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…….
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