March 28, 2011

We had a safe trip home from Florida and we ended up stopping only once for the night.  We had planned on taking two nights overnight before we left but we ended up driving 12 hours on Thursday which only left 9 hours for the next day, so we only needed to stop the once.  We brought Mavie (Breanne’s Bichon) home with us so that it was easier for James and Breanne on their ride home.  Mavie, as usual, was as good as gold all the way home, and I was able to get my “dog fix” in since Breanne and James were not going to be home until Saturday.  They too made it home safe and sound on Saturday after 3 days on the road and apparently the girls were very very good travelers although Breanne really hates long car rides.  I think I am starting to get used to them since we have done the Florida trip quite a few times now.  Brian and I share the driving so it is not as tiring when one person does the majority of it.  I quite enjoy driving though, so I’m happy that Brian doesn’t mind me sharing in it. 

We had a good time in Florida and it was really nice to get away but as usual with me, I was glad to be coming home and it was such a pleasure sleeping in our own bed, going to our grocery store where I know where everything is and sitting at my own desk and my own chair in my office!  I certainly missed having Mavie though once Breanne and James were home, so my dream of getting a dog in the fall is still alive!  Brian is very very slowly coming around to the idea although I know he would prefer not to but is willing to give in if I keep bugging him.  He will love it when we finally do get one.  I now have a breeder in mind so as we get closer to the right time, I will be contacting her. 

We went over to see our condo and it is really coming along now.  All the outside brick is finished and all the drywall is done on the inside.  Unfortunately we can’t get inside now as the doors are locked so peeking though the windows are our only option.  Two months to go and we will be moving in!  We just have to get motivated now to start packing but we both seem to be procrastinating on that front. 

I was very happy to get home to see that my dad, brother, Bob, and sister-in-law, Gwen, seem none the worse from their car accident.  Dad has been suffering quite a bit of chest pain from the airbag injury and he is having to take pain killers but hopefully that will gradually start to get better.  I took him to our family doctor who said that airbag injuries are usually quite severe – she said although airbags are great life-savers, it is just like getting hit head-on by a bull and some people get fractured sternums and ribs from the impact.  At least dad or Bob did not receive that severe of an injury from the airbag and just have bruising and muscle pain which will diminish over time. 

On Brian’s health, he had scheduled blood work at the Cancer Clinic on Monday and we had a bit of a scare as Dr. McCarron (our hematologist/oncologist) phoned to say that the blood work is showing abnormal liver functions, specifically the bilirubin; so to be on the safe side, she has scheduled Brian for an ultrasound on Thursday.  She told us not to worry that she is just erring on the side of caution to make sure there is nothing wrong with the liver or gallbladder and that this abnormal result is more “chemo related” than cancer related, so it did calm our fears a bit.  It still though reminded us that we can’t get too complacent that he is going to be fine; we do realize that he will now have life-long follow-up and we are just grateful that the doctor follows every little abnormality and nip anything in the bud before it goes into something more serious.  Once again, we feel very fortunate to have such a caring and concerned doctor and a Cancer Clinic that can get tests and scans done quickly and we are not waiting weeks or months.  I must say that we are very impressed with the care that Brian is getting that’s for sure.

So that’s my catch-up for the end of March.  We are now getting closer to David/Jenn’s wedding and they are doing a great job of organizing everything.  We are going to be working on the invitations this weekend and get them sent out in April; Brian is going with David and his attendants to get a tux ordered this weekend and I still have to find some time to look for a dress!  

Saturday, March 17 – Car Accident

I feel so thankful that my brother Bob, his wife, Gwen, their dog, Holly, and my dad were not badly hurt in a car accident on Saturday.  Bob and Gwen had decided to take my dad out for a nice leisurely car drive in the Brantford area on Saturday when a totally obnoxious drunk ran a stop sign and hit Bob’s car on the driver’s side (front part of the car) and then took off.  A couple of young men chased the two people in this car down and made them return to the scene of the accident. The woman was so drunk she could hardly stand up and her male passenger still had a beer in his hand walking back to the scene of the accident and when he saw the police, he put the can of beer behind a fence but the lady that took in Holly saw him do this and pointed it out to police.  What an angel she is!  It is absolutely unbelievable that people have not a care in the world for what could have happened and how devastating it could have been for our family.   Meanwhile, the police, fire department and  3 ambulances were called to take all three to the hospital.  My brother was not able to get out of the car and the fire department had to cut the driver’s side door off to get him out.  I thank God that all their injuries were minor – sore chests and stomach from seatbelts and air bags deploying in order to keep them from serious injury.  A kind woman who lived nearby took in Holly since they were all put into ambulances to be taken to the hospital.  My brother, Roy, drove to Brantford to pick Holly up and then proceeded to the hospital until they were all released.  They did keep dad a few hours longer than Bob and Gwen as they wanted to make sure that his chest pain was just bruising from the trauma and not something more serious.  As Bob said, if they had been just a couple of seconds later getting into the intersection, the accident could have had devastating results for both he and Gwen being on that side of the car. It certainly has shaken them all up as I am sure you can imagine.  So from starting out as a leisurely Saturday afternoon drive, they did not arrive home until 1:30 early Sunday morning.  I felt helpless being away in Florida but Roy was keeping me well informed.  We will be leaving for home this week and I will be happy to get home again.  Holidays are nice but there is nothing like home especially when something like this happens.

Here is a picture of Bob’s car (it is totaled) and obviously will need to be replaced with a new one.  I hope they throw the book at the driver of the other car and she loses her license for life. 

DOWNTOWN DISNEY

We decided to take the girls to downtown Disney today and had a fabulous time! One nice thing about being a grandparent is you are in a position to splurge and we made our Annika into a fairy princess today – she elected to be Snow White!  The girls were so good and we had a lot of fun!  I put a small video together below. 

The weather has been great this week, temperatures in the low 80s and lots of sunshine.  The time is going by quickly, only a week left to go now and then back to reality.  I hear the weather at home has been great, so I hope it continues like that once we get home. 

Three visitors to our Condo…..looking for food!

Our little Snow White!

Then she had her face painted!!!

River Island at Orange Lake

The time certainly seems to be passing by quickly, one week has gone by already.  The weather has been pretty good with a bit of rain on Friday and more rain on Sunday but the temperature is high 70’s, low 80’s, so perfect for our liking!  We have been taking a lot of walks around the place we are staying and the kids are loving the playgrounds they have.  Annika and I had an unfortunate accident at the playground the other day though and it bothered me for days after.  I was carrying Annika and had my sandals on and I wasn’t watching my footing and I thought I was on the narrow sidewalk around the playground but my foot went over the edge and down I went with Annika in my arms.  It happened so fast I couldn’t do anything and Annika fell flat on her back and her head thudded on the concrete; the sound to me was deafening and I was so afraid that she had fractured her skull.  Of course neither Breanne or I slept that night worrying about Annika but as it turned out, she must have a pretty hard head as she has had no residual effects from the fall other than a bad scrap on her elbow and I twisted my knee but it seems to be on the mend now.  So, note to Janet, she never ever carries the children while she is walking!  If anything had happened to Annika due to that fall, I would never had got over it. 

Brian has been getting back to his training although he is finding it quite difficult especially with the running.  He has gained weight though since the chemo, so it is going to take him a while to feel good when running again.  I keep telling him to just take baby steps, it will come back soon as he already has a good base. 

Yesterday, we went to Orange Lake, River Island which has a great play area for the kids as well as a lazy river.  We had a lot of fun there and here is a video that Breanne put together which is also on her blog.  I will update later this week. 

Tuesday, March 5, 2012

We are now in Florida and it is so nice to be in the warmer weather!  We left Friday afternoon instead of early Saturday morning since we didn’t want to get caught up in the predicted high winds and thunderstorms that were forecast.  We still ran into the high winds and rain as we were travelling through Buffalo and of course, it was my time to drive.  This happens all the time to me when we are sharing the driving!  We stopped around 8:00 as we felt there was no sense continuing to drive in the rain and we could get an early start in the morning.  The next day the drive was great, sunshine all the way until around 4:00 p.m. when it started to rain again  This time it was Brian’s turn to drive in the rain.  By 7:30 we were in South Carolina and I had had enough, so we stopped there. It continued to rain the entire night and was still raining when we left in the morning. Thankfully by the time we drove into Georgia, the rain stopped and we only had about a 5 hour drive and we arrived in Kississimee at Emerald Island where Breanne/James are staying.  We had the rest of the day Sunday to unpack and get settled and we fell into bed on Sunday night feeling exhausted!

Monday, we stayed at Emerald Island and enjoyed the pool and had fun with the kids.  Today (Tuesday), they all decided to go to Magic Kingdom but I elected to stay home with Mavie and get some work done in the quiet and here I am playing around with my blog!  I have included a little video below of Brian having fun with the kids in the pool yesterday. I’m sure they will take lots of pictures in Magic Kingdom, so I will post more pictures as the week goes on.  I hope the weather at home is not too bad! 

CHEMO ROUND #6 – LAST ONE!!

Brian has finally made it to round #6 and everything once again has gone very well.  We saw Dr. McCarron, oncologist, on Monday and she confirmed that this was the last round and that Brian is in remission and can basically get back to normal life again.  He will now have blood work once a month and immunotherapy every 3 months (Rituximab only).  The doctor is going to see Brian just before his first round of the immunotherapy and after that she says she doesn’t need to see him unless he has problems and we are to call for an appointment or if she sees anything troubling in the blood work, she will call us. She also gave us her blessing to enjoy a couple of weeks in Florida. We were just ecstatic coming out of her office and felt like we were on Cloud 9.  Brian is really feeling well though; he says this has been the best he has felt in over a year and it shows. At dad’s 90th birthday party, everyone was commenting on how well Brian was looking.  So once we get down to Florida, Brian is going to slowly get back to his triathlon training and he hopes to do the Guelph Lake Try-A-Tri in June.  That is his short-term goal. 

On the Condo front, we went for our first “walk-through” this week as all the electrical, furnace duct work and plumbing is in.  They take you through once this is done to make sure everything is as you expect it to be so that in case there is something they missed, it can easily be corrected before the drywall is up.  Everything was perfect and it was so exciting for us to see how far they have come and now we can get a better feel for the size of the rooms.  I am so looking forward to when my kitchen goes in as we have made major upgrades in the kitchen and for the first time in our married life, I get the kitchen of my dreams….so I guess I better start cooking more!  I am also very happy with the size of our loft where my office is going to be.  It is much larger than I envisioned and I am going to have plenty of room for all my office equipment and Brian will also have his little cubby-hole for his office as there is a dormer window area that comes off the loft and that is where Brian will be.  The condo is going to be just perfect for our needs and really, since we are also finishing off the basement, the square footage is just as much as we have in our present house, so it is going to be quite nice.  Unfortunately, I could not get any pictures but if we get a chance to get inside again, I will take some. The windows and doors are in though and they are now locking it when the workers are finished for the day so it is hard to get inside now.

We are now looking forward to heading off to Florida for a couple of weeks with Breanne and James and the grandkids and then when we get back; we will start the tedious task of packing. 

I will update again once we are in Florida.