Osoyoos British Columbia

So lately I have been pretty heavy duty on my posts so let's lighten it up today. Enough about returning to work, phase 3, UBI, and all that other stuff.

Back in 1990 I spent a summer working in the Okanagan Valley in a small town called Oliver located in the hot southern part of British Columbia. I remember it was so hot everyday that all I did was pay $3 to get in the public pool everyday just to cool off.

Instead of everyone heading down over the border just a 20 minute drive from where I was to get into the U.S. more Americans would be heading north to the Okanagan to get their sunshine and park their RVs. The closest town to the border was a place called Osoyoos. Located just 2.2 miles from the U.S. and adjacent to the First Nations Reserve the name means the "narrowing of the waters" in the local language called Syilx'tsn. 

Definitely a place to retire over 43% of the population are over the age of 65. Situated on Osoyoos Lake it's elevation marks the lowest point in the valley at 967 feet or 276 meters. The average summer time temperature is 17.0 C or 62.6 F making it the warmest place in Canada. Temperatures can exceed 35.0 C at least 17 days during the summer. It is like a dessert because where I was in Oliver it never rained all summer and Osoyoos was the same. Air conditioning was a must.

I have looked for it on google but have yet to find it but from what I heard when I was there they even grew bananas in Osoyoos it was that hot and dry. The one thing I can say that made the heat tolerable was unlike here in Southwestern Ontario their humidity is quite low. That also made the nights bearable for sleeping as well.

Tourism and agriculture are the two main industries in Osoyoos. Irrigation made tree fruit growing possible in this dry arid climate with  cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears and apples all being grown.

For the tourist you have the warmest freshwater lake in Canada being Osoyoos Lake with the temperature averaging 24.0 C or 75.0 F with many beaches to go with it and also some golf courses for the avid golfer to choose from.

With mild winters too wouldn't this be an idyllic place to retire? Only just over five thousand people in total I could handle this place no problem. Golf, beaches, fresh fruit stands everywhere and also I forgot the wines of the Okanagan right there you cannot beat it. The only problem is it is too far away from Ontario. 

When we moved from Vancouver to London Ontario way back in 2000 the wife and I camped there for 3 days. It was pretty nice. Below on the Osoyoos website they have a video cam of an osprey nest live. An osprey is a hawk with a big wing span. You can check other things going on just click
Osoyoos.

Osprey Web Cam

Year Two of Three

Okay the splenectomy is done after what has been a year deciding whether I qualified for a stem cell transplant and plenty of blood transfusions. I had undergone plenty of procedures to check on my body to see if there was anything else wrong, had pneumonia a few times, and then in the end it was decided that I should get the spleen out.

Up to that time I was not taking any medication. It was basically let's get the stem cell transplant done to start all over. Anyway they still couldn't figure out what was causing my hemoglobin to drop.

The two liver biopsies showed conclusively that on my liver there was some damage so on my follow up visit with the hematologist I was prescribed Methotrexate. This was to get rid of the Large Granular Leukemia they noticed. I was to take this chemo pill once a week and the other six days take a tiny Folic acid pill. Apparently we lose a lot of Folic acid when we go through anything related to chemotherapy and it is essential.

As soon as I was discharged figuring everything was under control I planned for a two week vacation out to the West Coast. We would be staying with friends for nearly a week in Victoria BC where we could show our boys where we got married and lived etc. After Victoria we would then go to the Rockies visiting Jasper especially because I spent some time there working as a waiter.

It is funny to note but shortly after the operation we had an appointment with the surgeon to have him check me out and remove the staples. He removed most of them but then said there were four he did not want to take out. So he asked Soley if she would mind to save us a trip pulling them out herself. It was a staple remover that was specially designed for such a task. She said yes she would do it and so he gave us the stapler and we said goodbye. Four days later she removed the last four staples.

The only problem was that after about a month my improved blood results took a turn for the worst and with the hemoglobin hovering up and down it seemed every couple of weeks I had to get another blood transfusion. So that was disappointing. It wasn't over as it appeared at least to me the spleen had been left there too long and now the pains of neglect were taking over. My bone marrow appeared to not be up to full force. My liver was not great either. So I was just hoping that time would straighten this out.

Before our trip out west the hematologist advised me to get a top up with a blood transfusion just before we departed. Then she brought up the stem cell transplant again. I replied that I just had my spleen out to which she replied I could still get one with or without the spleen.

I shook my head. This was becoming her dream now not mine. I was psyched up for it the first time around but again I thought. It had definitely lost it's shine by this time.

Off we flew out West. Had a great time and spared no expense. Seeing our good friends again after 18 years was fabulous and we had planned our trip perfectly. I was taking the chemo pill and Folic acid.

The only thing I couldn't do was walk fast enough to keep up with the others. We skipped breakfast to go straight to the airport on departure day

and my only episode was while in line I started to get queasy and funny looking. The security saw that and allowed me to jump the queue and find a seat in the terminal. After a couple of hours nap I was better again but the skipping of breakfast was not a good move.

When we got back I went in for blood work and my hemoglobin was down but only to 72. So I was not surprised it was down but it was not tragic. When people have lower hemoglobin they say the body fights through it and manages to get use to it. Well after climbing hills and driving a lot of kilometers I guess my body was getting used to it.

I got the transfusion again then I got a call from the hematologist...

The Wife Enjoying Jasper