Mid-Way Point

We’ve reached the mid-way point in Nick’s treatment so last week he had a CT scan to see how things are progressing. We got the results this morning and the large mass in his chest, which was 13 x 7 centimetres before he started treatment, is now 7 x 3 and the others sites are generally progressing well too. The next scan will be in June and will determine whether he’s in remission or if he requires further treatment (either more chemo or radiation). It feels good to be heading into the second half of treatment where we’ll have more behind us than in front of us. It’s also nice to have more of the winter and flu/cold season behind us than ahead of us, even if it is -18 today.

Ray’s done three boil-offs already, which is what he normally does in a season, but we should still get a couple more boil-offs in before the temps rise too high. For those who might be wondering, we’ve decided not to have Maplefest this year. As much as we love it, the added stress during an unpredictable time probably isn’t what we need right now.

Nick’s spent his time writing his blog (https://nickslife2017.wordpress.com), growing his bonsai avocado, playing video games with friends, and helping Ray build the new bathroom (tiling and grouting the floor).

As usual, he’s also been experimenting in the kitchen. Our neighbours brought us over some fresh pasta a couple of weeks ago and later offered to loan us their fancy pasta maker so Nick could try it for himself. So far he’s made two batches of fettuccine and a batch of ravioli stuffed with sweet potato, kale, onion and cheese. It was VERY tasty.

His other food experiment, which he was justifiably very proud of, was making hot sauce. He made two separate batches and they turned out very well (top tip: never rub your eye after making hot sauce, even if you’ve washed your hands a couple of times).

All three of us have been doing financial planning, so in addition to cooking, bonsai growing and bathroom building, Nick can now add some investment knowledge to his repertoire. For his birthday, we gave him money to add to his TFSA, so he’s been researching and buying stocks and received lots of unsolicited lessons from his parents along the way about index funds, ETFs, buy-and-hold, dollar cost averaging, diversification, risk, compounding, dividends and taxation.

Treatment #7 this Friday.

[Note: This will only apply to a few of you, but my phone died a couple of days ago (in case anyone texted me). I’m not sure when I’ll be replacing it – depends whether my annoyance at not having a phone outweighs my annoyance with cell phone providers. In the meantime, please use email, messenger or landline to reach me.]