To show you how "on top" of this blog thing I am, the below has been sitting as a draft since November 27th 2012. Yes folks, 2012 (a date most of you have still been writing this year out of sheer habit). Since then I've had several doctors visits and at least one seizure. I thus cannot verify the accuracy of what is written below, but I fear if I do not click "post" now the below will never make it to your eyes. After reading it myself, I will make the necessary updates in a future post (also to be done in 2013). Oh, and the results of my last MRI are in... Like a Horse's home it is STABLE!!!!! Now let's go back in time together to late November 2012...
9:40pm. See! I'm getting better at this! I promise both myself and Nicole that I will be in bed by 10:00pm tonight. Let the blogosphere be my witness!
9:41pm. Now Being in bed by 10pm will require me to do something I (along with most men on this planet I assume) have extreme difficulty doing... accurately judging my time. It will take me 5 minutes to brush my teeth / wash my face & take an additional 5 to get changed and actually make my way to my bed. This means I must stop blogging around 9:50pm.
9:43pm. 7 minutes. Wow! I need to start blogging earlier don't I? So where was I? Oh right... people who think it's "SO GREAT!" that I'm wrapping up my chemotherapy treatments soon.
#1) Why will this be happening you ask? Here is what I get from it all (which might or might not have any accuracy to it). My chemotherapy pills are some serious pills. If my chemo pills were a monster truck, they would be "Gravedigger". I meant to imply they are the biggest and baddest of all prescription medications. The fact I chose I truck whose name was inspired by the name for a person who literally digs holes in the ground for caskets containing dead bodies was unintentional and truly tasteless. But I wrote it, and I can't think of any way to change it now, can you? Anyways, what I was getting at was that they can do my body some serious damage. That is their point. They are designed to do my body some serious damage. The good news is they are designed to damage certain parts of my body faster than others... specifically the fastest growing cells in my body. Turns out tumour cells grow quicker than most so "BOOM!" they end up on the chemo medication's hit list. This is also why hair sometimes falls out during chemo treatment (it grows rather quickly as any person who pays a lot for hair cuts would surely know).
9:53pm. Damn! I mean "Darn!" (There could be kids reading... and again I'd change that first inappropriate word, but computers can only do so much. Text is like permanent ink, and I'd know. I'm in IT). "Shucks" "Bananas" "Crum bums" Ok, now I'm just getting silly. Nope, I'm just wasting time. 9:55pm. Going to bed fail. I must abandon ship and return to this blog entry tomorrow. I shall have to hit the "save as draft" button and admit poor judgement of time once again. I blame that "y chromosome". Off to brush my teeth and such. Goodnight!
...and we're back! And you thought time travel was impossible!? All it took was a drafts folder and my extreme procrastination!!! Glad I could help ;) Maybe next time I'll post the saved draft from my HoverCar(tm)!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Happy 2 years to ME!
11:00pm. I tend to get carried away when writing blogs, so I'm writing the time down for my own good to keep track of exactly how carried away I get. I made a deal (with myself obviously, as I find myself particularly easy to get along with) that I would try to be in bed by 10:00pm each night. Clearly I've already failed that (as I do most nights) so let's just keep 'er goin'!
11:03pm. As the title of this post would imply it is my two year anniversary! Of marriage? No, something much more painful than marriage. BRAIN SURGERY!!! See how I implied marriage was painful there? It is fun to do that. Also note that such an implication doesn't omit the possibility that marriage is truly awesome and I love my wife more than anything in the whole wide world? Very observant of you! To those of you in the background whispering "nice save", I can hear you and I don't appreciate it.
11:05pm. Yes indeed, two years since that day. November 26th, 2010. That was the date my skull was cut open and a portion of the inside of my head was cut out! I remember it like it was something I can't remember at all (which is probably a very good thing). I do remember being in a hospital bed for some time afterwards. I remember having to "relearn" using my own legs to walk (and finding that pesky "left arm" that was never where it should have been). NOTE: I don't recommend elective brain surgery, but to those of you spending hoards of your life savings on detrimental body-harming drugs like heroin or perhaps crystal meth... you can get a serious trip when parts of your body aren't where you think they are or should be... I'm just saying.
11:10pm. Then there was the whole "taking radiation and chemotherapy" thing. The radiation lasted a month or so, with only a partial loss of hair (though none of my underlying rugged good looks... see earlier posts for entertaining stories about when the "stuffing falling out of my own pillow" turned out to be my own hair! It sounds creepy because it was!!!). I've been going through subsequent rounds of chemotherapy on a near-monthly basis. Actually it is a 28 day cycle where I spend 5 days on chemo, and then 23 days off of it. For a long time I was on a drug called Accutane (read earlier posts about the joys of taking that drug) for the first 21 days of the cycle. This meant 5 days of feeling not-so-great (and 21 of feeling less than perfect) with 7 whole days to enjoy the benefits of not taking any medications!* *Other than the 5 or so I always took to: prevent possible seizures, reduce the swelling in my brain, reduce the stomach acid from taking so many pills. What I'm saying is that I now know how to count in milligrams :)
11:16pm. Sweet. I'm averaging less than 5 minutes per rambling paragraph. At this point I'll be in bed by midnight (having said nothing at all), or up until 5am next Tuesday (getting my main points across). So... 2 years!!! YAY!!! Ok, sort of. It all sounds impressive right? That's probably because at first I was given perhaps weeks to 3 months to live (worst case) or up to a year (best likely case). As those of you who know me best will know, in my first year of dealing with my unfriendly brain-residing cells, I managed to complete my 2nd University Degree (my Bachelor of Commerce [honours] double majoring in "Entrepreneurship / Small Business" and "Management of Organizations" the latter of which I received the "I .H. Asper School of Business Medal for Excellence" recognizing my achievement of having the highest standing of any student in my graduating class for that major. I'm not usually one to brag, but when someone cuts a whole in your brain, takes some material out, and sends you back on your way... getting a medal ain't so bad ;)
11:23pm. My wife has just told me it is time for bed. This is why I love her (but don't tell her that). She cares for me enough to look after me when I don't (which I never do). She is the reason I am still alive for multiple reasons (which you can again read about in prior posts). The reason she is telling me to get to bed is that if I don't, I will risk not getting enough sleep. Why? Because I am stubborn and will go to work tomorrow, even if I have not gotten enough sleep. I don't blame her for worrying. Me having a seizure worries her 1,000 times more than it worries me. This is because she is the one that has to deal with the after effects of my seizures (by taking care of me EVEN MORE than she does in a typical day). By continuing to type I'm being tremendously selfish and stubborn (two of my most prominent qualities as a husband).
11:27: Pushing my luck, I wanted to acknowledge my 2 year anniversary by stating my head has remained in one piece with most of its contents in tact (unfortunately including the remaining tumour cells). I have a rant to write about people telling me "You must be SO HAPPY to be off chemo soon!" (just a warning: I'm not, so don't say that to me). Cheers to you all eh?
11:29, and if I really hurry I can brush my teeth and be in bed by 11:43!!! Don't tell my dentist I'm going to forgo flossing tonight (as I have for the past 400+ some nights). Maybe tomorrow? I say that every night, so one night it will have to be true!
11:31pm. The end... for now... until I come back tomorrow to write more... which I always say I will do... but rarely end up doing... sorry ... life is keeping me busy... which is good.... so I shouldn't apologize... but I still am... wonder what my councilor would say about that... goodnight! :)
11:32pm. [sound of teeth being brushed]
11:33pm. Feeling of guilt for having not proofread the above. Feeling of fear knowing I have probably made multiple spelling errors. And possibly even grammatical ones!!! :()
11:03pm. As the title of this post would imply it is my two year anniversary! Of marriage? No, something much more painful than marriage. BRAIN SURGERY!!! See how I implied marriage was painful there? It is fun to do that. Also note that such an implication doesn't omit the possibility that marriage is truly awesome and I love my wife more than anything in the whole wide world? Very observant of you! To those of you in the background whispering "nice save", I can hear you and I don't appreciate it.
11:05pm. Yes indeed, two years since that day. November 26th, 2010. That was the date my skull was cut open and a portion of the inside of my head was cut out! I remember it like it was something I can't remember at all (which is probably a very good thing). I do remember being in a hospital bed for some time afterwards. I remember having to "relearn" using my own legs to walk (and finding that pesky "left arm" that was never where it should have been). NOTE: I don't recommend elective brain surgery, but to those of you spending hoards of your life savings on detrimental body-harming drugs like heroin or perhaps crystal meth... you can get a serious trip when parts of your body aren't where you think they are or should be... I'm just saying.
11:10pm. Then there was the whole "taking radiation and chemotherapy" thing. The radiation lasted a month or so, with only a partial loss of hair (though none of my underlying rugged good looks... see earlier posts for entertaining stories about when the "stuffing falling out of my own pillow" turned out to be my own hair! It sounds creepy because it was!!!). I've been going through subsequent rounds of chemotherapy on a near-monthly basis. Actually it is a 28 day cycle where I spend 5 days on chemo, and then 23 days off of it. For a long time I was on a drug called Accutane (read earlier posts about the joys of taking that drug) for the first 21 days of the cycle. This meant 5 days of feeling not-so-great (and 21 of feeling less than perfect) with 7 whole days to enjoy the benefits of not taking any medications!* *Other than the 5 or so I always took to: prevent possible seizures, reduce the swelling in my brain, reduce the stomach acid from taking so many pills. What I'm saying is that I now know how to count in milligrams :)
11:16pm. Sweet. I'm averaging less than 5 minutes per rambling paragraph. At this point I'll be in bed by midnight (having said nothing at all), or up until 5am next Tuesday (getting my main points across). So... 2 years!!! YAY!!! Ok, sort of. It all sounds impressive right? That's probably because at first I was given perhaps weeks to 3 months to live (worst case) or up to a year (best likely case). As those of you who know me best will know, in my first year of dealing with my unfriendly brain-residing cells, I managed to complete my 2nd University Degree (my Bachelor of Commerce [honours] double majoring in "Entrepreneurship / Small Business" and "Management of Organizations" the latter of which I received the "I .H. Asper School of Business Medal for Excellence" recognizing my achievement of having the highest standing of any student in my graduating class for that major. I'm not usually one to brag, but when someone cuts a whole in your brain, takes some material out, and sends you back on your way... getting a medal ain't so bad ;)
11:23pm. My wife has just told me it is time for bed. This is why I love her (but don't tell her that). She cares for me enough to look after me when I don't (which I never do). She is the reason I am still alive for multiple reasons (which you can again read about in prior posts). The reason she is telling me to get to bed is that if I don't, I will risk not getting enough sleep. Why? Because I am stubborn and will go to work tomorrow, even if I have not gotten enough sleep. I don't blame her for worrying. Me having a seizure worries her 1,000 times more than it worries me. This is because she is the one that has to deal with the after effects of my seizures (by taking care of me EVEN MORE than she does in a typical day). By continuing to type I'm being tremendously selfish and stubborn (two of my most prominent qualities as a husband).
11:27: Pushing my luck, I wanted to acknowledge my 2 year anniversary by stating my head has remained in one piece with most of its contents in tact (unfortunately including the remaining tumour cells). I have a rant to write about people telling me "You must be SO HAPPY to be off chemo soon!" (just a warning: I'm not, so don't say that to me). Cheers to you all eh?
11:29, and if I really hurry I can brush my teeth and be in bed by 11:43!!! Don't tell my dentist I'm going to forgo flossing tonight (as I have for the past 400+ some nights). Maybe tomorrow? I say that every night, so one night it will have to be true!
11:31pm. The end... for now... until I come back tomorrow to write more... which I always say I will do... but rarely end up doing... sorry ... life is keeping me busy... which is good.... so I shouldn't apologize... but I still am... wonder what my councilor would say about that... goodnight! :)
11:32pm. [sound of teeth being brushed]
11:33pm. Feeling of guilt for having not proofread the above. Feeling of fear knowing I have probably made multiple spelling errors. And possibly even grammatical ones!!! :()
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Happy After Wedding Day Jen & Randy!!!
Yesterday was a fantastic day! Nicole and I had the joy of taking part in the wedding of Jen & Randy Madsen (my sister-in-law, and new... official... "brother-in-law"). We were given the honour of being members of their wedding party, with Nicole the Matron of Honour, and myself a Groomsman. It was a nice reversal of the roles... given Jen was Nicole's Maid of Honour at our wedding, while Randy was one of my chosen groomsmen on that same day over a year ago.
Both Jen and Randy looked fantastic at their wedding which took place at Fort Gibraltar. The venue was unique, the atmosphere was fantastic, and good times were had by all. Jen looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress (and constant smile) and I must say Randy did a splendid job of choosing the outfits for us groomsmen (I think I made that purple & grey vest look Damn good!). It was so much fun to spend the day talking to family we don't get to see as often as we might like. I had the honour of delivering a speech on behalf of "Momo" (or 'Morgan' as she is known while here in North America) Nic & Jen's cousin who is currently in Japan on an exchange program, returning in about a week from now. I was able to deliver a "Kampai" to the bride and groom, and must say Kampai to Morgan as well for teaching me my newest word :)
My wife Nicole looked stunning (as always) in her purple (surprise surprise... given it was Jen's wedding) bridesmaid's dress. I think both Nicole and I did a good job of looking great, without upstaging the couple of the night, who looked the best of anyone in the room by far ;)
Thank you Jen and Randy for having us both in your wedding party and making us such a special part of your special day! We both hope you have a great honeymoon in Vegas (how could you not?) and enjoy moving into your new home once you return. If you need help moving heavy boxes, I'm sure Nicole would love to help you out. I can even come too!... to shout words of encouragement at you all so that you do not lose motivation. I'm just kidding of course... I wouldn't be totally useless... I could hold a door or two open for you while there. Once again... Kampai! (CHEERS!!!)
--
Tom
Both Jen and Randy looked fantastic at their wedding which took place at Fort Gibraltar. The venue was unique, the atmosphere was fantastic, and good times were had by all. Jen looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress (and constant smile) and I must say Randy did a splendid job of choosing the outfits for us groomsmen (I think I made that purple & grey vest look Damn good!). It was so much fun to spend the day talking to family we don't get to see as often as we might like. I had the honour of delivering a speech on behalf of "Momo" (or 'Morgan' as she is known while here in North America) Nic & Jen's cousin who is currently in Japan on an exchange program, returning in about a week from now. I was able to deliver a "Kampai" to the bride and groom, and must say Kampai to Morgan as well for teaching me my newest word :)
My wife Nicole looked stunning (as always) in her purple (surprise surprise... given it was Jen's wedding) bridesmaid's dress. I think both Nicole and I did a good job of looking great, without upstaging the couple of the night, who looked the best of anyone in the room by far ;)
Thank you Jen and Randy for having us both in your wedding party and making us such a special part of your special day! We both hope you have a great honeymoon in Vegas (how could you not?) and enjoy moving into your new home once you return. If you need help moving heavy boxes, I'm sure Nicole would love to help you out. I can even come too!... to shout words of encouragement at you all so that you do not lose motivation. I'm just kidding of course... I wouldn't be totally useless... I could hold a door or two open for you while there. Once again... Kampai! (CHEERS!!!)
--
Tom
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