It has finally hit the NWT. There was a confirmed case in Yellowknife the second week of March - someone who had flown in from the south! Well guess what, that week of March 9 is when we were in Yellowknife for my treatment! So as soon as we were told about it yesterday we had to go into voluntary isolation for up to two weeks from the time we could have caught the COVID 19 in Yellowknife. So until next Friday the 27th, we have to remain in isolation.
But no worries. Our friends here in Inuvik have already volunteered to do the delivery of groceries, bottled water, etc. Sandra and I are completely free of illness symptoms. In fact I have not even had one single cold since my cancer operation on December 6, 2015. So that is almost 4 1/2 years ago.
It feels strange to be in a high-risk segment of society, being in my 80th year, and suffering no coronavirus symptoms. I talked to my dear cousin Lillian who is just two years younger than me, living in the Vancouver area, and there have been five deaths to the virus so far. So she is quite concerned about staying at home, not going out and about any more than absolutely necessary. I am going to have to travel to Yellowknife every month for Nivo treatment as an absolutely essential travel. My next trip is scheduled for April 8 - 9, including a CT scan to make sure the tumors remain in remission.
Sandra is shifting us a bit further nutrition wise to a vegan diet. And it is not as hard or far out as I thought it would be. For example, I love pancakes, and yesterday I made wheat, oats and ground flax pancakes with avocado oil. Super delicious.
Sandra and all of her staff are now working from home. The work still has to be done. All of the counselling that her staff do will now be done by telephone. And no one knows how long this epidemic is going to last. It is not a good time to need counselling because nothing beats meeting face to face.
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This being isolated at home doesn't really bother me, since I love writing, and I have a library of books to read, with more on order. I give away as many as I order now, so our library remains pretty well static with the size it is now. And we have a store of good DVD movies. Tonight before bed we are going to make our own popcorn and watch Casablanca, one of the best movies of all time I am told.
Sunday 22 March 2020
Friday 20 March 2020
Hay House and Radical Remission
Hello again folks,
I love being in remission and I have been an avid listener/observer to the Hay House Publishing docuseries Radical Remission, which you too can view at https://www.discover.hayhouse.com/radicalremission/ but only until March 26 in this 2020 year.
Also, as you know, after taking responsibility for your own health, nutrition is a very important part of fighting cancer and getting it into remission. So I love a quote from Danielle DuBoise of Sakara Life which says: "JOY is a nutrient." As I look at the Radical Remission landscape and cancer recovery I so appreciate the aspect of JOY. A prophet of the Old Testament in the Bible named Joel had this to say about the importance of joy: "the vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men."
Wow, that is so powerful. If there is no joy there can be no spiritual fruit. Joy must come first. Now, as I look at my life now, when I have gratitude, when I sit down and make a gratitude list, I find joy rising up inside my spirit. I become joyful. And that makes life so much more worthwhile.
Also, my cancer recovery has become a course of action. Knowing what to do to follow-up on the wonderful effective Nivolumab immunotherapy is one thing, but to do it with tenacity is another! And so I came across an action strategy called John Boyd's "OODA loop":
I love being in remission and I have been an avid listener/observer to the Hay House Publishing docuseries Radical Remission, which you too can view at https://www.discover.hayhouse.com/radicalremission/ but only until March 26 in this 2020 year.
Also, as you know, after taking responsibility for your own health, nutrition is a very important part of fighting cancer and getting it into remission. So I love a quote from Danielle DuBoise of Sakara Life which says: "JOY is a nutrient." As I look at the Radical Remission landscape and cancer recovery I so appreciate the aspect of JOY. A prophet of the Old Testament in the Bible named Joel had this to say about the importance of joy: "the vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men."
Wow, that is so powerful. If there is no joy there can be no spiritual fruit. Joy must come first. Now, as I look at my life now, when I have gratitude, when I sit down and make a gratitude list, I find joy rising up inside my spirit. I become joyful. And that makes life so much more worthwhile.
Also, my cancer recovery has become a course of action. Knowing what to do to follow-up on the wonderful effective Nivolumab immunotherapy is one thing, but to do it with tenacity is another! And so I came across an action strategy called John Boyd's "OODA loop":
Observe, Orient (set yourself in place for action), Decide, Act! This flow chart is a picture of United States Airforce Colonel John Boyd's "viral strategy" for out gunning the enemy in the Korean war of the early 1950s. Using that strategy he and his pilots flying F86 Sabre Jets were able to outmaneuver much more powerful and faster Mig 15 fighter jets flown by the enemy. Note that at any point in the decision making loop your critical information provides feedback so that you can go back and repeat if necessary.
I'm not sure how this centered typing thing got going so I don't know how to change it. Other than I will go for a new blog tomorrow.
Bye for now.
Wednesday 18 March 2020
Keep Calm and Carry On
I sit here with the soft snowflakes drifting down this cozy winter evening. A tremendous amount of snow this winter and my shoveling capacity physically is close to zero, so we have hired that work out a couple of times, and more to go, to keep our walk and driveway navigable.
I have always admired the British government for their attitude all through World War 2. Hence the title of my post as it relates both to the COVID 19 pandemic and my personal war to win the fight against cancer.
Thanks to all my dear friends for their comments at the end of my blog posts. you all mean a huge lot to me. Writing this blog certainly helps keep up my spirits for the health battle ahead. Although I am so fortunate to find myself very healthy in all other non-cancerous respects, and although I am in remission, the specter of Cancer, the big C, continues to dog me day and night. The drugs still make me very tired, but that is mitigated to some extent on days that I can get 10 hours of sleep or more. So I am not allowed to forget that although I have won a major battle, the cancer war is still on!
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in all professional things I had hoped to be involved in as related to permafrost engineering and talks at conferences, etc have been cancelled. Fortunately I only had one air travel booked and paid for, Air North return flight to Whitehorse in mid April. Air North would not give me a refund but rather simply put me payment amount into an account that I can use next time I book.
What do you think about this idea? The world is full of anger and misunderstanding and cultural battles, etc etc. This COVID 19 pandemic might just bring people together to fight a common enemy, an enemy that threatens to destroy the health of thousands all over the world. It will hopefully make us all more caring, more sharing, more neighborly.
At my ripe old age of 79 1/2 I am in one high risk segment, so I am being encouraged to stay home, and not to wander around town unless it is absolutely necessary. Sandra's boss Cynthia saw me in the hospital cafeteria yesterday and mentioned to Sandra that I should not come to the hospital unless absolutely necessary. Which is good advice especially considering that to some extent the hospital is a disease collecting facility as well as a disease treatment facility.
It is strange, waiting for the corornavirus storm to hit. It makes me feel like it did at home on the farm with a hailstorm and dark clouds on the horizon. Waiting and wondering when and where it would hit. Not if but when.
That's all for now folks. I hope you all stay healthy. I guess we can't all stay one metre away from each other, or we will get pretty lonely at times!!
I have always admired the British government for their attitude all through World War 2. Hence the title of my post as it relates both to the COVID 19 pandemic and my personal war to win the fight against cancer.
Thanks to all my dear friends for their comments at the end of my blog posts. you all mean a huge lot to me. Writing this blog certainly helps keep up my spirits for the health battle ahead. Although I am so fortunate to find myself very healthy in all other non-cancerous respects, and although I am in remission, the specter of Cancer, the big C, continues to dog me day and night. The drugs still make me very tired, but that is mitigated to some extent on days that I can get 10 hours of sleep or more. So I am not allowed to forget that although I have won a major battle, the cancer war is still on!
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in all professional things I had hoped to be involved in as related to permafrost engineering and talks at conferences, etc have been cancelled. Fortunately I only had one air travel booked and paid for, Air North return flight to Whitehorse in mid April. Air North would not give me a refund but rather simply put me payment amount into an account that I can use next time I book.
What do you think about this idea? The world is full of anger and misunderstanding and cultural battles, etc etc. This COVID 19 pandemic might just bring people together to fight a common enemy, an enemy that threatens to destroy the health of thousands all over the world. It will hopefully make us all more caring, more sharing, more neighborly.
At my ripe old age of 79 1/2 I am in one high risk segment, so I am being encouraged to stay home, and not to wander around town unless it is absolutely necessary. Sandra's boss Cynthia saw me in the hospital cafeteria yesterday and mentioned to Sandra that I should not come to the hospital unless absolutely necessary. Which is good advice especially considering that to some extent the hospital is a disease collecting facility as well as a disease treatment facility.
It is strange, waiting for the corornavirus storm to hit. It makes me feel like it did at home on the farm with a hailstorm and dark clouds on the horizon. Waiting and wondering when and where it would hit. Not if but when.
That's all for now folks. I hope you all stay healthy. I guess we can't all stay one metre away from each other, or we will get pretty lonely at times!!
Thursday 5 March 2020
Partners in recovery
Cancer recovery is a lonely process. Most of family and friends want to help, but don't really understand. I am happy that right here at home I have a recovery buddy, our not so little (14 lb in weight) five-year old shih tzu named Hagar, named after a Viking warrior cartoon character of 20 years ago. Here he is in living color:
Although he is a small dog he has a bark that would frighten any intruder, so he makes a good guard dog. We don't have a door bell, and with Hagar we don't need one. He gives me an immediate alert when anyone comes to the door.
It is income tax season and my writing time has been shut down until I get all of 2019 financial stuff straightened away. I have some consulting work each year to account for besides my pension and Sandra's employment income.
I have probably said that I am doing some permafrost engineering for a wind turbine project about 10 km north of the Inuvik Airport. I am also planning to submit an Abstract and presentation to the Canadian Nuclear Society annual meeting and conference in May 2020 concerning the challenges of installing Small Nuclear Reactors, SMRs or nuclear batteries, in remote communities in permafrost areas. It is always necessary to keep the permafrost frozen when constructing buildings and other infrastructure in or on permafrost (permanently frozen soils with significant ice content). When permafrost melts it becomes very unstable and foundations collapse, so warm building foundations on permafrost must be avoided.
I was delighted several times over the past couple of weeks when close friends tell me that they enjoying reading this blog. I will keep it up.
You may remember how Winnie the Pooh was so concerned about his appetite and the size of his tummy because he didn't want to get stuck in Rabbit's hole - he talked about being concerned pound-wise which encouraged him to do his well-rhyming exercise. Well cancer-wise I don't need to worry about Pooh's problem, because my appetite is fairly low and steady and the fat problem has gone away (definitely not recommended as a weight-loss program). I am staying at 165 lb weight, constant now for the past two full months. That is the weight I was in high school!!
And I am off the hook as far as exercise is concerned. I am still quite unsteady and in danger of falling when I am walking outside on snow and ice - problem is if I fall in the snow I may not be able to get up again, which is an uncomfortable problem today March 05 2020 when the temperatures are hovering around -30C! I look forward to summer when I can walk better and strengthen my legs, and increase my stamina. I get tired very easily these days and must have at least 10 hours of sleep each night to keep going.
My cancer is in permanent remission now it appears. I must go to Yellowknife or Edmonton every month for Nivo immunotherapy for the rest of my life to make sure that my spine tumors do not every grow again. I have a CT scan at the end of March as a check on recovery.
It is income tax season and my writing time has been shut down until I get all of 2019 financial stuff straightened away. I have some consulting work each year to account for besides my pension and Sandra's employment income.
I have probably said that I am doing some permafrost engineering for a wind turbine project about 10 km north of the Inuvik Airport. I am also planning to submit an Abstract and presentation to the Canadian Nuclear Society annual meeting and conference in May 2020 concerning the challenges of installing Small Nuclear Reactors, SMRs or nuclear batteries, in remote communities in permafrost areas. It is always necessary to keep the permafrost frozen when constructing buildings and other infrastructure in or on permafrost (permanently frozen soils with significant ice content). When permafrost melts it becomes very unstable and foundations collapse, so warm building foundations on permafrost must be avoided.
I was delighted several times over the past couple of weeks when close friends tell me that they enjoying reading this blog. I will keep it up.
You may remember how Winnie the Pooh was so concerned about his appetite and the size of his tummy because he didn't want to get stuck in Rabbit's hole - he talked about being concerned pound-wise which encouraged him to do his well-rhyming exercise. Well cancer-wise I don't need to worry about Pooh's problem, because my appetite is fairly low and steady and the fat problem has gone away (definitely not recommended as a weight-loss program). I am staying at 165 lb weight, constant now for the past two full months. That is the weight I was in high school!!
And I am off the hook as far as exercise is concerned. I am still quite unsteady and in danger of falling when I am walking outside on snow and ice - problem is if I fall in the snow I may not be able to get up again, which is an uncomfortable problem today March 05 2020 when the temperatures are hovering around -30C! I look forward to summer when I can walk better and strengthen my legs, and increase my stamina. I get tired very easily these days and must have at least 10 hours of sleep each night to keep going.
My cancer is in permanent remission now it appears. I must go to Yellowknife or Edmonton every month for Nivo immunotherapy for the rest of my life to make sure that my spine tumors do not every grow again. I have a CT scan at the end of March as a check on recovery.
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