) Thank you to my family, who were far too generous with the gifts and provided us with an amazing meal!
B) Thank you to Nicole's family, who were far too generous with the gifts and provided us with an amazing meal!
C) Thank you to Doug & Kerri, who were far too generous with the gifts and provided us with an amazing meal!
Hey Gadient family! Yes I'm talking to you Shauna, Kevin, Emma, and Daniel! Why have we not seen you yet? The birthdays and Christmas has gone by and yet the gifts remain undelivered on our love seat!?! And the greetings and well wishes remain un-uttered from our mouths! This must be solved by a "get-together" perhaps in your local area (which you may take to mean "Steinbach" or "Your Living Room"). In the proceeding section "we" or "us" refers to the married couple of Tom Sontag and Nicole O'Leary-Sontag and "you" refers to the married couple of Shauna Gadient and Kevin Gadient.
Section 10.2 - The Outing
"We" would like to go out on a double date of sorts with "you" at your earliest convenience. Yes "we" know "you" have children and now a dog (as if you didn't have enough living beings to care for?) which makes it difficult to get out of the house, and that "we" are just the childless friends who do not know what it is like to try to raise two children under that age of six while importing dogs from abroad whose bread according to their wikipedia page are in the "Giant weight range" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_(dog))
Nonetheless it is perhaps good that "you" have friends like "us" who can push you to simply get out for a night without the kids/dog? A table at Peasant Cookery awaits the lot of us at your earliest convenience.
Section 10.3 - Regarding S&M Inc.
It must be stated that our contact with S&M Inc. (provider of laughter and all-around "good times") has been sadly lacking as of late, which I must admit the blame for which lands squarely on our roundish shoulders. We miss you guys and must meet up soon.
Doing away with needless section headings, the event of the year (or next year?) is coming up on January 1st! What event? If you don't know than you are probably not worthy of having me describe to you the joys that can come with an oversized soccer ball, 2-4 dirt bikes, and the best 64 bit graphics 1996 had to offer us. I can almost hear the extra revs as the z-trigger is pressed, feel the tension as the ballots are counted in a questionably undisclosed manner, and taste the cream puffs that have been on the table for the past 6 hours. Friendships are left at the door with the shoes. Pride is won like a cheap trophy bought at a Value Village. Yes, I am most certainly referring to the "7th Annual Excitebike 64 Soccer Tournament".
I should throw out a belated Congratulations to Randy & Jen as well on their recent engagement and upcoming wedding. Rumour has it I'm invited, so I'm pretty psyched.
So how about my brain? It is still around 3 lbs give or take, most of which is still made of of non-cancerous cells. I went for my latest MRI on the 28th. It made the usual beeps and hums and clicks. I don't speak the same language as the machine so I can't tell you how it went. Instead I have to wait until January 6th for my next visit to find out. Again there are a few scenarios that can play out:
#1) The tumour is bigger. This is bad. This means I statistically will only have a few months to live.
#2) The tumour is the same. This is good. It means Nicole and I can live on a knife's edge until the next MRI.
#3) The tumour is smaller. This is gooder. It means Nicole and I can relax (just a tiny bit) knowing that we likely have at least a few months until the thing grows back with a vengeance and kills me (statistically that is).
#4) The tumour is gone. The is the best. Though not possible (short of a miracle) this would mean I'd have my first clean MRI. Would this mean I'd be cured? No. It would mean I'd have millions of cancer cells in my brain, though not enough to show up on an MRI. It would mean that Nicole and I would be able to celebrate for at least a day before being crushed with the reminder that statistically I still would not live for very long.
And the word of the day is... HOPE! Hope is what we go on these days. Statistics matter not. If one in a million can beat this, than I just need to be that one (sorry other 999,999). The next week will be stressful beyond explanation for Nicole and I, up until the "moment of truth", which could result in tears of disappointment, or tears of joy. Either way I plan on crying like a girl. They might feel sorry for me and give me a cookie! Side note: NICOLE WAS AWESOME AND GOT ME A CHOCOLATE BAR FOR CHRISTMAS! But before you think she was trying to kill me... IT WAS MADE WITHOUT SUGAR! Best of all? IT TASTED LIKE IT WAS MADE WITH SUGAR!!! When people ask me if there is any reason to be happy these days I can just say "Well, the other day I had this delicious chocolate bar!"
I love my wife :)
Ok, so what else can I ramble on about. Randy has informed me that "Pinterest" is the newest latest craze, so for those of you who want to be more "with it" than I am you should check it out. I'll probably do so later today, so you have at least 6 hours to get a head start on me.
That be it for now. As per usual I will promise updates to this blog while in reality procrastinate doing so until forced by my own ever-building guilt to do so. It is now 8:07 am, meaning I've put a good hour into this and can return to bed in order to rest up for... whatever it is I'll end up doing today. CHEERS EVERYONE!!!
--
Tom
Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Merry Christmas to ye all!
And to all a goodnight? I think that is how it goes. Anyways, it's ME! TOM! I haven't blogged in a while and figure now is as good a time as any to do so.
I am BORED! Just a little bit. A couple of weeks trapped in an apartment will do that to a guy. I'm feeling good now, though I have a wife who is most definitely NOT feeling good. We were good enough to take turns (I was sick week 1, her week 2), so I'm hoping week #3 finds us both healthy and well. Where did it all begin?
About two weeks ago Nicole and I decided to treat ourselves to a night out consisting of dinner and a movie. We didn't even get as far as the dinner. We went to Joey's on Kenaston and placed our orders. Before our food even arrived I had a sudden feeling come over me that I find hard to describe other than to say, in using my best 8 year old vocabulary, it was a "bad & yucky" feeling. I had just been to the washroom to blow my nose so I thought perhaps I was just feeling lightheaded. Just in case I warned Nicole "something bad" might be happening. I tried to answer her questions as to how I felt by stating I just felt a sort-of-nauseous feeling come over me and that I could not concentrate in terms of my mental or visual focus. I then felt my head and neck begin to twitch to the left. I figured I was having a seizure. This was a different experience for me, despite having had several seizures previously. Most of my seizures are what I believe are referred to as "Absence Seizures", and not the arms-flailing-wildly "Grand Mal" or "Tonic Clonic" seizures I certainly would have had come to mind when hearing the word "seizure" prior to experiencing any myself. This means I might "zone out" for a moment (maybe a few seconds) and be unresponsive, but otherwise return to "normal" a short while later. Only once did I seem to stay in a seizure-like state, which was when I was deemed to be "status epilepticus" and put into a medically induced coma back in July of this year. Regardless I have very little recollection of any of my past seizures other than the moments leading up to them. This was the first one I can say I was conscious during and can still remember the feelings of to this day. Nicole was (as usual) amazing, and managed to calm me down, as I was feeling quite panicked while having my seizure. She then managed to get me my Ativan (aka: Lorazepam, a drug used to help treat anxiety attacks, seizures, and kill off highly troubled though critically acclaimed pop singers who are about to launch sold-out shows in Europe). The stuff is magic and I can see why one would want to use/abuse it. In my case it helps to stop seizures from happening in a way that someone who has a degree in chemistry or biology might be able to explain.
Nicole informed the waitress that we had to leave and that we needed the yet-to-be delivered meals wrapped "to go". Despite not having any of our beverages we were charged for them, and an accidental press of the 15% tip button meant our server probably had the best tip-to-work ratio of the night, and ensured that at $50, our trip to Joey's was one of the most expensive and least enjoyable "take-out" experiences of recent times.
Nicole informs me I had two additional seizures. One in the car ride home from the restaurant and a second while back in the apartment. I'm sure this was a scary time for her, as I know it was for me, and I wasn't even fully conscious or aware of what was going on. Alas, we made it through that day/night without any of the severe postictal symptoms I've experienced before (such as believing I was in an alternate reality... aka: the "Going Crazy Phase").
Long story made shorter, after getting blood work done, I was cleared to begin Chemotherapy on Wednesday December 14th (which had been delayed from one week prior, December 7th, due to the cold/flu symptoms I was experiencing then). I have since been told I will be referred to a neurologist once an opening becomes available to assess why I still seem to be having seizures regularly (every two months or so on average) despite being on two different anti-seizure medications. I'll let you know how that goes, when it goes, though they warned me it can take a long time to get such an appointment made.
All seemed to be on track when on Monday Nicole started to feel ill. Her illness was less of a common flu/cold and more of a stomach virus or some such thing. I jokingly said I was married to Winnie the Pooh as her tummy was oh so very rumbly. We were hoping it would be a quick thing she would get over before I started Chemo, as when I'm on chemo my white blood cell counts are lowered and I am more susceptible to getting other infections. As it went, she remained (and remains) ill, but despite starting my Chemo this past Wednesday I have not developed any of her current symptoms. Today is Sunday and thus the last of my 5-day chemo stretch and I'm actually feeling about 95% healthy with just a bit of my cough & stuffy head/nose left over from the cold/flu I had before all of this craziness started. With any luck tomorrow will see both of us at 100%, but with Nicole feeling worse today than she did yesterday, that is not looking like the money-making bet.
We now face the wonderful prospect of having to finish our Christmas shopping in the five or so days before Christmas which should be just MAGICAL! Admittedly, I have more shopping to do than Nicole, though as she is my chauffeur she really can't escape the chaos of mall parking (sorry love).
So both of us are reaching stir-crazy levels, as TV can only provide so much relief. I've loaded and unloaded the dishwasher to the point where I need to pointlessly dirty dishes just to keep myself from absolute boredom. I face the unfortunate situation of needing to avoid getting whatever Nicole has, given my reduced immune system at the moment, and me getting whatever she has and knocking me out for the next week+ would BEYOND SUCK, so she's effectively in quarantine in the bedroom. This sounds unfortunate, though I would argue being in "rest-of-the-apartment" quarantine is not much better. I've gotten a lot of reading done, and now a lot of blogging done, but I find I'm surprisingly bored of not doing a whole lot. Maybe I'll run around in the parking lot screaming obscenities for a while. Crazy people always seem to look to have so much fun when they're doing it. That or maybe a nap... in which I dream about running around the parking lot screaming obscenities. The latter has the advantage of me not having to put my jacket or shoes on. Hope you all are in better health than my lovely wife and I and keep in mind that if any of you are finding the stress of the holidays "too much to handle", I would gladly trade places with you for even just 5 minutes of that feeling. Cheers!
--
Tom
PS: GO JETS GO! (I think as a Winnipeg resident I'm legally required to put that in)
I am BORED! Just a little bit. A couple of weeks trapped in an apartment will do that to a guy. I'm feeling good now, though I have a wife who is most definitely NOT feeling good. We were good enough to take turns (I was sick week 1, her week 2), so I'm hoping week #3 finds us both healthy and well. Where did it all begin?
About two weeks ago Nicole and I decided to treat ourselves to a night out consisting of dinner and a movie. We didn't even get as far as the dinner. We went to Joey's on Kenaston and placed our orders. Before our food even arrived I had a sudden feeling come over me that I find hard to describe other than to say, in using my best 8 year old vocabulary, it was a "bad & yucky" feeling. I had just been to the washroom to blow my nose so I thought perhaps I was just feeling lightheaded. Just in case I warned Nicole "something bad" might be happening. I tried to answer her questions as to how I felt by stating I just felt a sort-of-nauseous feeling come over me and that I could not concentrate in terms of my mental or visual focus. I then felt my head and neck begin to twitch to the left. I figured I was having a seizure. This was a different experience for me, despite having had several seizures previously. Most of my seizures are what I believe are referred to as "Absence Seizures", and not the arms-flailing-wildly "Grand Mal" or "Tonic Clonic" seizures I certainly would have had come to mind when hearing the word "seizure" prior to experiencing any myself. This means I might "zone out" for a moment (maybe a few seconds) and be unresponsive, but otherwise return to "normal" a short while later. Only once did I seem to stay in a seizure-like state, which was when I was deemed to be "status epilepticus" and put into a medically induced coma back in July of this year. Regardless I have very little recollection of any of my past seizures other than the moments leading up to them. This was the first one I can say I was conscious during and can still remember the feelings of to this day. Nicole was (as usual) amazing, and managed to calm me down, as I was feeling quite panicked while having my seizure. She then managed to get me my Ativan (aka: Lorazepam, a drug used to help treat anxiety attacks, seizures, and kill off highly troubled though critically acclaimed pop singers who are about to launch sold-out shows in Europe). The stuff is magic and I can see why one would want to use/abuse it. In my case it helps to stop seizures from happening in a way that someone who has a degree in chemistry or biology might be able to explain.
Nicole informed the waitress that we had to leave and that we needed the yet-to-be delivered meals wrapped "to go". Despite not having any of our beverages we were charged for them, and an accidental press of the 15% tip button meant our server probably had the best tip-to-work ratio of the night, and ensured that at $50, our trip to Joey's was one of the most expensive and least enjoyable "take-out" experiences of recent times.
Nicole informs me I had two additional seizures. One in the car ride home from the restaurant and a second while back in the apartment. I'm sure this was a scary time for her, as I know it was for me, and I wasn't even fully conscious or aware of what was going on. Alas, we made it through that day/night without any of the severe postictal symptoms I've experienced before (such as believing I was in an alternate reality... aka: the "Going Crazy Phase").
Long story made shorter, after getting blood work done, I was cleared to begin Chemotherapy on Wednesday December 14th (which had been delayed from one week prior, December 7th, due to the cold/flu symptoms I was experiencing then). I have since been told I will be referred to a neurologist once an opening becomes available to assess why I still seem to be having seizures regularly (every two months or so on average) despite being on two different anti-seizure medications. I'll let you know how that goes, when it goes, though they warned me it can take a long time to get such an appointment made.
All seemed to be on track when on Monday Nicole started to feel ill. Her illness was less of a common flu/cold and more of a stomach virus or some such thing. I jokingly said I was married to Winnie the Pooh as her tummy was oh so very rumbly. We were hoping it would be a quick thing she would get over before I started Chemo, as when I'm on chemo my white blood cell counts are lowered and I am more susceptible to getting other infections. As it went, she remained (and remains) ill, but despite starting my Chemo this past Wednesday I have not developed any of her current symptoms. Today is Sunday and thus the last of my 5-day chemo stretch and I'm actually feeling about 95% healthy with just a bit of my cough & stuffy head/nose left over from the cold/flu I had before all of this craziness started. With any luck tomorrow will see both of us at 100%, but with Nicole feeling worse today than she did yesterday, that is not looking like the money-making bet.
We now face the wonderful prospect of having to finish our Christmas shopping in the five or so days before Christmas which should be just MAGICAL! Admittedly, I have more shopping to do than Nicole, though as she is my chauffeur she really can't escape the chaos of mall parking (sorry love).
So both of us are reaching stir-crazy levels, as TV can only provide so much relief. I've loaded and unloaded the dishwasher to the point where I need to pointlessly dirty dishes just to keep myself from absolute boredom. I face the unfortunate situation of needing to avoid getting whatever Nicole has, given my reduced immune system at the moment, and me getting whatever she has and knocking me out for the next week+ would BEYOND SUCK, so she's effectively in quarantine in the bedroom. This sounds unfortunate, though I would argue being in "rest-of-the-apartment" quarantine is not much better. I've gotten a lot of reading done, and now a lot of blogging done, but I find I'm surprisingly bored of not doing a whole lot. Maybe I'll run around in the parking lot screaming obscenities for a while. Crazy people always seem to look to have so much fun when they're doing it. That or maybe a nap... in which I dream about running around the parking lot screaming obscenities. The latter has the advantage of me not having to put my jacket or shoes on. Hope you all are in better health than my lovely wife and I and keep in mind that if any of you are finding the stress of the holidays "too much to handle", I would gladly trade places with you for even just 5 minutes of that feeling. Cheers!
--
Tom
PS: GO JETS GO! (I think as a Winnipeg resident I'm legally required to put that in)
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