This year I’m enjoying the garden in a way I never have before, because I have carte blanche to just sit and enjoy it. This is a new experience for me, because in the past I’ve always been there to work to make it more beautiful, but I rarely just relaxed under a tree with a cool glass of water in my hand. I’m still easily fatigued and my strength is far from normal so I’ve only been doing light gardening so far. Thank goodness I’ve had quite a bit of help this year, so the garden might actually look...
The Show Goes On
I’ve been waiting for the results of my CT Scan for what seems like forever, if you count from when I started the 6 chemo treatments (February 10th) and finally the scan, (May 24th) and then the wait. I wasn’t all that nervous going into the appointment to get the results either. Maybe it’s because when you already have one of the worst medical diagnoses you can get, well… If they had said “it didn’t work at all, and there’s nothing more we can do”, I would have been sad and upset, but the worst shock was in the preliminary...
The amazing therapy of old friends
I finished my 6th chemo treatment last Friday (May 12th), and it’s been a rough one. They say the effects of chemo can be cumulative, and I think it’s true. The most debilitating thing is the fatigue, but I also have some back pain that’s not quite managed all the time by the copious pain meds I’m taking. It’s now been a week and today I finally feel a bit better. On the other hand, I’m wondering whether I feel better because a good friend of mine came to see me today. Theresa and I were friends back in London,...
The Waiting Game
Some housekeeping before we get started: I noticed that some people wrote to me a long time ago about my situation and I only just got their emails because they sent them to the email associated with this blog. I had been ignoring that account, because I had lost the password, and figured I never used it anyway. My apologies for the late replies and I hope you’ll write again! Please use the comment section of this post, or send me an email at osmviv@gmail.com. I finished my fifth chemo last Friday, the 5th of May. It’s been, as usual,...
Long Overdue Update
Hi, Gentle Readers, I was surprised to learn from a good friend of mine that my website wasn’t working. She thought I’d deleted it myself, but I assured her that I hadn’t. I had been receiving emails mentioning that the site hadn’t been performing backups the way it was supposed to, but I ignored them since I didn’t know how to deal with that, having never had that issue before. I thought I’d figure it out “later”. However, when Katy wrote to say my site was down I thought, okay, this is the day we deal with it. I...
To Share or Not to Share?
I was overwhelmed by all the touching messages I received after my last post. I was brought to tears over almost every one of them. What I hadn’t expected nor foreseen were all the gifts that were sent to me. I was surprised and somewhat abashed. I definitely appreciate every single gesture, but I’m glad they’re trickling to a stop now. It was wonderful, but overwhelming. Keep the messages coming, the emojis, the funny dog videos, etc, maybe a soup or a casserole here and there, but we’re good for everything else for now. Again, thank you to everyone who...
Epic Adventure—Officially cancelled
Well, my friends, I have some pretty sucky, awful news. Here’s the story. I saw a random doctor at a clinic on Boxing Day about my suspected stomach ulcer. At that appointment I happened to mention a little pain in my right side under my ribs, which had made sleeping uncomfortable lately. The doctor gave me a requisition for an ultrasound. I went in for an ultrasound on January 3rd and just one week later I was called in by the clinic to get the results. I had a niggling feeling it couldn’t be great news, since they could have...
Epic Adventure: a setback
I’ve been meaning to write a post about our upcoming trip to Mexico, but it’s been a busy time and I’ve not been feeling very well— more on that later. After feeling stressed (see this post for details) about the trip at first, I’ve calmed down and I’m feeling pretty excited. Yes, still nervous about driving in winter (especially after the recent awful storms!), but focusing more on the end game and how nice it’ll be to be in balmier climes, and to see more of the planet than I’ve seen before. So, before the holidays I was buying...
More Adventures with the Alto
Last night was our first night sleeping in our new little Alto trailer. (Apparently everyone names their trailers…not sure that’s really our thing, but any suggestions welcome!) We drove out to see some friends who live in the country towards Ottawa and they let us park it in their yard and feed off their electricity for the night. This is known in the biz as “Moochdocking”, by the way. We had a lovely visit with Colin and Kathy, and a fairly successful night in the trailer. No matter what, sleeping away from your own bed is challenging. I’m not a...
New Adventures
Back in February or so, Dave was so sick of winter here in Montreal, that he decided to book us a place to spend some of winter ‘23. He went ahead and booked an Airbnb (with no possibility of cancellation, which, having booked so far ahead, might not have been the best idea, but hey!) near Puerto Penasco, in the Bahia de California, about an hour past the border, south of Phoenix. It looks amazing on paper, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it is as good as it looks. Apparently, many people from Phoenix go to the area...