Sooner or Later

Yes, I know its been quite a while since my last post but to be fair I didn’t have a huge amount to tell so I thought it best to wait until I had something worthwhile to report than just “another day in retirement” LOL

In the last week of December, I was given the OK to drive again and got to Brighton to spend Christmas with my parents just before the big storm hit. Every time I let my 12 lb dog out over the next three days, I had to ensure he didn’t blow away! It’s certainly nice not to have to depend on someone else driving me around again. Went again to Brighton with a sister on February 4 & 5 although this time we weren’t so lucky in missing the snowstorm – at least on the way there.

I was pleased to attend The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada’s change of Honorary Lieutenant Colonel event held at Casa Loma on January 22nd which included the surprise attendance of the Minister of National Defence. A great event which finished with a reception in the QOR Museum on the third floor.

On February 2nd we once again held our in-person museum volunteer recognition night at the Royal Canadian Military Institute after three years of virtual events as a result of the pandemic.

On one of those nice Saturdays we had (when the snow had all melted and the next dump was still to come) Apollo and I headed down to Cherry Beach dog park for a good run (well walk for me – he covers about three times my distance running back and forth!) And in March I was able to join friends John, John, Brent, Brian and Joe for Sunday brunch where I sated my long-time yearning for eggs benedict 🙂

Other than that, I spend most of my days on museum work (from home) – processing archival materials, dealing with financial updates, responding to research requests, and sorting out accession records – never a dull moment he says sarcastically! And of course, enjoying – most days at least – three walks a day with Apollo. Sometimes the weather shortens those but he really can’t miss them completely 😉

Now that the fun stuff is out of the way, some of you may be wondering how the journey with cancer is progressing. As I think I’ve previously mentioned, I’m having immunotherapy treatments (infusions of NIVOLUMAB) once a month instead of every two weeks.  This requires blood work and a doctor’s appointment at Princess Margaret Hospital, followed by the treatment a couple of days later. It’s given by IV and takes maybe 30 minutes – often the wait time to get a chair takes longer but thanks to Audible, the wait doesn’t usually seem too long.  Unlike chemotherapy, there are minimal side effects – a rash (controlled by a steroid cream), lack of appetite (I’ve lost about 35 lbs over 14 months – not a bad thing all-round lol), some lack of taste, and some drowsiness. But clearly, nothing to complain about at all.

Last week I had some scans (MRI for my brain and CT for everywhere else) and the results were all positive. The brain team summary was: Further interval improvement. Further decrease in size of the small residual left occipital lobe enhancing lesion, and decrease in size of the other lesions to the point where there are no longer perceptible, and no evidence of any new lesions. As a reminder, I was first diagnosed with 10 lesions in my brain (for some reason they call them tumours elsewhere in your body…) so things have definitely moved in the right direction 🙂

Although I haven’t discussed the CT scan results with the doctor yet (it’s a different team from the brain doctors), they seem to indicate similar progress.

So going forward, more of the same, continuing the immunotherapy treatment once a month, and repeating the scans in three months as the next check on progress.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that spring weather comes sooner than the current forecasts!