DAD’S 90TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

What a great day we had with family and friends today!  Everyone had a fabulous time reminiscing and catching up with each other; some of us have not see each other for 30 or so years.  Everyone still looks the same, maybe we are all a little older but we all still look great.  I hope you enjoy the little You-Tube Video I put together of the day.  It is about 6 minutes long, but fun to watch nonetheless.   Thanks to my wonderful husband for being the camera-man today……I know I give you a hard time but you did a great job! 

Enjoy the show………

MY DAD IS 90 YEARS OLD TOMORROW!

Happy 90th Birthday Dad!!  Wow, can you imagine making that milestone!  We are so very fortunate to still have our dad with us and being so healthy!  Other than having that bum leg of his (old war injury/surgery) and being quite hard of hearing, he is otherwise perfectly healthy.  Cognitively, he is still as smart as a whip! We obviously have very good genes on dad’s side of the family, so my brothers and I hope we have some of those longevity genes as well! 

We are having an Open House at Wellington Park Terrace (Dad’s residence) from 2:00 to 4:00 on Saturday and it looks like a lot of old family friends and the original members of the Woodstock Cricket Club are going to come; so it is going to be a nice reunion not only for dad but for everyone to see each other again.  It should be a great day and then we will do it again when dad reaches 100! 

I just want to say dad (since I’m pretty sure you are going to be reading this blog) that you have been a wonderful father. When I was growing up, all my friends were envious of how great my parents were even though I did have to warn them when they came to our house, that my dad would expect a hug and big kiss and none of them were ever offended.  My dad was always known as “hot lips” and he is the only man I know that can get away with loving up and kissing any woman he met.  He was always affectionate and there was never a woman that was offended by it, even to this day! All the women in his Senior’s Residence thinks he is just the “cat’s whiskers”.  I feel so fortunate to have been brought up in such a loving, positive and “fun” atmosphere but still with a stern guiding hand to lead my brothers and I through those growing up years and trying teenage years until they let us fly on our own but always there for us whenever we needed them.  Then as the years went by and my mom’s health deteriorated, my dad was there to love and support her and he looked after her until her last days with such love and care, never ever complaining.  So dad, just to let you know that we love you with all our hearts and wish you many more years yet to come!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

I can’t believe how quickly time flies by. We had an extremely busy week last week; first the doctor appointment which I have already written about, then the start of chemo round #5, then Brian’s birthday on February 8, 2012 and a 30th birthday party for David on the weekend.  I can’t believe David is going to be 30 and Breanne will be 29 next week.  Where did all those years go!

Brian’s Chemo round #5 went well (as usual); he felt a bit unwell the night of the chemo but woke up the next day feeling fine.  I think we have identified one lingering side-effect of chemo in that we are finding that Brian is coughing a lot and feels that he has to constantly clear his throat.  I goggled this and found that it is a side effect of most chemo regimens.  We are hoping that after his last round at the end of the month, he starts to lose the cough. 

We have started to plan our trip to Florida but have been very frustrated with getting out of country medical insurance. As I said previously, the oncologist said we could go away but we did need to cover his pre-existing condition.  The problem though is that there is not one insurance company out there that will cover a pre-existing condition of cancer unless you are 6 months past your last chemotherapy.  What is so frustrating about this is that Brian is going to be 2-3 years away from being 6 months past chemo as he has to have chemo every 3 months for two years. Even though the chemo is only one drug – Retuximab and not the CVP part anymore, it still is considered chemo. There were only two companies that would at least cover Brian for everything else as long as it was not related to the pre-existing condition and the company we went with also had a $200 deductible for Brian; so if we did have to be seen by a physician, we have to pay the first $200.  We have decided that we are going to go anyway since Brian is feeling so good and at least we have coverage for an accident or he falls and breaks an arm, etc.  Since we are driving, we have decided that if something should happen that is related to cancer, that we would just immediately drive home. Worse case scenario is that I have to drive the 17-18 hours to at least get to Windsor if it was really urgent.  We just want to get into the sunshine and get away for a couple of weeks, so hopefully everything will be fine. 

That is about all for now.  We are getting excited to get dad’s 90th birthday celebrations going on Feb 25th.  I have heard from a lot of people who are going to be coming and one of the highlights is going to be the amount of friends and family coming from Woodstock and all the old Woodstock Cricket Club members.  It will not only be a reunion for dad but for the WCC members as well.  We can all catch up with how everyone is doing!

I will end with some pictures we have taken over the last couple of weeks: 

David at his party with Jenn (his fiance), Ian (friend) and Tom (Jenn’s brother)

David’s good friends – Karsten and Justin. 

The surprise party was actually on Super-Bowl Sunday, so everyone was watching the game!

Breanne and James – who put the party on for David. 

Now it’s Papa birthday…….Happy Birthday hug from Annika!

Selena a little unsure about Papa Sid!!!! 

Annika helping Papa blow out his candles!

Selena helping with the dishes after supper!

Brian making a funny face…….

Good news day!

We were so excited about the news we heard from the oncologist today that I couldn’t wait to write about it.  Brian had a CT scan two weeks ago and the doctor has now declared that he is in REMISSION!!!  The next two rounds of chemo are “insurance rounds” and then he will go on maintenance therapy of only the Rituximab every 3 months for a two year period.  His liver and spleen are now normal size, his abdominal and chest lymph nodes have now reduced from centimeters to millimeters and his blood work is completely normal.  He also has gained another 2 kilograms, so now he looks nice and healthy from how skinny he was just before the diagnosis.  He has gained probably 10 pounds total in weight since starting chemo and he looks great. The oncologist was quite happy with how Brian has responded to the chemo as were we.  So the next question out of our mouths was whether we could go to Florida for a couple of weeks and she said yes we could as long as we got medical insurance that covers a pre-existing condition.  We still have to look into that to see the costs but we were so happy that we would get a couple of weeks of Florida sunshine sometime in March, as long his last round of chemo goes as well as the rest of them. 

We feel so blessed that everything is falling into place for us; God is good!  It has driven home that you just can’t take life for granted and we now appreciate every moment that little bit more than we did before and we plan on living life to the fullest while we still can.  Thank you everyone for your interest, thoughts and prayers that you have sent our way over the last few months; it has meant the world to us.  So chemo round #5 starts tomorrow, and hopefully Brian sails through that as he has done with the last 4 rounds!

GOURMET NIGHT AT DAD’S SENIOR RESIDENCE

As most of you know, my dad lives in a Senior’s Residence (Wellington Park Terrace) and at the first of every month they have “Gourmet Night” and every gourmet has a theme.  This month’s theme was “Chinese New Year 2012”.  Since it was dad’s birthday month, he is allowed to invite two guests.  It is always hard for dad to make that decision as although he doesn’t have to worry about Roy (since Roy works there and always helps out on Gourmet Night) but dad struggles with Roy/Janet or Bob/Gwen and what about Pat (Roy’s wife) – she gets shafted all the time!  This year we took things in our own hands and made the decision for him – Gwen and Brian graciously gave my brother, Bob, and I the okay for the two of us to go. Dad then didn’t have to worry that he was hurting anyone’s feelings!   We all feel so blessed that we still have dad here with us – his birthday on February 24th he will be 90 YEARS OLD!!!   He is such a healthy man and still with it cognitively; he has many many more years left in him yet!  If was a very enjoyable evening for Bob and I as we sat at the table with dad and his good buddy, Bill, who himself is just as healthy and cognitively with it as dad and he is 93 years old!!!!!  Thanks Dad for your invite – Bob and I enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Here was the menu!!!!  It was buffet style that night!

My brother, Roy, who works as the maintenance man at Wellington Park and for every gourmet, his wife, Pat, makes him an outfit that goes with the theme of that particular gourmet.  This year he was a “Chinaman” I guess??

My two brothers, Roy (known affectionally by dad as “Nuck”) and Bob (known affectionaly as “Bob,Bob,Bob” and although I’m not in this picture…..I’m known as “Fanya”.  Don’t ask us how dad came up with these names!

Roy and Miranda who were our servers on the buttet – Miranda is the Activites Director at Wellington Park.

My dad to the left, Bob, me and Bill Richardson.  Isn’t it hard to believe dad and Bill are in their 90’s!!!!!

Roy and Miranda busy at work!! 

A picture of the dining room with everyone enjoying their Chinese meal – it was delicious!

After supper, the entertainment was some Chinese dancers!

It was a very enjoyable evening.  Thanks Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way…..We are having a 90th birthday Open House to celebrate dad’s birthday on Saturday, February 25th, so all are invited – I have sent out invitations via email  and if you would like to come and need more info – just e.mail me – jsharratt@rogers.com.  The open house will be at Wellington Park Terrace on Janefield in Guelph between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.  Come one, come all!!

Our future Olympian skater!

David took Annika skating today at the City Hall in downtown Guelph and here is a cute little video of our little sweetheart!