Welcome!

Laurie had a serious brain lesion that was surgically removed on July 24, 2011. It was uncertain exactly what the disease was and to me, these days were really the fight for her life. After the surgery, Laurie spent two weeks in an Ottawa, Ontario hospital. This period was full of events relating directly to her and to other patients and aspects going on in the hospital during her stay. Laurie came home on Friday, August 5th, 2011. Since being at home, events have settled into a routine but not without the ups and downs of recuperating with a rare brain tumour. Her story is one of hope, struggle, patience and above all, courage. The current update is presented at the top of the page with her day-by-day story presented from the bottom upwards.
This story also has pictures of Laurie. She is a woman of many interests and dimensions. She and I love to travel and September has been our favourite time of year to do so. The trips taken over the past six or seven years have seen us in places like western and central Scotland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Cape Breton, Charlevoix, Ireland and to Newfoundland a couple of times. The first things that Laurie always packs are her plant press, silica gel bags, binoculars, loupe, botany reference books, bird books, hiking books, note books and always a good raincoat. If there is any room left she packs some clothes. You can usually recognize her at the airport because she is one with three or four layers of clothing on.

Friday 26 August 2011

Egg farms, carpet cleaning and appointments

 
Good morning / afternoon / evening -
Laurie's father Arthur was the head administrator in several small Ontario town hospitals. His last tour of duty was performed at the Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, a small town of maybe 10,000 people north west of Toronto. Not having obtained much experience with hospital settings in the past I could not fully appreciate what his responsibilities might have entailed. He always seemed to be a man who left his job at the office but that he was very good at it when there. He was very well respected by those who knew and worked with him. Not by chance, I daresay, Laurie worked in the kitchen at the hospital. I believe that she was responsible for such tasks as getting meal trays ready for delivery and for dealing with the returned ones (and all of the food that was probably tucked under the various containers and empty packaging). This put some spending money in her pocket. With it she liked to go to the small coffee shop on the main street where she enjoyed the comforts of small town home cooking and milk shakes.
If Arthur had been the administrator in a hospital such as the Ottawa Civic or General, his title might have been aptly presented as "mayor". These institutions are really like small towns in themselves. From my very limited recent experiences in walking the halls and keeping my ears open, I did not realize that there is much more than doctors, nurses and of course, patients, under the roof. There are book stores and libraries, shops of all kinds, banks, wig fitters, coffee places, chapels, restaurants, dental offices and even hotels for family visiting from out of town. There is a substantial infrastructure in place to handle power outages, the simultaneous arrival of multiple emergency vehicles, a helicopter port, environment maintenance, a street network and parking lots and garages. The computer and communication systems must be impressively large to handle all the information flows.  Much of these services are deployed out of site but you know they are there. What you do see, and quite frequently, are the security staff. I wondered about this.
If you are in the morning coffee queue, you may see two or three security persons striding purposely down the corridor.  Very seldom do they walk alone. They appear to be wearing flak jackets or at least Kevlar vests, not quite like those worn by the US navy seals but impressive none-the-less. The word "Security" is prominent across the back of their usually quite beefy shoulders. So where are they going and for what reason? I began to think that yes, some activities in this large place would occasionally necessitate the services of these folks. But what exactly? Perhaps some tired soul had their credit card eaten by the parking machine and they were administering more than just words to it. Perhaps a patient had gone missing from G Sector, Floor 2, Tower B. Maybe a visitor had mistakenly entered the building thinking that it was a drug store and was looking for those little white pills. Could someone actually be taking one of the 25,000 hospital gowns home? Did someone get short changed in the cafeteria and was sounding a loud complaint? Was someone trying to unscrew the 6" by 4" black and white television over one of the sleeping patients' beds? Could there be a speed limit on wheel chair conveyance and someone was in excess of this? Had there been a collision of two of these and a hit-and-wheel off was in progress?
I can not report that I saw anything more than rounds being made or the security staff walking to one of the shops or food services. I never saw handcuffs or assault weapons being demonstrated or anyone dressed in camouflage. No secretive talking into a hidden microphone was observed. I guess that having these people there is a necessity in a hospital. Like the elaborate fire fighting systems there, it is good to know that if the time comes then there is something in place to deal with the situation. I guess that if Arthur was still with us he could have set me straight on the types of challenges that hospital security face.
August 20, 2011 (Saturday)
The day began with me heading over to the nearby egg farm for some truly fresh breakfast items. The farm is only a few minutes away and Laurie elected to stay and read on the sofa. There are several "biohazard beware" signs as you enter the farm property. These signs are a bureaucratic requirement it seems as the owner indicated to me some time ago to just ignore them. What one must be aware of though is Kaiser. This is a farm dog in the truest sense. He makes Cujo look like Scamp. He sees you coming far before you know that he is around. At first sight you feel that maybe you would rather skip the eggs and have a bowl of cereal instead. I believe that even Caesar Milan might hop back on the plane to California rather than deal with Kaiser. Well, this is where experience becomes important. Kaiser approaches the car with stealth. He usually makes his presence known as you open the door or are about a meter or two away.
Then the tail begins to wag and the tongue begins to lick the skin off of your hand. Once you say his name a few times and remark on what a good boy he is then he becomes your best friend. The time to get the eggs becomes longer as he escorts you to the door of the barn and waits for you. Paying personal attention to him is a must. I keep reminding myself to bring a dog treat on the next visit. So, having got the main ingredient for breakfast it was back to the house to do the cooking.
The rest of the day was not as exciting. It was simply a quiet day of resting, eating, drinking and some light exercise. I did some work with the boxes that I returned from the storage locker while Laurie spent the afternoon resting.
August 21, 2011 (Sunday)
We were awaken at 00:35, 01:35 and 02:30 by mother nature's mighty show of thunder, lightning and at times, heavy rain and wind. We live in a forest with 100 year old maple trees with branches hanging very close to the house. Storms are not our most settling of moments being where we are. After a hearty breakfast, our day did not start very well. The issue was that the printer had run out of the yellow and black ink. Rather than printing everything in fuschia, I asked Laurie if she remembered how to change the ink containers. Well, she was right on it. The yellow was changed first without a hitch. The black container was a double size and I opened it like I did the yellow. However, the ink began to flow out of the container. It first hit Laurie's sock and then over various parts of my hands and thence onto the grey carpet. I have no idea what I did differently but I was not very pleased.
As I dashed for a splatter guard and tossed the leaking container into the garage I knew that an industrial carpet cleaner agent would likely be required. Laurie's sock was a write off. The carpet is a little better after the application of carpet cleaner and some vigorous rubbing and blotting. I still need to find something to try and remove the remaining blob - thinking that something like soda water might be a cheap solution.
Friends arrived about 11:00. They came over from the Belleville area which is about a 2 hour and 15 minute drive. We had arranged to meet and they brought some seasonal green beans, his famous spaghetti sauce and his very tasty chilli. He and I then made a bit of a road trip while his wife and Laurie got along just fine. It was a fine day at the house but the region did have some serious localized rain showers. About 16:00 they headed home and we sat down and enjoyed an easy to prepare meal.
Tomorrow was our early appointment at the Civic Hospital for Laurie's MRI so we packed it in early. We would need to be up and about by 05:45 to comfortably make it for the 08:00 scanning. The rain did reach the house in the late afternoon and continued throughout the night. Wishing that the MRI goes well and that Laurie's tumour is not starting to become enlarged.
August 22, 2011 (Monday)
This was to be the busy day of the week. First the MRI at 08:00. Then a short drive across to the green house to check on the grasses. At 13:00 we had to be at the General Hospital for a CT scan and the making of her head gear for her radiation treatment. The MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and CT (Computerized Tomotherapy) scans were needed by the radiation oncologist in order to prepare the radiation plan. 
We did get up early and Laurie was sufficiently engaged in the day ahead. She was aware of the things on the list and looking forward to getting them done. The MRI is an instrument that she is not fond of. This is partially due to the length of time that she must remain absolutely still (about 20 minutes) and also the noise that it makes. It is a very large machine and looks to be out of some episode of the first Star Trek series. She changes into the hospital gown as well even though the scan is only for the brain region.
After the MRI I invited her to the hospital cafeteria for breakfast. The idea of eating before going to Ottawa was not appealing so she only had some yogurt with her pills. I think that the cafeteria meals are pretty decent in terms of quality, quantity and price. They exceed the meals that patients receive. She had a breakfast English muffin with bacon and cheese which she thoroughly enjoyed along with some orange juice. Tea rather than coffee is still the current hot beverage of choice.
We then drove the short distance to the green house. She was very pleased to see her grasses doing so well. Many already needed another trimming. Some of these grasses are growing as quickly as the hair on her head. I came prepared with the scissors and began the work. She was engaged in relabelling some of the plastic identification tags. It was amazing that based on a four digit number she could recall the name of the grass, where it was collected and when. This makes for a successful day in my view. We spent just over one hour tidying everything up and chatting a little with one of the people who works there.
We then drove east to the General Hospital. I found what must be the optimal parking spot as it was generously wide and very close to the entrance. As we had a little time on our hands (remember how I like to be early), we had a little food at the Timmy's. We found the radiation south department and received the instructions for her CT work.  We waited in comfortably appointed surroundings for her to be called. I went with Laurie and the technician to the CT room for a run down on the next steps. It was quite an interesting discussion. The technician then brought out the mould for Laurie's mask and explained the procedure slowly and thoroughly. I even took pictures of the event. I had to then leave the room as the actual CT scan would be done with Laurie's new mask in place.
It was only a matter of a few minutes before she appeared with the technician in the waiting room. Similar to the MRI earlier, she had to wear a hospital gown for this scan. So, the day's events had ended and basically on schedule. Hurray! Back in the car and heading home. We took the scenic way and stopped in Kemptville for a few items. A well needed rest until supper time. While Laurie slept I reviewed all of the hospital reports that I received in the mail today. They are very interesting and I learned much more about the operation and some of the future steps. These reports are very medical in nature. It is good to see that her GP has indeed received this information.

We ended this busy day with some recall exercises. She is getting much better now with these and I am very pleased with the progress. I am sure that her speech therapist will see the gains when she visits tomorrow.
August 23, 2011 (Tuesday)
Up again twice last night for trips to the bathroom. She is good at nudging me when the time comes. I still get up with her and escort her there and back even though she is becoming more capable. I just want to be sure that given how sleepy she would be that there are no falls on the trip there and back.
Eggs and bacon for breakfast. I told Laurie that we had eight eggs and 12 yolks. She laughed and wondered about this. It was in fact true. I had picked up two dozen eggs, 12 of which were double yolks. I can't recall ever having these but they were the eggs coming down the egg lane at the farm on Saturday morning. Her appetite continues to grow and she basically eats everything that I give her.
A call was returned from Laurie's case manager this morning. She has now confirmed that Laurie's very pricy chemotherapy drug is covered by the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan. The pharmacy has the pills for pick up and my bill will be $2.00. This is a saving of nearly $2,085.00 which makes me the shopper of the week. Having had this good news I then received the bad.  The hospital radiation scheduler called to say that Laurie's treatments would not begin this week. Based on the two scans taken yesterday, the oncologist decided to treat Laurie on a different piece of equipment that would be better for her. This makes perfect sense to us. So, the treatments will now begin next Tuesday in the late afternoon at the General Hospital. I also confirmed that there are no treatments on holidays like Labour Day. If a treatment is missed for any reason, then that treatment is tacked on to the end of the program. Currently, her last day of radiation would be October 12th.
With the change in plans I needed to reschedule the nurse who was to come this Friday.  I also confirmed an appointment that arrived in today's mail. It concerned a CT scan in early September for 9:00 p.m. I wondered if the time was correct. So I called and discovered that it was. Apparently, the CT team takes appointments up to about mid-night. The person that I spoke with told me that most of the calls that she takes related to the same question that I had. I offered the suggestion of writing the time as 21:00 and 9:00 p.m. in brackets. She did not really say much at this point about my recommendation which I felt was of some value. So, another CT appointment at the General. This will be used to gauge the changes to the tumour based on her early radiation treatments.
The speech therapist also called to reschedule her visit. We came up with Friday afternoon as that day was now fully ours to spend as we please.
Caught up on the laundry and cleaning which always makes me feel good at the end of a day.
August 24, 2011 (Wednesday)
Summer continues here in Eastern Ontario. Laurie seems at ease today and reports having a good sleep. I noted that she was up three times for nature calls but I don't think that she realizes this as much as I do.  Our real estate person came over to tidy up some loose ends (no, we are not moving). She is also a nurse and remarked how good she thought Laurie was - both mentally and physically. She asked again when the operation had been. Given this she said that Laurie is doing remarkably well. This made me very happy and Laurie smile.
About 10:00 the home care person came for a four hour sitting. Having this arranged permitted me to take the car into Ottawa to get it serviced. I had called for an appointment when I knew that I had a four hour window of opportunity at hand. I spoke with the service staff member and explained my situation in a general way. I said that I was not expecting fast service like a formula 1 pit stop but that I did need some quick consideration when I arrived. He promised that this would be the case. So, as I was walking out of the door to look at the shiny and expensive 2012's on the lot, our car was being driven off quickly - hoping by a mechanic and not a thief.  True to their word I had fast service and the main part of my free time was over. I then did some grocery shopping and picked up some new crisp Egyptian cotton sheets. Having a few sets of new sheets will make Laurie more comfortable I think, especially if the next steps of her treatment will lead to her being in bed more often. It has been a while since I have shopped for sheets and was therefore a little bewildered at the selection of colours, cost and the sizes. Of course the size I wanted must be the most popular because my choices were very limited. What I thought, and bought, was a dark blue sheet was in fact not. Upon closer inspection in day light, I had bought what was fashionably described as "liquorice" in colour. I would call it simply black and they are going back.
Arriving home 40 minutes before my due time, I found Laurie and the home care lady enjoying the front deck. They had eaten lunch, gone for a short stroll and had kindly collected the empty trash can and recycling boxes from the end of the driveway. The lunch dishes were also washed and air drying. This is like having a domestique and a friendly one at that.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and me cooking dinner. Laurie has been very helpful in deciding what she would like to eat for all of her meals.
It rained hard at times over night but for short bursts a time. The sound of thunder was a continuation for minutes at a time. We felt secure and comfortable even at 02:00 and even with the old sheets on the bed.
August 25, 2011 (Thursday)
A very quiet day as there were no appointments to attend to or persons scheduled to arrive. It was supposed to be the day of Laurie's first radiation treatment and start of the chemotherapy. She is doing quite well again today. She is progressing along with better recall it seems each day. She now knows the order of the seasons, forwards and backwards. She is starting to get involved in light domestic things and moving more independently.
In the afternoon we journeyed into Kemptville for a couple of items. In particular, Laurie was in need of some new woman's upper foundations. Well, the store we went to had large enough overhanging signage that you could see them from the parking lot. Some of it did not quite make enough shopping sense to me to know what it was. The main thing is that Laurie did and we found ourselves in two large aisles of woman's upper undergarments - advertised as being in the "intimates" section. I did not think that I could be of much help especially since Laurie did remember to bring her glasses along. Looking at all the little numbers on the garment tags I didn't know if it was a size or the product number. Feeling quite helpless I simply carried the various items to the change room for her. I did much better in the cookie department though. We also picked up some new socks for her. There was a bag of six pairs of socks from a major sock manufacturer for the price of $5.00. Good socks by all appearances. I don't think that you could ship one pair of socks from anywhere to anywhere for under $5.00. And these socks were made in the U.S.A.
We drove back home under a sky that was at one moment sun and the next looked as if the storm chaser crew would be passing you to try and get the best pictures. A heavy tower of rain seemed to be parked over our general area and I thought about the advantages of not having to water for another week. Then again I just had the car washed and was trying to weigh these two outcomes for maximum benefit. I still have the clean car and maybe some flowers to water tomorrow.
We started to watch another mystery series that we have on DVD. This series is called "Lovejoy" and is from the mid 1980s onwards. We watched it several years ago and really enjoyed it. I can not recall how many episodes there are but they do cover quite a number of years of production. Laurie is already looking forward to tomorrow's show.
August 26, 2011 (Friday)
The day is another nice summer day here. Windows open and everything appears to be in order. This has indeed been a week of calmness before what may be a rather dark and stormy week ahead. Laurie and I were up only once last night. This makes a big difference in how refreshed she feels in the morning. She takes her pills both morning and evening. These continue to treat any potential swelling in the brain and for dealing with related stomach issues. She takes these with yogurt in bed. Recently, this is followed by a cup of Irish breakfast tea which she quite enjoys.
Breakfast is going well. She is having fruit, something hot (bacon and eggs or porridge), toast and juice. She knows that she needs to improve her strength for the days and weeks ahead. It is just past lunch time here. She has been reading another mystery novel. She has indicated a desire for us to go to an antique show that we have usually attended over the past years. This is tomorrow and it sounds like a good opportunity to go out as the weather is supposed to be perfect. I will try and find that "chair in a bag" thing that I believe we still have unpacked someplace in the basement. This would be handy should she get a tad tired while walking or waiting for my negotiating with a dealer to come to an end - for something that we don't really need of course. Her wanting to do this type of activity is a positive sign that the Laurie of old is returning. This week has shown this to be the case in many ways.
I am apprehensive as to the effects of both the radiation and chemotherapy treatments that start next week. I have read and reread the information picked up at the hospital on the side effects that may occur. She seems to know about these now but has not shown that much concern. I realize that she is taking the practical approach here and understands that to achieve more success in dealing with her illness that her journey along the road to recovery may at times be difficult.
Enjoy your weekends and please continue to think of Laurie.
Mark

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