Retirement Musings and Everyday Delights
It's been an uneventful week, and we're grateful for that. Nick's cold and cough are gone and his counts are looking good. Ottawa is experiencing its worst flu season in a decade and the doctor says it's rampant and nasty, so we've pretty much quarantined ourselves until flu season passes. We've gotten out for a … Continue reading Blissfully boring
Chemo treatment #3 went ahead as planned last Friday and the unpleasant side effects subsided after the first few days. Nick's latest hobbies have been playing with video editing software and researching a future trip to Japan. His food experiment this week was Vietnamese-style summer rolls, but they didn't last long enough for pictures. Ray … Continue reading Let’s Talk
Despite spending four nights in the hospital, Nick never really felt unwell. He just lost his voice and had a cough, which improved fairly quickly over the next couple of days. With no sign of bacteria, the doctors suspect it was an upper respiratory viral infection. Although he was pleased to be released, he didn't … Continue reading Back on track
Just a quick mini-post to say that Nick's still in the hospital but doing well. His fever is down and his vitals are back to normal and all of the cultures came back negative. He's still a bit froggy-voiced, but he can talk now. His neutrophil count is still low (it's gone from 0 to … Continue reading Update
In my last post I talked about the 'good' news from our doctor's appointment and quite a few people responded that it was 'great' news. I reflected on why I was reluctant to be effusive about it, and I think it's because everything feels so fragile. We mentally tiptoe through each day trying not to … Continue reading Fragility
The good news from today's appointment with the hematologist was that the chemo appears to be working (in that the doctor couldn't feel any swelling in Nick's lymph nodes). The less good news is that Nick seems to have replaced the cold he had, which went away, with another one, which has taken away most … Continue reading Flu fighters
This round of chemo affected Nick about the same as the first round - nausea, upset stomach, mouth sores - with the addition of an unpredictable appetite. He can be hungry but then take one bite of something and 'nope, can't eat this'. His food video habit (obsession?) comes in handy at times like this … Continue reading Positives and negatives
Lots of appointments this week, hematologist Tuesday, blood work and dressing change Thursday and chemo treatment Friday. Nick picked up a cold and a cough despite very limited exposure to the outside world, but no fever yet. He's also fighting a stubborn infection under his arm that keeps returning despite repeated attempts to send it … Continue reading Round 2
Managing Nick's illness is an ongoing balancing act - matching his food intake to his symptoms, deciding how much of the optional meds he should take and when, going out during cold and flu season without putting him at risk of infection, assessing whether something can wait until the next doctor's visit or needs immediate … Continue reading Farewell to 2017
Nick's had good and bad days since my last post. On Boxing Day he had painful sores in his mouth that made eating or drinking difficult. Our normal medical contacts were off for the holidays but we got hold of the hematologist on call who prescribed a mouthwash that seemed to help. Nothing major since … Continue reading Hibernating