"Time" is a word that most of us cherish. It is used in a variety of ways but perhaps none more meaningful in context when one considers recovery time. Many usages of the word "time" refer to the moment or of an instance. I think that we are essentially expressing time in this sort of dimension now. It was seven weeks ago today that Laurie had her operation. Think about what you have done over those seven weeks. For us, the variation on what we do is quite minimal. This is frustrating but we realize that progress is taking place in the proper direction; however slow it may be. Being at home with Laurie, I thought that I would have time to do all sorts of things - including the issuance of more timely updates. However, the day is quite fractionalized and I seem to have lots of little bits of time to do specific things. Finding more substantial periods of time to engage in non essential tasks, like writing for instance, are difficult to find. For someone who likes to keep the cars clean both inside and out, I have failed to vacuum or wash them since the end of June. There is just no time for this sort of activity.
A decade ago, this date was a moment in time that most people around the world will recall. Canadians in eastern Canada were particularly affected and likely recall the events of September 11th, 2001 with more feeling and emotion than others may do. I can recall exactly what I was doing on that fateful morning when the seemingly unbelievable news traveled through the office. It was certainly a time of apprehension and anxiety for us living north of the 49th parallel and a nightmarish time for those living in New York, New York Washington D.C. and around Shanksville Pennsylvania. Time is supposed to heal all wounds but something tells me that the survivors and the families of the victims of 9/11 will forever be dealing with the tragedies that took place.
For Laurie and I, we are primarily thinking of the week ahead. We try and remember the successes of the previous week while writing our upcoming activities. In order to help us manage time and tasks we have a small white board and different coloured markers. Laurie is the scribe for this. I have kept and continue to keep notes for each day since July 22nd. I am now at page 99. Typically, Laurie is a note-taker. I was reminded of this when we were in the midst of packing for our move in August. Field books for every work related trip taken and for every endeavour related to bird outings and breeding atlases, bio-blitzes, recreational walks and cycling excursions, amphibian counts and the recording of the bird specifies and critters that visit our bird feeder each year. We both take a clean diary with us on our holidays and this is the only time that I really take notes. This is something that I have always seemingly done on holidays as far back as I can recall. What is quite surprising is that I actually have all of the summaries in one place. Although we write our diaries independently, there is a fair amount of overlap, except when it comes to botanical observations of course. You may find that there is a treatise on the local craft beer in my diary but then see several thoughts on whether a plant that Laurie found that day is introduced or native in her book. They are fun to reread but seldom did there seem to be any time to do this before.
Each morning now, Laurie is reading our trip diaries from our trip to Scotland in 2010. Not the whole diary mind you but just the notes that correspond to the current month and day but one year ago. So, this morning after a tasty breakfast she read aloud the bits of history, road travel, food and drink, natural history and the degree of manner of our B and B hostess for September 11, 2010. It does not take a long time to read through the notes unless the penmanship is a little off or the notes become decreasing more illegible as they extend to the bottom of a page and a fresh one is desired for the following day. I have taken my diary notes for this day (Sept. 11, 2010) and entered them at the bottom of the more current events relating to Laurie's progress and well-being. You can certainly tell how much a life can change in the course of a year looking at the notes from then and now. We both feel that one day we will be looking around to buy new diaries for a trip to a destination that neither of us has even really contemplated at this time.
The last status covered up to September 4th. Generally, and above all, Laurie is dealing with her radiation and chemotherapy sessions very well. Over the past week, the scheduling was such that we needed to be at the radiation clinic for 16:40 or 17:00 each day except for the holiday Monday. This scheduling allows Laurie to spend most of the day doing what she pleases, including sleeping in a little. The actual radiation activity only takes three minutes; however the round-trip is taking about three hours. This is still time well spent no matter what possible view you take on the situation. So far she is experiencing very little of the radiation and the chemotherapy side effects (I have just knocked on the desk here). The initial sessions were very difficult but since Monday, September 4th, she has not been physical ill. We still minimize the risk of her becoming so and are vigilant in terms of dealing with the possibility should she become so. She has not suffered redness or acute swelling. Her hair is seemingly growing with speed as opposed to the opposite. Her level of energy is OK all things considered and her spirit and attitude are positive.
Laurie's memory is improving but there is still ground to cover. For instance, the game of twenty questions presents quite a few challenges. This game involves different levels of cognitive thinking and memory and is one of the more difficult exercises that we are now doing. Her vocabulary is coming along in three languages - English, French and Latin. Her speech therapist is not coming the week of September 12th but will come over the following week. She is reading a lot. We unboxed some more cartons and pulled out some reading material for her. She seems to like reading but has some problems in recalling the names of the books that she recently read. I sometimes wonder if she is absorbing the stories or simply reading the words. We did play some cribbage and she did very well in assessing her cards, making a strategy and taking her points. I was very impressed with this task which we do not treat as such.
On tap for this week are the five scheduled radiation appointments (numbers seven through eleven). Monday the 12th we see a cancer out patient social worker. After this we will visit her radiation oncologist. This latter meeting is something that we will do every Monday before her radiation session. Later in the week we meet her neuro surgeon at another hospital. This meeting was to be held last week but even surgeons need summer holidays. We are not sure what will be discussed but he did require that CT scan that Laurie had about ten days ago. We feel that it will be an assessment of her progress as he sees it. Laurie is still very unclear about what had happened and can not really remember events that took place with her initial trip to the hospital and her release some two weeks later. In the overall scheme of things this is not very important seeing as I have many pages of notes. She has not read the blog since she does not yet realize that there is one. I am hoping that some day she will read what you have been reading and what she has been living through. She appears optimistic and more understanding of what is taking place this week. She is now able to sort out her various pills and dosages for both morning and evening. She is quite interested in reading the fact sheets about her prescriptions and asks me time and time again to go over each prescription's purpose and dosage. Her balance is quite strong and she continues to stretch and wishes to take short walks. She does still carry her stick which is something that I have seen her rely on at times. Finally, she wishes to return to the greenhouse and see how her grasses are doing.
We did two walks over the past weekend. The first was along the St. Lawrence River at Prescott, Ontario. We took our time and enjoyed the weather and quiet activities surrounding us. It is not often that you do not see a large ship plying the waters but Saturday was one such day. On Sunday we returned to the river but farther east - to the Morrisburg area. We strolled along the path next to the river which had significantly more human and bird activity taking place. Again no lake freighters were seen. There is something calming about being next to the river and we just took our time to take in the sun and the smells. Laurie took her binoculars and was able to identify birds, butterflies and some plants. All this is very good to see and I need to keep reminding myself that it was only seven weeks ago that she was being operated on.
As anticipated, the summary of Laurie's road to recovery is becoming shorter in length as the routine of the days becomes quite apparent. I would like to thank Marian in Nova Scotia for continuing to post Laurie's progress and for dealing with the photos that I have found and sent along. Each time that I see a photo that has been stored in a computer file that I have not seen for years brings back the memories of the wonderful journeys that we have taken together.
Time to go. Below is the diary entry from my journal. How much life can suddenly take a turn is certainly evident from what we did then.
September 11, 2010 (Glencoe, Scotland).
Up at 07:15 and into the shower. It was also a shower outside - in fact pouring! Wondered if the hike to the Lost Valley would leave at 10:00? Had a nice breakfast. There was a couple from Italy and an older woman arriving after 08:00. A nice meal but not the full monty. It continued to rain as we left the B & B heading to the Glencoe Visitor's Centre. Arrived about 09:40 and checked in for the trip. There were five women also doing the walk - four from Germany I believe and one older lady from somewhere in the UK. The two guides were Johnny and Matt. Started off by completely encasing ourselves in anything waterproof. The trip was to go for about four hours. Lots of rain and slippery walking to be sure.
There were a few interpretation stops including one that spoke of a hidden person counter. It worked on the pressure of someone walking over a sensor a little bit buried. Took pictures of the area and of the group - constantly in rain. People seemed pleased just to be out and getting exercise (walking, climbing, swimming). Tough going in places - certainly more challenging than say Ben Nevis was back in 1996. Once having entered the Lost Valley we saw a herd of deer, maybe 35 to 40 in all. Had the sandwiches we bought in the village earlier. Passed around the cookies we brought but only the two guides took advantage.
The rain had ceased by now but was still ever present. The walk back took a different route most of the way. With all of the rain, the creeks were turned into rivers. We needed to ford one and this is where I got wet. The stepping stones were basically under water and deep enough that it topped my boots, ergo, two very wet feet. Laurie faired a little better than I did but some others got just as wet. Am wondering if these boots will ever dry in the future, at least at the B & B.
Having successfully managed the Hidden Valley (Lost Valley in the Three Sisters) walk, we got back into the Park Services Land Rover for the drive back to the Visitor's Centre. Said our good-byes and got the hiking ideas from Matt. Back at the B & B and Maureen's offer of a pot of tea was immediately taken up. She also carried away my boots to some secret drying chamber. Having then converted our room into a drying room and examining everything that got wet, including passports, we had a wee lie of perhaps 70 to 80 minutes. It was raining lightly whenever I opened an eye. Egads! Will it ever stop raining? About 16:30 we headed out to see a sale of free-trade Tibetan things where Laurie bought a nice hat. The girl working the traveling exhibit and sale was from the Czech Republic. Carried on up the road to the village hiking trails where there are three of them all joined up. We walked the Woodland Trail which was 1.5 miles long and very well maintained and sign-posted. Some huge trees, lots of moss and ferns, etc - just what one would expect being in Glencoe. Began to rain again and the umbrella was used to minimize the shoes getting wet. Near the end and the car park we bumped into Ben (the B & B dog) and Ken along with another dog and Ken's friend. After a short chap about the weather and walking, we headed to the B & B via the village store where I bought single cans of beer. Returning wet for the second time in one day we hung up what we could and decided that going to the Clachaig Hotel for dinner was in order.
It is about two miles from the village so we drove the single lane road encountering a few cars and people. The Clachaig was quite busy and I lucked into parking in the last real space - almost hitting a car whose driver was attempting to weasel by me. Inside, there were about ten real ales - mostly from Houston Brewing. I settled on a beer from Williams that was excellent. Laurie had a salmon with spuds and veggies and I had a chicken done Cajun style with chips and veggies. Very good place and very busy - even at 20:45 when we headed over to the bar area.
The bar was packed with excitement - at least lots of loud talking and laughing. Got a real ale (Warlock Stout) and found a spot before the substitute three person band came on. Actually pretty good all things considered. Several dogs in various states of anxiety were about including some very docile small grey hounds (welties?). We enjoyed the music and atmosphere until 22:00 the departed for the B & B. Maureen welcomed us back and locked up as we must have been the last of the guests to call it a night.
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