Wednesday, October 17, 2012

(posted by Greg)

The past couple of weeks have been pretty full. We enjoyed Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was still great and we go a lot of yard work done. My brother, Scott, and his wife, Cathy, were in town that weekend as they became grandparents again (their son Adam's wife Madiie gave birth to a beautiful little girl (Olive Grace) at Lions Gate Hospital. We had a nice visit with them and had a chance to see the new baby. Scott and Cathy were originally going to go home to Powell River on the Sunday but decided to stay and had Thanksgiving Dinner with us. So, we had a nicely filled out table for the dinner.

Monica and I had always been able to cook a turkey dinner fairly easily. Without out having to talk about it, I used to do certain things (make the stuffing, wash dishes, mash the potatoes -did I mention the dishes) while Monica prepared a lot of the side dishes etc. It isn't quite so easy now as Monica isn't able to do quite as much (although she certainly tries to do as much as she can). For some reason, this year's dinner turned out particularly well. The turkey was great and browned up nicely and my experiment with the brussell sprouts (tossed with butter, garlic and toasted pine nuts) was a success. Oma brought the mashed potatoes and Safeway supplied the pumpkin pie.

Believe it or not, Monica's mother came from Langley on her own. She took the bus and skytrain to Metro and shopped there for a couple of hours before having us pick her up there. Ingo drove her home. Considering that she was at death's door this time last year, she is really amazing (she had gone to the The Bay downtown and back by bus and skytrain the day before)!

Monica went to the "Balance" class at Holy Family Hospital twice in the week following Thanksgiving and again yesterday. She continues to enjoy it and is working hard at the exercises. As I think I have said before, it seems to me that the exercised can't hurt and could be helpful. But, apart from the exercising, I think it is good for Monica's spirit to be doing something herself towards making her health better.

Tuesday this week was lab work and a visit with the nurse-practitioner. All seems to be going well. Today was the Bev treatment.

The visits to the Cancer Agency often entail a lot of waiting. For example, the lab work was done yesterday at 9:00 am. and we had to wait until 10:30 for the appointment with the nurse-practitioner as she needed to review the lab results with us. During the Bev treatments, we sit around for about an hour while the intravenous line is set up and the drug is administered to Monica.

Invariably, we do a lot of "people watching" while we are waiting. Some of the people we see are obviously very sick. It really tugs on your heartstrings and tear ducts to see some of these people. I am particularly touched by the young ones we see and by some of the older ones who are alone or obviously overwhelmed by what is happening to them.

Today, while Monica was having her Bev treatment, I found myself watching a young couple walk around the roof garden which I could see from the window. They seemed to be a young husband and wife; the husband looked like he has been sick and his wife was doing her best to baby and comfort him.  I realized that by far most of the people we see at the Cancer Agency are accompanied by friends or family.  Even though when we are at the Cancer Agency we are in a place where people are very sick, each time we see an incredible amount of love manifested between the patients and those accompanying them. It really is quite uplifting when you think about it.