Hello again.
The previous post told our pooch Hagar's story of maybe wanting to drink because we left him precipitously last Thursday about noon to fly to Yellowknife.
Here's how it all happened.
On Wednesday July the 10th I was awakened at 04:30 with a severe pain down at the bottom of my spinal cord on the left side (sacrum area). I knew that it was at or near one of the three tumours on my spinal cord that had gone into remission one year ago at the completion of six intravenous immunotherapy treatments of Nivolumab, July 19, 2018.
I immediately phoned Dr John Walker's office to find that he would not be in Yellowknife in July but Dr Zhu would be, this week in fact. Then Thursday morning at 09:20 I received a call from the Cancer Coordinator in Yellowknife telling me the next day at 09:45 I was to have a CT Scan at the Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife. That meant we had to leave that day, Thursday, by 737 to fly to Yellowknife. It took an hour or so to alert Sandra who immediately came home and we packed and took a cab to the airport, leaving poor little Hagar our pooch totally confused about how life was unfolding (so were we!).
The CT Scan was carried out uneventfully on Friday morning. Then we waited all weekend, waiting for our appointment with Dr Zhu on Monday the 15th at 10:30 to review the CT results (working very hard on Saturday emptying one of our two storage units by taking a load to the dump with friend Bill's help, taking some clothing and toys to a second-hand store, and packing another suitcase to bring back), AND doing meetings and a barbecue Sunday afternoon out at Reid Lake at the Pikes campground.
On Monday Dr Zhu gave us the news we did not want to hear. The tumour attached to my sacrum at the bottom of the spinal cord was indeed growing again, however slowly. We will be allowed to take our vacation in August, but I must begin immunotherapy injections asap.
I just found out this aft that I will be getting the Nivolumab injections in Yellowknife at Stanton Hospital, not in Edmonton at Cross Cancer as we wanted to. That means that Sandra has to take 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 days off work every treatment. She must come as my escort because of my deafness AND now because my memory is so spotty because of chemo-brain.
More later as the saga of davidisstillalive continues! Stay tuned.
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Doggone insurance against the next drink!
Hello folks! I am so sorry that it has taken so long. I will have another health-related post shortly but can't resist to send this one.
Now, you may know about our little sort-of shihtzu named Hagar. He is a sober dog - he hasn't been drunk as long as we have known him ( 1 1/2 years now).
Whenever we have gone away before we have taken him to a willing dog-sitter before taking off on our travels. However, for reasons that will be outlined in my next post later today we had to leave for the airport abruptly last Thursday about noon - a frenzy of packing for both Sandra and I and no time to take Hagar to a sitter - just a phone call to our friend Barb next door who came over a few hours later to pick him up.
Hagar was very confused by the whole ordeal. He was very anxious as we both packed and then left him alone in the house as we headed by cab to the airport. He had his food and water but no understanding of where we had gone. I think this almost drove him to drink.
Hagar has never left our yard by a distance of greater than a yard-width before. He is a home body but he is used to being at Barb's place. However, not knowing where we had gone, one day (Monday the 16th, a day late for an AA meeting) he decided to take things into his own hands (-- i.e. paws). When he was let out to "do his business" on Monday by Barb's grandson, he decided to go find us. He started off going to the hardware store. Nope, we weren't there. Then he made his way across a big vacant lot, under a big utilidor and over to the sidewalk along Mackenzie Road. There he was spied and identified but refused to go to just any old stranger!
So Hagar headed for the Anglican Church, where we have often taken him with us to AA meetings Friday and Sunday evenings. He climbed the steps and sat there. Presumably he so wanted to drink by this time that he felt he needed a meeting. Or that we would miraculously appear so that we could all be a family again. He felt safe there, so when one of Barb's friends Arlene Hanson saw him there he allowed her to pick him up and take him back to Barbs here on Franklin Road.
Long story short Hagar is still sober.
Now, you may know about our little sort-of shihtzu named Hagar. He is a sober dog - he hasn't been drunk as long as we have known him ( 1 1/2 years now).
Whenever we have gone away before we have taken him to a willing dog-sitter before taking off on our travels. However, for reasons that will be outlined in my next post later today we had to leave for the airport abruptly last Thursday about noon - a frenzy of packing for both Sandra and I and no time to take Hagar to a sitter - just a phone call to our friend Barb next door who came over a few hours later to pick him up.
Hagar was very confused by the whole ordeal. He was very anxious as we both packed and then left him alone in the house as we headed by cab to the airport. He had his food and water but no understanding of where we had gone. I think this almost drove him to drink.
Hagar has never left our yard by a distance of greater than a yard-width before. He is a home body but he is used to being at Barb's place. However, not knowing where we had gone, one day (Monday the 16th, a day late for an AA meeting) he decided to take things into his own hands (-- i.e. paws). When he was let out to "do his business" on Monday by Barb's grandson, he decided to go find us. He started off going to the hardware store. Nope, we weren't there. Then he made his way across a big vacant lot, under a big utilidor and over to the sidewalk along Mackenzie Road. There he was spied and identified but refused to go to just any old stranger!
So Hagar headed for the Anglican Church, where we have often taken him with us to AA meetings Friday and Sunday evenings. He climbed the steps and sat there. Presumably he so wanted to drink by this time that he felt he needed a meeting. Or that we would miraculously appear so that we could all be a family again. He felt safe there, so when one of Barb's friends Arlene Hanson saw him there he allowed her to pick him up and take him back to Barbs here on Franklin Road.
Long story short Hagar is still sober.
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