Pretty Much Sums Up Trump's Logic

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— 🦦Marie-Caroline🦥 (@NoWay7790) July 9, 2020

The Difference Between 1953 and 2020

Currently I am reading a 1200 page book on Richard Nixon who was the only president to be forced to resign because he was soon going to be impeached over the infamous Watergate scandal. It is an exhaustive biography written by Conrad Black who is the newspaper mogul who spent some time in an American jail after being convicted of fraud.

He owned a lot of newspapers at one time so putting his time to good use he wrote this book while he spent the time in jail. It is a great book that really is a great history lesson to anyone who is interested in 20th century history of which I am.

Anyway let me get to the point of this post quickly. While Nixon was serving as vice-president under Dwight D. Eisenhower who was inaugurated as the 34th president in January of 1953 the United States began to rebuild after a brutal World War 2 with a massive road construction plan that would make car travel easy to go from one state to the next and from coast to coast. America and it's love affair with the car was rising. Cars became more reliable to drive over longer distances. The advent of the drive-in theatre and remember those A & W car drive-ins when you would park the car and yell in the speaker beside with your order and a girl on roller skates would deliver the meal to you? Yabba Dabba Doo!! Flintstones remember?

Then motels opened up so now you can check in at the office and they told you which unit was yours and you would drive right up to it and park in that parking space reserved for you the occupant. No elevators, no hassle, just unload the suitcases and there was your room right there. Maybe located right on the beach or beside the local attraction you were going to. Yes those were fun days and Eisenhower knew that the American public would love it and spend their money in the country. Then of course relatively speaking taking into account salaries were a lot lower then but so was the gas. Those were different days and the economy grew leaps and bounds making America a huge economic power. That was the automobile industry. Eisenhower spent a lot of money but it worked and not a cent was wasted.

Move forward to 2020 right now. We have a debt that equals that or more than our debt was after the Second World War here in Canada. Not much better in the US but will leave them out of this because I want to talk about Canada in particular.

Our premier Ford of Ontario announced a 2.6 Billion Dollar investment in roads and infrastructure. He wants to widen our already huge super highways.

Now Doug Ford means well but he is living in the 1950's. Not once did I hear anything about green technology. The electric cars once he was elected the rebate for buying one was terminated. He has given no incentive for home owners, who seem to have an endless amount of credit, to make any effort to make their houses clean energy efficient. No talk of solar panels, wind energy, or any other useful clean energy that could  save the homeowner in the long run lots of money on energy bills as well as help clean the environment.

Instead it is the same old same old. If the premiers and the Prime Minister haven't noticed by now the office towers in Toronto because of the pandemic are going to remain empty. People who have now been working at home for the past 4 months have adapted nicely. So what do you think is going to happen. Companies will just continue along this path and save on rent, parking , commute ( oh yeah that is what the highways were for), insurance, sick pay if someone catches the virus and oh yes no one will be able to spread it to others if they are working from home either.

People will no longer have to work in the city because it is close to work anymore. So there will be an exodus to the suburbs and beyond. So why concentrate on widening the highways? If people are encouraged to work from home then why live where the housing is astronomical? All people will need is WiFi. Then of course working from home they will probably be able to claim expenses like phone and internet to name a few.

Meetings will be done over Zoom now. No masks needed.

We have an opportunity to shape the future but as long as we have old thinking we will find ourselves like we were before the pandemic. A resource based country who relies on oil. That's it. In 5- 10 years from now we will look back and say we made a paradigm shift that put us ahead of others or we will be languishing far behind still trying to build pipelines that have been in the works for years to sell oil to others who will not even need it anymore because their technology and innovation kept up with the new green world. All you have to do is look at the countries who already are moving ahead.

What about encouraging people by making a bicycle lane network throughout the city like Amsterdam so people can feel safe riding their bikes. You can put people to work at that just as easy as the endless widening of the highways which all they do while in construction is make traffic even more unbearable and pollution even greater as their engines are sitting in idle.

I think this is our one chance. Our youth want the world to be a cleaner place. If you keep thinking old you will keep the old and lose the young.

Look at the trends. It is right in front of us. Think out of the box. The year is 2020 not 1953. The drive in A & Ws  are long gone.

Someone has to wake up before it is too late!

If I Were a Waiter Looking for Work Right Now During a Pandemic and Afterwards

Right now being a waiter is not a coveted job to have. If you happen to be working you have to wear a mask to serve guests who are not required to wear one. The reason I say "if you happen to be working" is a lot have yet to be called back to work as indoor dining remains closed as bars.

Add in additional cleaning duties such as sanitizing the seats, serving areas, smaller sections, and perhaps even less hours due to guests feeling  kind of leery about heading back to indoor dining the waiter has to think now about where the best place to work be in a pandemic world when he or she does return.

Here are a few points below as to what kind of dining restaurant I would be looking to work in during these times.

1. I would choose to look for work in establishments that had a bunch of money still left once things open up again. These might be hard to find as many will not even reach first base. For the ones barely hanging on they may start to bend the safety rules a bit. Maybe even have waiters doing tasks they did not do before like deep cleaning after closing. The worst may even have you cleaning the men's and ladies restrooms. Then have you tipping out higher on your sales to cover cleaning products. I see that happening rather than have the people return only to see that added charge on their bill. So check to see how they are working as to safety equipment or PPEs. If they paid a lot of attention to these details they will probably be safe to work in.

2. Look for a bigger establishment such as a hotel where you already have a captive guest where each shift you can work without any fear of being cut in 2-3 hours and sent home or being called off a shift. I see where restauranteurs will rely more on reservations than walk ins to guarantee that everyone who comes to eat has a table waiting for them especially with the tables alternately being used for social distancing.

3. With an establishment that has multiple outlets such as a big banquet capacity you can make up for shortened hours in a restaurant and do a wedding or other function to make up for it. There might be no need to have to look for a second job if you can be flexible in this manner. Do not forget in a hotel setting you would still have in room dining if the indoor dining had to be locked down again.

4. Do not serve in restaurants where the guests come in are wearing a baseball cap or have holes in their jeans. These people probably have no money and never wore a mask. Working in places like this may be hazardous to your health. Unfortunately this probably eliminates 95% of the restaurants out there.

5. Look at where the rich eat or the 5%. They will not take a chance and eat in an unkept environment. They will only eat where all the staff wear a mask or shield. Why they will do that is because they do not want to catch the virus. They will follow science no matter how uncomfortable it is. They will tip well.

6. Try to find a place like I just mentioned who will hire you and you will get some guaranteed hours and is big enough for you to grow there. The days of job hopping are over and employers now have to find some dedicated service staff who know what they are doing and want to grow.

7. Last thing I would add is now more than ever be proud to work in such an amazing career. If you take this way seriously it can lead you places. Here is your chance to step in and work in a great place and get some great experience. More than ever if you want to separate yourself from everyone else you must  work at places that will make you grow and expand your knowledge. Take courses through your work. Learn.

This pandemic will end one day so sow the seeds now for an exciting future later because that is what awaits you.

Phase 3 in Ontario

For those of you who do not know we live in Ontario. Ontario and the rest of Canada can be quite proud in saying that we have successfully flattened the curve. That being said here in Ontario we are still in phase 2 where we can have restaurant patios open but not as of yet bars, indoor dining, gyms, indoor swimming pools, and gatherings of more than ten. There are probably a few others as well that I may have overlooked.

In Ontario today we had 138 new infections. That out of a total of 14 million people who live in Ontario which if you do the math is not a very high percentage. In fact out of all the reporting centers in the province there are only about eight that report any cases at all. There were about 21,000 tests yesterday which works out to about 0.6% positive test results. So what we have been doing has been working.

Everyone is doing a real good job in this hot dry spell that we are having doing the social distancing and wearing the mask. We ate on a patio the other day and the waitress asked for a phone number in case someone might have had it so they can contact trace everyone who was there around the same time. Where I live in Guelph Ontario masks are mandatory when you enter a place of business or use transportation. Everyone is complying with the rules.

The Ontario Medical Officer has been very slow in getting to phase 3. I know they would all like the case count to go to zero but that is just wishful thinking. They have to soon move on to the next phase. Not to be an alarmist but once we open up some more our cases may spike a bit but sooner rather than later they have to get going and dive into the pool.

The shutdown for some of these businesses has brought in zero income. Some takeout businesses for restaurants without patios but hardly enough. It has been since March 13th when the writ came down to lock it down. Yes some admittedly got help when their landlord signed onto the the Canadian Rent Subsidy Program which lowered the rent to 25% of what they had to cover but that was only for 3 months. In other words April May and June. Now July 1st is gone. What about that rent? There was a survey out the past week saying up to 78% small businesses will not be able to make rent.

We drove through downtown Guelph and there was a lot of small businesses just boarded up. Gone.

Restaurants will disappear soon as well. Nail salons ( forgot to mention those ) , gyms, a lot of retail stores will close with head offices now streamlining the ones worth keeping open and closing the others. Malls will be half full.

Now studies show if people are in a closed area like indoor dining the two meter rule will not really matter because studies show airborne droplets can be sent further than the rule because the air circulation can spread the droplets far. Now if diners are sitting for a minimum of an hour they have a more than likely chance of contracting the virus. Bars will be worse. The young crowd will risk it then catch it unknowingly in a lot of cases and spread it to their close contacts. All we can hope for is for every person in Ontario to be careful and just keep doing what we are doing. In South Korea they killed it then the bars opened and voila! Infections spread up again even outside the main city center of Seoul.

But we have to get on with it sooner or later or there will not be many of your favorite restaurants, nail salons, and gyms kicking around. But then my prediction is these places will have started so far behind and now with the added headache , albeit necessary, of enforcing social distancing and buying PPE equipment and sanitizers what is the profit remaining? Will it be worth it?

Look for a lot of small  businesses that have not yet closed because of the government handout keeping them alive like a ventilator to be extinguishing their dreams this summer. It may just not be worth it. Then you have the jobless but that is for another post.

Oh yes and the movie theatres too!

To Where I am Today

To finish off my saga of the last three years I went from September to April 2020 without any transfusions but slowly the hemoglobin was not holding firm. It went slip, sliding away till it began hanging around 78 and I had to return to getting blood transfusions. I went for four in a row every other week.

I was finally given the official diagnosis by my oncologist as hemolytic anemia then when I talked to my family doctor she said I was missing one word autoimmune. So I have what is known as Autoimmune hemolytic anemia . You can click on it to know more. The oncologist added it was a non-hodgkin's lymphoma which is cancer but I prefer just to say I have an autoimmune disease. One thing for sure is I was told it is very rare which explains why it took all this time to diagnose.

So now that I know what I have it is a bit of a relief really. I looked up what I can do to help my cause because apparently there is no cure so I have to manage this for the rest of my life.

Well since I have been walking briskly each morning about a mile and a half, drinking lots of fluids, eating more granola cereal and fruit I think that has helped. I have to continue this on throughout the year not just when the weather is hot but during the cold winter as well. Also I am taking a Liver Support vitamin and Vitamin C along with my Folic Acid which helps build Red Blood Cells. I am not taking anything else other than the Iron Chelation tablets so I can get rid of my iron. It still rankles me I cannot seem to budge on that. The last reading was 7550 and it is supposed to be less than 25 if you can believe it.

My hemoglobin remains in the 80's but holding steady. It has been 6 weeks since the last transfusion so maybe I can get on a roll again. I would like to avoid the cyclosporine again because it weakens my immune system which causes me to get things like pneumonia. Especially with a pandemic always present I need all the immunity I can get if I ever get it.

My hope is that I can beat these T-cell fighters over time and be back to where I once was. The doctors cannot really do much else. It really will come down to my self discipline and how I live each day to stay ahead of the game.

Throughout this journey as I think back I can recall a few falls I had during the bad days. Really bad I  couldn't lay down and sleep so I had to try to sit  in the living room. You know now I am better than I was. The past is a blur really. Truthfully my whole life seems like a blur sometimes. So many things that passed that I cannot remember. Maybe that is good because most of the things I remember were great. We cannot live in the past and the good part is we can cherry pick the things we want to remember and forget the rest.

In writing about my experiences with being in hospitals and going through stuff I can now look back and remember most of it. So now it is logged I can forget about it and move on. Thanks for reading and from now I will talk about a wide range of stuff.

Note I have a new look on the blog with everything being accessible through links if you care to check them out. It is just fun and entertaining if you have the time.

Hope you  all had a great Canada Day and Happy 4th of July to the USA today!

Chemotherapy

So to continue on with my experiences, which I promise will be wrapping up very shortly, the oncologist decided that something had to be done after nearly dying a couple of times due to my low hemoglobin. My excessively high bilirubin levels in my liver was scary as well. With my spleen gone there was a load on my liver more than before. The hope was that whatever was killing my good blood cells could be extinguished by some chemotherapy.

Every third week starting off first in Kitchener for about 3 hours I would get 4 different IVs injecting the chemo. Intermittently  I would still have the blood transfusions while all this was going on. The doctors gave me pills to take if I was beginning to feel sick. The first night I took one but I realized I just needed to go to the bathroom. I never took one after that night. In fact I would be going to the local hospital after the first treatment. Then just drive home myself and continue on with my day.

One of the doses did cause me to have awful constipation so after that one time I made sure to take the suggested tablet so that I could do my business in comfort. Once I did that it was no problem. The other side effect was I lost my hair but it soon grew back once it was over.

The chemotherapy sessions ended and I can remember the day I stopped getting blood transfusions. It was March 7th of 2019. Each week I went for bloodwork the hemoglobin was holding steady. My white blood cells were low but other than that having no transfusions was great.

Another reason they were low was I was taking an immunosuppressant called cyclosporine which suppresses your immune system which was giving out these rogue Killer T-cells that was attacking my good cells as well as bad cells. So even though it may have been helping hemoglobin I was prone to getting sick. Lo and behold that September I caught pneumonia. My hemoglobin dropped shortly thereafter and I was back to getting blood transfusions again. So rather than continue on the cyclosporine I backed off and just concentrated on taking the iron chelation dissolvable tablets to try to get my iron down.

After the pneumonia bout I stayed away from blood transfusions. My hemoglobin high water mark was 110. My family doctor gave me some optimism by saying sometimes it takes a while for everything to work properly but give it some time. It appears whatever you had the chemo got it all.

My oncologist was less optimistic as she stated that she would not be surprised if there was still some T-cells that were still hanging around. Naturally I felt pretty optimistic as things seemed to be heading in the right direction.

I  passed an incident free winter but noticed my hemoglobin started slipping slowly as the months turned into Spring. Then the end of April arrived and the transfusions started again. I check my blood weekly but when I get the transfusion I check it again the following week. Well here we go again I thought. My family doctor now was less optimistic saying instead of heading in the right direction now she was just hoping that my hemoglobin would just hold steady in the 70's. That would mean transfusions all the time.

Tomorrow I will finish up this saga and then we can talk about something else. Enjoy the heat and Happy 4th of July to our neighbours down South.

Bungee Jumping in Phuket Thailand

One day on the ship we had a day to do something while we were in Phuket Thailand. Mickey the bartender who was from the Netherlands says to me and a few others how about doing some bungee jumping.

I looked at him and said no way! He says back it will be fun. There is one here in town not far away.  Really if you are going to do something like this you have to be impulsive and not think too long about it or your mind starts thinking what about if you are one in a 100,000 that jump and the bungee snaps. So after a quick lunch on the ship we head out to the bungee jump location. Mickey knows what he is doing because he had moved to the Philippines and was familiar with this part of the world. Although why I thought that had anything to do with bungee jumping I totally do not know. I have to admit it was comforting though.

There were about nine or ten of us which was great because you had the group force support behind every jumper.

Well when you watch the video below it was exactly how it was except for a couple of things. One was when the guy counted to three the first time I chickened out. It took me till the second count to jump. Second of all the guy said to look far ahead and spread your arms. When I was there the guy who probably after all these years is not the same one of course told me to look down. That was not a good thing to instruct when one is standing on the ledge and seeing the others sitting around having a beer looking up and laughing.

I was the second to jump because I was waiting to see if the first one would survive. I had to have proof that this thing worked. It was a big crane that made that grinding noise as it went up leaving you with a sense that perhaps I shouldn't be worried so much about the bungee cord snapping. Especially when the higher you got the more the crane started to rock a bit.

I jumped and felt nothing for a few seconds then the bungee whipped me back up and for the next two minutes while I was going up and down all I could say was the F word over and over again.

Would I do it again? Probably not now of course but I was glad I did when I did. We had a blast that day and after my jump felt like I had earned my right to sit and have a few beers and laugh at the others who had not yet jumped. We all did which was fabulous. I think it cost $50 US dollars at the time. Well worth it and a memory I will always cherish.

By the way no alligators were harmed during the jump.

                                              Bungee Jump in Phuket Thailand 1995

Hemoglobin Blues

So it is July 2018 and after having my spleen out on March 1st then having a two week vacation out West here I was now in limbo again. A disturbing report had arrived at my oncologist to inform her that what I was taking, being the methotrexate, was a waste of time. So I was told just to stop taking them and to continue with the folic acid which was beneficial anyway.

Meanwhile she was sending this report off to the hospital in Hamilton for a second opinion. Intermittently, I was still getting blood transfusions. Also beginning at this time I was on this this sort of pump to inject sporadically doses of this liquid into a fatty tissue part of my abdomen so I get rid of some very high levels of iron I had accumulated because of all the transfusions.

Initially everything seemed to be working then all of a sudden my hemoglobin began dropping to dangerously low levels.

The first time I was actually sitting at home. My wife was working so at the time it was just my younger son and I at home. Every effort I made was difficult. My heart rate was racing and I found myself really just unable to function. In fact I was sitting on the couch and I needed to go to the bathroom and I couldn't get there fast enough. To my amazement I just pooped my shorts. I hobbled to the bathroom finally and called out to my son to get a plastic bag. I took off my shorts and underwear and just put them in the bag and said to him just take this out to the garbage. The wife came home and off to the hospital I went to emergency. My hemoglobin was in the 30's. After about 6 pints of blood over a few days it was back up to 90. I came home and reattached myself to this contraption that was supposed to be taking the iron out. Well after getting six pints of blood the iron it did get out probably was replaced by the new iron my body just ingested.

The second time happened shortly thereafter when on that Sunday we had people over and as the day wore on my hemoglobin I could feel dropping. Just lifting a piece of apple crumble onto my plate was a gargantuan effort. I called 911 for the ambulance and once again my hemoglobin had dropped down into the 30's and once again had numerous pints of blood transfused in me. Now in both cases I was admitted into the local Guelph General Hospital while they kept my oncologist informed in Kitchener at Grand River Valley Hospital.

The stupid thing was she never called or asked me what was going on. It was like oh well as long as I was getting blood transfusions that was the main thing. Never mind it was all counterproductive to what I was doing which was getting the iron out. I believe I called and asked maybe a slower dose and give my body a break and give me the weekends off. Maybe doing this slower would help keep my hemoglobin at a safer level because almost being dead twice was not a trivial thing.

It is hard to explain when your hemoglobin gets that low. Your brain even begins to malfunction. One time I was being helped to the van to go to the hospital with my oldest son holding me up on one side and my wife the other. When we came to a short step in our entrance way she asked me to step forward to which I replied I was and then I looked down and I was not moving forward at all.

So the oncologist agreed with a lower dosage with weekends off and so I began again this iron chelation method. I had a bone marrow biopsy scheduled for early September. On this occasion my liver was now acting up. I had jaundice all over the place. I glowed when the sunlight shone on me. I would check my eyes in the mirror and they were yellow. My skin was yellow.

I didn't go to emergency this time as with this appointment in Kitchener coming up I wanted the oncologist to see me this time. She wasn't I thought going to brush me off and let Guelph handle it.
I went into the bone marrow biopsy yellow as a banana. My bilirubin was over 400. Bilirubin  is what they measure your liver among other things like enzymes.

She said we got to get you a room and run some tests. I said yes I think so then she is asking my wife in front of me if anything happens has she agreed to resuscitate me. I interjected immediately I am going nowhere let's fix the damn thing. Soley said on two other occasions she was asked the same. I said no more iron chelation.

I spent a week in the hospital doing CT scans, ultrasounds, and MRIs and they couldn't find anything. No blockages, nothing. I was discharged once my bilirubin got to a reasonable level. I was what you call an enigma to everyone.

Meanwhile the second opinion my oncologist was waiting for was not coming. They even sent my report to the States to Boston and they all said they thought it was what it originally was which was the Large Granular Leukemia. I was already taking the methotrexate for that but was taken off it.

I said to the oncologist can you not do something? I asked her about taking pills for the iron and she shot that down saying they are not really effective. I had another episode then she decided she had to do something so that next appointment in the office she told us I was going on the chemotherapy. A treatment every three weeks six times. This was starting the next day and finishing mid - winter.

As bad as it sounded she told us finally it was cancer and I had these T-cells from my white blood cells killing my good red blood cells as well as the bad ones. It was a rogue cell and hopefully the chemo would kill it. I thought finally something is being done after all these near death experiences.

The Old Nickel Hotel

When I was 18 years old I left school and got a job at Humpty Dumpty Potato Chip Factory as a shipper receiver. The reason why I did not continue with my schooling was my stepfather worked for Air Canada and because he did I had these air passes I wanted to use soon before they would expire when I was 21 years of age.

My friend Robert across the street also wanted to go to Europe so we decided that in June of that year which was 1977 off we would go to Europe. It turned out to be a pretty wild trip for 45 days. We rented a car in Paris and starting from there we toured France, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy before flying back from Paris.

Whenever we arrived to a city that we were planning to stop a while we always wanted to make sure that we located the Hauptbanhof commonly referred to as the train station. There we would pick up maps and learn of local events going on and places to see.

On this one occasion we left from Belgium and headed for the Netherlands. We drove to Amsterdam and found the train station where we parked the Renault 5 we had. Obtaining some maps and finding our way around was our goal.

When we got back outside and looked  around we thought maybe if we just parked the car and walked in this direction there would be some cheap places to stay for a night or two. So off we went not really knowing where we were heading. Seeing a street that looked like it had some places to stay in the near distance we saw a sign saying the Old Nickel Hotel.

Okay we thought let's check it out. We entered and it was pretty clean. Greeted warmly and told of the price we grabbed the room. Pretty simple with a breakfast included. Returning back with the luggage we struggled up the stairs, as it had no elevator, and put our backpacks in the room and hurried back downstairs.

Now if anyone has heard of Amsterdam they have heard of the Red Light District. So the first question we had to ask is, "Where is the Red Light District?'

The receptionist looked at us in surprise then she answered, 'You're in it!' Then as soon as she said that we looked across the lane and there was a hooker waving at us through her window in broad daylight!

Now of course coming from Canada going to Amsterdam is a huge culture shock because everything is so liberal there. In Amsterdam everyone likes to have a good time and they all keep in shape by riding their bicycles in huge bike lanes to handle the volume. Taking in an art museum and seeing Anne Frank's house was unbelievable too.

I had the opportunity to see Amsterdam and stay with a friend in 1988. I flew in through Schiphol and stayed the night before heading to my job in Switzerland a couple of times and saw it again when I worked on the ships.

Yes I think that would be a great city to live and grow up in. The country is one of my favourites as well out of all that I have seen so far.

Below is a couple of pictures of the hotel we stayed at which by the way is still there and I will underneath that include a video of the Amsterdam nightlife where anything goes.

                                      Okay before you watch this pretend you are 18 again

Needles and Side Effects

As a bit of a break before continuing on with my 3 year trilogy of how eventually I was informed of what I had let me explain the stuff I was going through.

First of all the needles that have been poked in me countless times. You all remember my first bloodwork with the oncologist and the 16 vials of blood they took out of me. Well at least after that there has been always a minimum of two. Multiply that by 150 and there you have 300 vials of blood extracted for bloodwork. While staying overnight for up to 4 days at the hospital every morning at 6am the nurse would wake you up to take blood. Then if I needed transfusions while in the hospital there was more bloodwork to check the hemoglobin.

Now my temperature use to fluctuate wildly so while getting a transfusion they always check your blood pressure before starting, ten minutes into the transfusion, then at the end. It was the same ritual for every pint. The same time they would check my temperature. I would sometimes go up and down. When it went high they would I call panic on the side of caution and take a blood culture to check for anything amiss. This was blood taken out of each arm to fill two more vials. The three bone marrow biopsies I had is when they stick a big needle right in the hip bone area to extract bone marrow. That hurts like hell! The two liver biopsies I had they  insert this huge needle in the liver area a couple of times to freeze it before extracting what they need for study. When I was staying in the hospital the needle I hated most they would just stick in my abdomen. That unlike any other lingered for at least 5 minutes afterwards. They gave me that to prevent blood clots. Man I hated that one. Then for I think it was a abdominal CT scan a needle was used to inject fluid in my veins while they took pictures. I thought my veins were going to burst. Same for my Liver MRI. Needles, needles, needles. Of course to remove the iron which I will continue Friday I had a needle like pincer inserted in fatty part of my abdomen for 2-3 days continuously until contraption I was wearing was replaced by another.

My temperature use to drop sometimes quite a lot. There were 2-3 occasions when not even a hot shower would even warm me up so I would climb into bed with my teeth chattering and my wife would throw like 5 bedspreads on top and give me a hot flannel to rest on my forehead. Curled up under the covers finally my body temperature would rise and a crisis was averted.

On the other hand I use to get the sweats pretty bad. On most nights I was ready for bed at 9pm so I would just say good night to everyone. Off to bed I went where as soon as my head hit the pillow off to sleep I was gone. Then I would wake up. My pillow was soaked, hair wet, pyjamas drenched, my whole body was prespiring, the duvet was damp, sheets were all wet like they only got half dry after being in a wash. Everything was totally not dry. I’d look around and all the lights were on as they were, checked the time and it was only 9:30! Unbelievable!

Grabbing a towel to dry myself off I went downstairs to tell the wife what just happened. We just shook our heads because that was the way things were while we were waiting on a proper diagnosis and treatment.

Right now I am much better than those days but my chemo as you will learn about after has left my toes with no feeling. Just feel cold all the time. My feet swell a lot too.

I am 50% through my journey of experiences. I will finish retelling them in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading.

A Turn Of Events

Okay so where we left off a few days ago we were holidaying out in Western Canada. I had the splenectomy in March and with some transfusions since then to keep the hemoglobin up I felt that I had seen the last of the tough times and things were on the up and up.

I was taking the Methotrexate chemo pill once a week to get rid of this large granular leukemia that from what I understood was not causing any great concern. I didn't really get the whole story as to how long I had to take these pills for but I thought sooner or later it would clear everything up. The real question for me though was my hemoglobin was not moving up higher away from the transfusion zone. Everything else seemed to be getting better except for this nuisance. Before we left, the hematologist had mentioned the stem cell transplant again which I thought was eliminated but was back as a possibility. That came as a shock and it made me think I wasn't out of the woods yet.

It was becoming obvious my hematologist or you could say my oncologist was searching for some final resolution to fixing my blood issue for good but her hope was shot down quickly by the doctor at Juravinski Hospital when instead of the stem cell transplant they settled on the spleen had to come out.

As soon as we returned home I received a phone call from the oncologist. She wanted to see me on short notice. We went over there and she explained that as was protocol the spleen is sent to Toronto for further examination and the results were not good. Apparently what had apparently been overlooked was that I had some T-cell fighters showing up. This all of a sudden changed the scenario. Already before the visit she told me to discontinue the methotrexate because it was not doing what it should. So now the large granular leukemia was put aside without knowing whether that had cleared up or not and the emphasis was now on what this report detailed.

The oncologist wanted a second opinion so she asked Juravinski Hospital to have a look at this report. But meanwhile no treatment was offered and all I was taking was the folic acid. What was obvious though was this was much more serious.

What was now a new concern was the levels of iron in my blood. The normal is 250 or less but my levels were up around 10,000. How did it get so high was because when we have blood transfusions there is iron in the blood. Your body does not lose the iron. Well with all these transfusions my iron levels skyrocketed. The oncologist was going to get in touch with the local health unit to see that I start getting this iron withdrawn from my body. A nurse was going to be knocking on our door shortly thereafter. Too much iron can wear on your organs especially your liver and heart. My liver was not great to begin with so I didn't need anything else to weaken it.

So the nurse made her visit and brought with her a contraption that I had to attach to an area in my lower belly with a needle looking poke that injected very slowly this fluid. It was not inserted through a vein but a fatty part of my skin. I had to run it for 12 hours straight then unhook it and with some plastic covering  the area of the insertion point rest for 12 hours then do it all over again. The iron would leave my body via my urine. Wow I had to do this not for a day or a week but what looked like months. It was July so the rest of the summer was pretty well shot but at least we got our holiday in before the real fun began. She also scheduled me for another bone marrow biopsy in September only a couple of months away.

Now it was also time to wait for what the second opinion from the hospital might be on the reports.

Meanwhile we still had no official word on whether I had cancer yet so when people would ask me what I had I held my hands up in the air not knowing what to tell them. This was now July 2018, fifteen months into it.

Frustration was getting higher...

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

Operation Day

I think I was not quite over the pneumonia but here it was March 1st. We set the alarm to wake us up at 5AM and in the shower I went to give myself a good wash for the second time with this sponge that had I guess this special soap to disinfect the area of my spleen that was going to be cut.

Fasting for 12 hours now I couldn't eat which was pretty standard before submitting to an operation. Arriving to register at 7AM they led us to a room where the stretcher was situated and a chair for the wife. I took a seat on the stretcher after changing into the gown and they took my blood work as usual. I recognized the nurse and we chatted a bit and laughed because usually he is doing my blood work to match for the transfusions I often took.

We were hoping that the removal of the spleen would solve my blood issues because I honestly felt that the enlarged spleen was the reason my hemoglobin, white blood cells and platelets were so low.

At 9Am a nurse came in and led us to the operating table. My wife Soley was given a number to watch a television monitor in the waiting area updating her as to when the operation was over. She wished me luck and I was sped off to the operating room. I didn't know what to expect but I did not expect a big room with many operations going on at the same time.

I transferred myself to the operating table. There were a couple of assistants around me then I saw the surgeon arrive all dressed up looking at the blood work. I saw his face and he sort of had a funny look when he turned to one of his assistants and murmured something about the platelet count. They were making sure that there were some spare pints in the blood bank if I needed them. He came over and said hello with a grin. I asked about the platelets and he turned serious right away so I decided this was not a time to crack a joke. I kept my mouth shut after that.

The anesthesiologist  arrived as they were strapping me down to restrict any movement so as not to interfere with the operation. I felt all secure like I was an astronaut before take off.

I was told that she would be putting me under very quickly timed to last for the time needed but if there was something wrong  I would need to go to ICU and be put under for 24 hours. Not sure why that was but I thought it would have to be pretty serious for that to occur.

All this was new for me having a major operation. Just another life experience I thought to myself. This is interesting to read for those who have never had an operation so I will detail for you now what happened afterwards.

The operation lasted longer than expected and fortunately did not need to use to extra blood that was put aside in case it was needed. I was wheeled out and Soley was last left in the waiting room getting kind of worried as time crept on. It was a big incision closed up by 26 staples right up the center of my stomach.

I waited for a room to be available when the surgeon came over and said that no one could tell me that they had a bigger spleen than I did. He also added that no matter what happens from then on the spleen had to come out.

Soley had to head back to work and after she left shortly thereafter I was sent to a room shared by three others. Water was the only beverage I was allowed to drink. No food even though I was getting hungry. Took it easy the rest of the day. I had a catheter up you know what and another tube stuck on the far  left side of my belly for drainage I guess. I was able to walk around but with that catheter it was kind of funny when I felt like to pee it would come through this hose.

The next day the surgeon came to check on how I was doing. I complained I needed some food. He looked back at me with shock. He asked if I was really hungry and I quickly replied that I was. Usually people suffer nausea a lot after this type of operation so with some trepidation he gave permission for a liquid diet. So that consisted of some soup, jello, and a juice really.

When the nurse pulled that catheter out of my you know what before she did she asked me to take a bit of a deep breath while she did it. Well I did and was amazed how long this hose was inserted in me. I gasped a bit and blurted out, "Holy cow." Then she said be glad you are under when they put this in. Yes no kidding! The other hose on my left side was pulled out but that was a bit weird because all that was left was a flap of skin that didn't look like it was attached to my body.

Now my oxygen showed it was low probably because of the pneumonia I had that was hanging around from before. On the 5th day I was discharged and happy to be home where I could eat to my hearts content.

So that was the operation. Was it over now? I thought so when the surgeon came in one day and relayed to me that my blood work had improved too. Awesome I thought. I have to be home free now.

Such Fucking Positivity!

Picking up where I left off yesterday my hematologist set up an appointment with the surgeon who had lots of experience removing spleens I was told. That is always comforting when you hear that because who wants someone who has performed a few.

So we go to this appointment and the surgeon starts looking at my spleen x-ray and latest bloodwork then he starts talking about my case in sort of a funny way. He is looking at my platelet count and it is really low with a reading of 70. The normal reading should be anywhere from 150 on the low end to 400. Now the platelets are necessary because that is what clots the blood when you start to bleed. His concern was excessive bleeding that would take place during the operation that would cause a big loss of blood. He explained my spleen was very big and that he would have to cut to get it out. Sort of unlucky but no surprise that an arthroscopic removal could not be done just like the hernia.

In fact low platelet counts contribute to mouth sores. They used to drive me crazy in the restaurant because it was hard to speak to the guests when your tongue was hurting from one of these and my face actually looked twisted trying to talk around the pain.

So back to the surgeon. So talking about the operation  he says yes when he sees the hematologist he will ask her in passing what are you doing Janet and she will know exactly what I am talking about.
Like what? Like my splenectomy is going to be difficult or some sort of huge risk that shouldn't be taken?

Then wrapping up he starts telling the story of how he lost a patient that everything seemed to be fine during the operation but complications arose maybe cause of his platelets and this person passed shortly thereafter. Soley and I left shaking our heads. What did this surgeon know and was not telling us?

We saw him in December and before leaving we picked a day in January. Operation days were Wednesdays so we picked the second Wednesday to go in and get it out. The hospital called and set up a pre-op appointment to just do some tests, sign the all important waiver, and just go over a few things. They gave me two sponges. One to clean the area that was going to be operated on the evening before and the other for the morning of the splenectomy.

January came and I could feel worse and worse. Just going for transfusions, battling with frequent cold sores, and always had lots of mucous in my nose and chest.

The day is drawing near and then we get a phone call to say my operation is postponed a week. What! Someone else needed a splenectomy more than I did basically was the reason. Then the following week it was postponed again. We got into February and it was delayed again. Then I had a day at the end of February booked and it was a go but then I got pneumonia again. I went  to Guelph General Hospital here in town and had to cancel my blood transfusion in Kitchener. I said I was home with pneumonia what was I supposed to do infect everyone getting a transfusion? So I got on some antibiotics and because I missed the transfusion the next time around my hemoglobin had dropped just below 60. I remember this time I went alone and it was cold. Walking across the street from the parking lot was like lifting two sledgehammers for feet. When it gets low like that funny things start to happen to your body.

I got a couple of pints of blood. The operation was now for March 1st 2018. I went for two transfusions the week before. One because the hemoglobin was low and the second one was the day before the operation because the hematologist wanted me to be stocked up.

While there the day before I saw the assistant of the hematologist walking through and I know she saw me so I got her attention and asked her if she wished me luck for the next day. She said to me she has seen too many things and never wished anyone luck but the way she said it was bizarre. Finally I got a good luck out of her.

Well that might be half true what she said as I was to find out later on from the hematologist that she thought I wouldn't survive the splenectomy.

Such fucking positivity!