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.