27 October 2013
Windshields
27/10/13 09:32
A few weeks ago Marsha and I got our hair cut. We went to the little shop that’s opened in Rutherford Mall a year or so ago. The place used to be a Regis but the stylists who worked there bought out the lease and now run it themselves. I’ve been there a few times and they do a good job. This time though, I wanted to try a new style so I asked the guy to cut it short, much shorter than normal. Then I had Marsha take a look and we decided to go even shorter. It’s a bit of a buzz-cut.
Well it’s been a couple of weeks and I gotta say it’s growing on me. Well, to be painfully honest, I want to see it growing on me. I want it to grow back ASAP. I hate this haircut. I look like Bart Simpson on a bad day. It’s short enough you can see my scalp through the stubble. When I wake up it points in every direction. I think I could be mistaken for Charles Manson's cousin.
See what I mean?
I really really hate this haircut. Oh well, in a few weeks it will have grown out, or fallen out depending on how chemo goes. Believe me, I’ve known since I was 18 when I first noticed my hairline starting to recede that hair wasn’t permanent. Style is transient.
Last week I mentioned that I only had five contacts in my phone. There’s been a couple of comments, concerns actually, about this. The thing is, this isn’t anything new for me. I don’t keep a lot of numbers around because I’d rather talk to someone face to face than call them. This is what I like so much about my current job; I get to interact with people. When I was doing IT work I never liked trying to talk someone through a fix over the phone. I always wanted to go up and help them, in person, face to face. Even more telling is something from my ancient past. You see, back when I was in college I, like a lot of guys at the time, had a Little Black Book. It was a 2” x 3” leatherette volume for phone numbers, addresses, and such. Some guys had dozens of number in their LBBs with comments and notes about the people attached to the numbers. In contrast, my LBB had exactly three numbers: My folks, my job, and my other job. That was it. The rest of the forty some pages were blank. A friend of mine was over to my place one time and happened to find it on my desk. He flipped through my LBB and announced with a laugh “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I don’t have a lot of contacts on my phone.
That does however bring up something I’ve wanted to mention for a while now. The last few months have been rough but I’ve come to really appreciate the messages of support, the e-mails, the FaceBook posts, (I'm not on FaceBook but Marsha lets me know who says what), and the actual paper letters that have arrived. This week I got a nice card with notes from everyone at the EFS Helpline at the U of MN which was great. I’ve been surprised how many people have taken an interest in what we’ve been going through. The support has been wonderful and I want to thank all of you. It’s really helped.
Some Days You’re the Bug, and Some Days You’re the Windshield. - Price Cobb
This year I’ve been both but it’s been a lot easier knowing people are out there pulling for us.
A card from my brother
This week I had yet another doctor appointment, this time in Victoria,which is a two hour trip down the Island on a good day. Unfortunately, the only opening they had was at 8:45 in the morning. On top of that the fog was quite thick, and we didn’t know how bad morning rush hour in Victoria would be. As a result we decided to wake at 4:00 and be on the road by 5:00. Actually it was not as bad as it sounds because that’s about when I usually wake up anyway. But to be sure we each set an alarm to go off at 4:00; Marsha’s on the iPad and me on my iPod.
This resulted in our discovering something interesting about our respective styles. Marsha’s alarm went off first. It was musical; Bobs and Lolo singing Cindy Seahorse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzLy794ntY . This is a lovely, gentile way to greet the day. A minute later my alarm went off. It was a claxon like you might hear in an ICBM silo when you were alerted to something unfortunate. This was not nearly as nice or gentle. Both did the same job but not in the same way. Actually, it was lucky Marsha's sounded first so we were starting to move. If mine had gone off first, Cindy Seahorse would have had to peel us off of the ceiling.
In any event the trip to Victoria went well. We actually got there early enough that we could hit one of our favourite bakeries before the appointment and stock up on great bread and cinnamon rolls.
Score!
Oh and the result of the trip was that things are starting to move. It's been like living near a hill and knowing there will be a mudslide eventually. Weeks go buy and you hear noises and see things that hint that something is going on. Then one day the whole mountainside above and below you starts moving and you're suddenly carried along for the ride. We've known that things were going on behind the scenes, but it was very quiet around us. Now everything has broken loose. As a result of the trip to Victoria I have appointments each day this week culminating in a my first IV chemo session on Wednesday. After that it will be oral chemo each day and an IV session once every three weeks. While this is going on I also have a PET scan scheduled in Vancouver for the middle of next month. It feels like we've just tipped over the highest point on a roller coaster and now a wild ride is about to start. But how am I feeling? Well, the doctor said I was anaemic and put me on iron supplements. I can’t help but think that if I feel this energetic and content when I’m anaemic then when I’m back to full strength I’ll be bouncing off the walls like &!@#* Spiderman.
So yes things are going well.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Remember the Red/Green tree from the summer? Well here's how it looks in the fall. Coooooollll!
Well it’s been a couple of weeks and I gotta say it’s growing on me. Well, to be painfully honest, I want to see it growing on me. I want it to grow back ASAP. I hate this haircut. I look like Bart Simpson on a bad day. It’s short enough you can see my scalp through the stubble. When I wake up it points in every direction. I think I could be mistaken for Charles Manson's cousin.
See what I mean?
I really really hate this haircut. Oh well, in a few weeks it will have grown out, or fallen out depending on how chemo goes. Believe me, I’ve known since I was 18 when I first noticed my hairline starting to recede that hair wasn’t permanent. Style is transient.
Last week I mentioned that I only had five contacts in my phone. There’s been a couple of comments, concerns actually, about this. The thing is, this isn’t anything new for me. I don’t keep a lot of numbers around because I’d rather talk to someone face to face than call them. This is what I like so much about my current job; I get to interact with people. When I was doing IT work I never liked trying to talk someone through a fix over the phone. I always wanted to go up and help them, in person, face to face. Even more telling is something from my ancient past. You see, back when I was in college I, like a lot of guys at the time, had a Little Black Book. It was a 2” x 3” leatherette volume for phone numbers, addresses, and such. Some guys had dozens of number in their LBBs with comments and notes about the people attached to the numbers. In contrast, my LBB had exactly three numbers: My folks, my job, and my other job. That was it. The rest of the forty some pages were blank. A friend of mine was over to my place one time and happened to find it on my desk. He flipped through my LBB and announced with a laugh “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I don’t have a lot of contacts on my phone.
That does however bring up something I’ve wanted to mention for a while now. The last few months have been rough but I’ve come to really appreciate the messages of support, the e-mails, the FaceBook posts, (I'm not on FaceBook but Marsha lets me know who says what), and the actual paper letters that have arrived. This week I got a nice card with notes from everyone at the EFS Helpline at the U of MN which was great. I’ve been surprised how many people have taken an interest in what we’ve been going through. The support has been wonderful and I want to thank all of you. It’s really helped.
Some Days You’re the Bug, and Some Days You’re the Windshield. - Price Cobb
This year I’ve been both but it’s been a lot easier knowing people are out there pulling for us.
A card from my brother
This week I had yet another doctor appointment, this time in Victoria,which is a two hour trip down the Island on a good day. Unfortunately, the only opening they had was at 8:45 in the morning. On top of that the fog was quite thick, and we didn’t know how bad morning rush hour in Victoria would be. As a result we decided to wake at 4:00 and be on the road by 5:00. Actually it was not as bad as it sounds because that’s about when I usually wake up anyway. But to be sure we each set an alarm to go off at 4:00; Marsha’s on the iPad and me on my iPod.
This resulted in our discovering something interesting about our respective styles. Marsha’s alarm went off first. It was musical; Bobs and Lolo singing Cindy Seahorse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzLy794ntY . This is a lovely, gentile way to greet the day. A minute later my alarm went off. It was a claxon like you might hear in an ICBM silo when you were alerted to something unfortunate. This was not nearly as nice or gentle. Both did the same job but not in the same way. Actually, it was lucky Marsha's sounded first so we were starting to move. If mine had gone off first, Cindy Seahorse would have had to peel us off of the ceiling.
In any event the trip to Victoria went well. We actually got there early enough that we could hit one of our favourite bakeries before the appointment and stock up on great bread and cinnamon rolls.
Score!
Oh and the result of the trip was that things are starting to move. It's been like living near a hill and knowing there will be a mudslide eventually. Weeks go buy and you hear noises and see things that hint that something is going on. Then one day the whole mountainside above and below you starts moving and you're suddenly carried along for the ride. We've known that things were going on behind the scenes, but it was very quiet around us. Now everything has broken loose. As a result of the trip to Victoria I have appointments each day this week culminating in a my first IV chemo session on Wednesday. After that it will be oral chemo each day and an IV session once every three weeks. While this is going on I also have a PET scan scheduled in Vancouver for the middle of next month. It feels like we've just tipped over the highest point on a roller coaster and now a wild ride is about to start. But how am I feeling? Well, the doctor said I was anaemic and put me on iron supplements. I can’t help but think that if I feel this energetic and content when I’m anaemic then when I’m back to full strength I’ll be bouncing off the walls like &!@#* Spiderman.
So yes things are going well.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Remember the Red/Green tree from the summer? Well here's how it looks in the fall. Coooooollll!