Tag: CT Scan

April 2024 Update

Posted in Treatment10 Comments

I’m not dead yet! (Yes the usual Monty Python reference although the correct quote from the film is simply “I’m not dead.”) Regardless, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted.

In fact, I’m doing pretty well after almost 2 1/2 years of treatment. Recent CT and MRI scans have identified only minor specs of the 10 lesions I had originally, the tumours in my lung and adrenal gland no longer show up, and the one in my lymph node continues to shrink. There is a new something that shows up in my lymph node but it is deemed “indeterminate” i.e. they can’t say if it is cancer or not but the doctors don’t seem concerned at this point and will just keep an eye on it. Another set of CT scans in 3 months and another MRI in 4 months (since I’m doing so well lol.)

My once-a-month immunotherapy treatment will continue to the end of 2024 at least and then we’ll reassess whether there is any need to continue. The treatment side effects continue to be minor – dry mouth, an occasional rash, fatigue and muscle degradation. At my request, I was referred to a kinesiologist who has given me an exercise program to combat the muscle issue.

I was struck the other day when another well-meaning friend/colleague/acquaintance told me I was looking really good. I realize there was a point when I wasn’t looking so great, my face all ballooned up because of steroids and having lost all my hair from the initial radiation but still, nobody ever said “you’re looking really good” BEFORE I got cancer…LOL. Does that count as a silver lining?? I guess one just takes it where one can get it 😉

When I’m at one of my numerous hospital visits, I see or pass dozens of others coming, going, or in many cases waiting, and I wonder what their stories are, what their prognoses are, and who the people are there supporting them – spouses, children, parents, friends? Many are not in good shape – far worse than I’ve been in – and I’m reminded to be thankful for my excellent care at Princess Margaret’s Cancer Hospital and through no actions of my own, have responded well to the treatment – at least to date, and for the support of my friends and family. As May is coming up and it is cancer awareness month, I’d invite you to donate to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

I recently had another birthday (celebrated by dinner with friends and then attending my 4th performance over the years of my favourite musical Les Mis) and I realized how much my views on birthdays have…evolved.  I suppose I looked forward to them when I was a wee tad (OK I was probably never called “wee”), then as a teenager, you really just want to be older – old enough to drive, to drink, become an “adult.” For the next couple of decades, birthdays are “all right” I guess – perhaps an excuse for a party but not really all that exciting. Then there comes a stage where birthdays just mark getting older and older and you’d just be happy not to make a big deal of them. AND they seem to come around sooner and sooner – how’s that possible? 🙂 I’m lucky enough to still have both parents alive at 91 years of age for which I’m very grateful, but as many of you will know, growing old isn’t always pretty or easy. Weakening bodies mean health challenges can pile on top of one another and we are blessed if we can keep our minds sharp. But after a life-threatening diagnosis, one can’t help but appreciate birthdays again. It reminds you to be grateful and the importance of making the most of each day. None of us know when our time will come but I think for most of our lives we take that for granted – until we can’t ignore it. I doubt I’ll make it to 91 but if not I need to keep reminding myself to live today as if it is my last!

On a less deep note, I’m continuing my volunteer work with The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum and Archive which keeps me busy – mostly from home. (Side note today is the 164th Regimental birthday of Canada’s oldest and finest continuously serving rifle regiment – CHEERS!)

I very much appreciate keeping in touch with former work colleagues (and them keeping in touch with me) and have even dropped by their offices from time-to-time to catch up. That said, I can’t say I’m sorry to be retired!!

I recently attended the Canadian Museum Conference in Niagara Falls, and this past week has been busier than usual: on Sunday a memorial service for a friend who passed away some months ago, on Monday blood work and oncologist appointments; on Tuesday a chiropractor appointment, the immunotherapy treatment, and a co-chairing the Toronto Military Curators network meeting in the evening; on Wednesday grave marker dedications at two cemeteries for recently discovered Fenian Raid casualties (the photo above); and Thursday evening at Casa Loma reorganizing the archive storage situation; today was fairly quiet but Saturday is a Regimental Senate meeting. And of course, Apollo taking me for a walk three times a day.  No excuse to be bored!!

Hopefully, it won’t be several months before I post again!

Cheers

Remembering a Tornado 50 Years Ago (and other news)

Posted in Uncategorized5 Comments

Photo above is from the Brighton Digital Archive.

It was Friday, July 13, 1973 (yes it was a Friday 13th!) and I was sitting with some friends in the backyard of my grandparent’s house where I was staying. I was sixteen and spending the summer in Brighton where I was working at a couple of jobs.

We were watching the rather spectacular lightning and thunder show that seemed all around us even though it wasn’t yet raining. Aside from the thunder, we were surrounded by an eerie silence. But then the rain started – large hard drops beginning slowly but soon picking up speed and perhaps joined by some hail. We quickly headed to the west kitchen door (yes, we have two kitchens LOL) and I rushed to close the windows upstairs. Reaching the large bedroom in the southeast corner, I found the heavy area carpet flipped up over the beds and the curtains flanking the south window fluttering up near the ceiling. As I’m closing the heavy wooden sash windows of this home built in 1869 by my great-great-grandfather, I was greeted with an eerie greenish greyness that prevented any view of the century-old trees lining the street in front of the house – and of course, equally blocking sight of the homes across the street. This was accompanied by the ferocious howl of the wind – very accurately described as the sound of a freight train bearing down on you.

I heard a crashing sound of breaking glass somewhere in the house and immediately thought of the rather unique light fixture in the front hall. Having secured all the windows, I dashed down the front stairway to see both my grandparents trying to close the big wooden front door and added my weight to it until we could turn the old skeleton key to secure it.  I was relieved to see the light fixture still in place, although clearly it had been swaying precariously. My friends quickly noted that a shutter had blown through a window and as if there was still any doubt, I realized this was a tornado!

I strongly suggested we needed to get to the basement NOW!  My grandmother of course was more worried about items that might get damaged by the wind blowing through the broken window so while my friends help them to the basement, I rushed to put various lamps and other breakables on the floor. By the time I reached the basement, it was all over. Just 32 seconds we would find out later. The freight train was gone and in its place was a deep enveloping silence. No birds sang – just nothingness…

We more or less staggered out of the house, stunned by the view of massive trees felled all around us. In our backyard at the end of a short driveway had been a gigantic willow tree – big enough around for two people to just barely join hands. It was now lying along the length of the driveway and completely hiding my grandparent’s AMC Rambler from sight, with an eight-foot hole where the roots had been ripped out of the ground. The main street which our house faces was covered by century-old maple trees as far as we could see in both directions. The house beside us (also built by my great-great-grandfather) had part of its imposing tower lying in the front yard, and we realized how lucky we were to just have a broken window. Others were emerging now from their homes and cellars, all with stunned disbelief – I mean let’s face it, Brighton is not exactly in “Tornado Alley”!

I got my grandparents settled in the house and my friends and I headed off to check on some of my grandparent’s friends to make sure they were ok. Clearly many were in mild shock but none had been physically hurt and most had surprisingly little damage to their homes.

My friends and I returned to our homes. The power was out so I dug out a camp stove on which we managed a reasonable dinner as I recall (outside on a picnic table of course 🙂 )  We were startled at one point by the phone ringing. I guess we’d just assumed the phones were out as so many lines seemed to be down but apparently ours was still working and we were able to assume my parents in Toronto that while we were a bit shaken, we were all safe and sound.

Luckily it stayed daylight for much of the evening and within hours of the storm ending, the chainsaws started and would continue for weeks on end, echoing throughout the village. We eventually got someone to work on the willow tree covering the car and were amazed to find that most of the branches had fallen around it with only a small dent in the roof. We also realized that if the tree had fallen to the north or south, it would have crashed into either our house or the neighbour’s.

You can watch more about the tornado in this short documentary film prepared for the anniversary:

Within a couple of years, we planted three new maple trees on the front lawn and one in the back to replace the willow (how I hated raking willow tree leaves!) and they have all grown tall and strong. And the house continues as a family home to this day.

You can see the shadows cast by the no longer new maples on the front lawn. The second-floor window in the centre is the one I struggled to close,

And in other less dramatic news…

On May 7th we celebrated my mother’s 90th birthday in the lunch room of the Trenton Memorial Hospital with balloons and cake and lots of my sisters and nephews and nieces. A few weeks later she was lucky enough to get a room in the Maplewood Nursing Home in Brighton – less than two blocks from their home which makes it easy for my father to visit her regularly.

On June 6th I attended a black tie dinner at Casa Loma on the anniversary of D-Day. This also launched the fundraising campaign for a trip to take 65 serving soldiers of the regiment to Juno Beach in 2024 for the 80th Anniversary (More about that here if you’d like to help support this event which is not funded by the Canadian Government.) In preparation for the dinner, I researched the sixty-one QOR soldiers who died on D-Day (plus one who died of his D-Day wounds the next day) and you can find all the profiles in a document on our museum website. The dinner was great but it took me a couple of days to physically recover as my stamina’s not exactly what it used to be.

Later in June, I had my every-three-month CT scans and MRI. The results were “stable”. I have to admit to being slightly disappointed there wasn’t any noticeable shrinkage in the tumour/lesions that still show up, but the oncologists seemed quite happy – they weren’t getting better and they weren’t spreading anywhere. The brain oncologist wasn’t even sure if the ones still showing in the brain were actually “active” or just the dead remains (my wording not hers but you get the drift.) So I can live with that – both figuratively and literally! 🙂

Meanwhile, I continue with the monthly immunology treatments at Princess Margaret Hospital. This also requires a trip to the hospital for pre-treatment blood tests and an appointment with my oncologist to confirm I’m good for the next treatment. Luckily it’s just five subway stops from home. The 45-minute IV drip in a comfortable recliner chair is fine – waiting for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours to be assigned a chair is the worst part. Actually, the most painful part is tearing off the tape they put on my apparently hairy hand to secure the IV in place LOL.

I’ve probably said this before but compared to chemotherapy, I have relatively few side effects from my treatment. Muscle weakness is probably the worst, with some fatigue, lack of appetite and dry mouth, so I try not to complain.

I’ve been to Brighton on a couple of weekends over the last few months to hang out with my dad and visit my mum – always nice to get out of the city!

While in the city I attended one of the Fringe Festival productions – so nice to see so many annual events returning after COVID, and enjoyed a few dinners with friends.  I also got out one evening with our team of museum volunteers for a tour of the Soldier’s Tower Museum at the University of Toronto, courtesy of their board chair. I’m looking forward to co-hosting our first in-person meeting of the Toronto Military Curators’ meeting this week.

And when I’m not walking the dog, I’m still working on responding to our QOR Museum‘s research requests, processing archival material, digitizing documents, updating the financials, providing data for grant applications, writing blog posts, taking museum and archive-related webinars, and lots of other things I can do from home – anything to avoid that three-story climb to the physical museum!

Here’s hoping everyone is enjoying the summer – heat and all – and I’ll give another update when there is enough news to share 🙂

March 2023 Update

Posted in Retirement, Uncategorized10 Comments

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.

Current archiving project…..sigh

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!

 

 

 

 

Dogs, Enzymes, and a Conspiracy Theorist

Posted in Treatment12 Comments

For the three weeks after my second immunology treatment, things were going pretty well. With few side effects, my dog-sitting sister and I decided I could probably try having my furry friends back home. For the past two months I’d wanted to be able to focus on my own health (as a reminder, Jazz has diabetes which requires insulin shots twice a day and has cataracts making her almost blind.)  But of course, I missed them so on Wednesday evening, March 17th they were chauffeured back home from Pickering. They were certainly as excited to see/smell me as I was to have them back for cuddles!

This was the day after treatment number 3 and on Friday I went for the usual blood lab check and doctor consultation to make sure everything was as it should be.  But of course, it wasn’t!

“I’m sorry to tell you that your liver enzymes have skyrocketed and we’ll need to admit you to the hospital immediately so we can give you intravenous steroids to start bringing the enzymes down. I’ll be right back but I’m afraid you’ll need to make arrangements for your dogs again.”

I’d mentioned the dogs coming home to him at my Monday appointment earlier in the week and he remembered LOL. Luckily Sue made it clear that if for any reason keeping them was an issue, they’d be happy to have them back so after less than 48 hours they were back in Pickering and I’d been admitted as an inpatient to Toronto General. I did get taken from Princess Margaret to TGH via the tunnel under University Ave which was kinda cool.

Looking East from my TGH room at night.

I didn’t actually have any real side effects at this point so after getting pumped with the steroid each morning, I’d go for a walk in the afternoon if the weather was nice. One day around hospital row, another day up to the University of Toronto, and another down to my old – and no longer going to be new – office at 400 University Avenue. There Emma, Ian and some others were struggling to get the space ready for the division’s “return to work” future. Was certainly nice to chat with some familiar faces.

Being able to get out and about also allowed me to get some respite from “conspiracy theorist guy” (CTG). In a room that eventually had five beds filled (things were still pretty tight in the hospital for both beds and staff) I was lucky enough to get a window that even had a reasonable view.  But of course, the beds are only separated by thin curtains and for four of the five days I was there, CTG was on his phone explaining global child sacrifices being made by the world’s elite, Trudeau wanting to murder everyone, Hilary Clinton’s pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza place, chips in the vaccine and all the forces against him in making some hemp business succeed.

Oh and all the people that were helping him cure his cancer with treatments that were clearly outside anything that was generally accepted by the medical world at the moment. I mean I suppose it’s not completely impossible my oncologists were purposely leading me astray because of big pharma…but I really wasn’t convinced.  That’s despite listening to him about 18 hours a day on his cell phone – even my earbuds couldn’t block him out 😦

When they figured I was ready to just take an oral dose of the steroid, they were ready to send me home but on my last day, they also scheduled a CT scan. The results were pretty positive. All the tumours and lesions had shrunk – some as much as 50% – so it proved that so far at least, the radiation and three combination immunotherapy doses had been doing what they were supposed to. And although I have to be weaned off the steroid before we can do any more treatments, the earlier treatments will continue to have an effect on the cancer cells while that happens.  So getting that news was definitely worth 4 days of listening to CTG.

The steroid is slowly bringing down the liver enzymes but the side effects of fatigue and weakness and swollen feet are definitely more pronounced. So they gave me another med to counter the side effects of the steroid – we’ll see how that works out <chuckle>. And now that the weather is nicer – well at least above freezing most days – it’s harder to find an excuse NOT to go for walk I guess LOL.

Lastly, this past weekend my sisters were again kind enough to both take me to and from Brighton to visit my parents. They were going anyway but still had to go out of their way to my place. And the dogs went too so I did get another two days of cuddle therapy which can never be a bad thing! And when I got dropped off at home again, and as much as they are very well cared for by my sister’s family, I’m pretty sure they wanted to come in and stay with me 😉