Reclining

Just a quick hit on a rainy Saturday morning: We are off to find a comfortable recliner for Val to use in the sun room. We have comfy chairs and a good sofa, but for that in-between resting pose, we have nothing.

Yvonne has suggested The Urban Barn, where she bought her compact and comfortable recliner. Here's hoping it's a quick and easy trip there and home again.

Val is wearing an
under-cycling-helmet liner,
one of the buys from last weekend's

hat shopping trip. 

Some new pain is manifesting itself in Val's joints, particularly the left ankle which was badly injured many years ago in a rafting accident. If you don't know the story, make a note to ask Val about it sometime. It's a good one!

Chester is miffed that he's not yet made it into the blog, so here he is with Val snoozing Friday afternoon.

Of cardboard and cucumbers

The day after chemo session no. 2 went well, with Val up and about and going for a walk with Jacki in the neighbourhood. She was also able to feed herself and do some laundry and the dishes. Excellent activity, and much appreciated by me!

For supper, we had our standard fall-back meal of cheese omelettes, steamed potatoes, coleslaw and broccoli, with cucumber chunks on the side. Val, normally a huge fan of my omelettes, said hers tasted like cardboard - but then so did everything else...except the cucumber, which tasted delicious. We figure this must be chemo taste (or lack thereof). Do you think she can survive on raw veggies in a Winnipeg winter???? (just kidding. she'll keep eating, and eating well, don't worry.)

Val describes this disappearance of taste as very peculiar and a tad distressing, given her general gusto for good food. Oh well. If that's as bad as it gets for the moment, we'll take it!

My students are all yawning in class these days, and I am not taking it personally. Or trying not to, anyway. It's week 5 of the term and everyone is already trying to figure out how to make it through to December. Is it Thanksgiving yet??

Holly on her look-out post in the sunroom.

Holly did not escape outside this evening, and she's not happy about being indoors while Chester is out there, romping in the dark.

 That's all for now...
Amanda

Session 2 completed

We're at the end of the day on which Val completed session two of chemo and all is fine. The port worked fantastically well.

Mendel took Val, stayed with her and brought her home. Yvonne visited during the session, as did Dr. Marni Wiseman, our dermatologist who is at CancerCare every Wednesday. Very nice woman, and she and Val had a good catch-up.

Yvonne came for dinner. Holly (the cat) went missing mid-evening but is now back in after I found her hiding in the front junipers.

We're a busy household here! I'm now done for the day...
Good night.
Amanda

Numbers are good

Pre-chemo blood work complete. Numbers are all good. Chemo session two will go ahead tomorrow (Wednesday) as planned.

Val now back home and sleeping with Chester, the cat, after some anxiety leading up to the blood-work session.

And she bought another addition for her hat collection.

Hair raising tales (2)

On Saturday, we went hat shopping. Val claims to have the smallest adult head in the world, so finding the right style and fit is a challenge, but MEC in downtown Winnipeg produced a few good options.

One is a piece of tubular headgear, which is a remarkable item that can be worn about 100 different ways, it seems. See for yourself at MEC's tubular headwear (or check out BUFF how-to videos online). Val chose the Spa Green Ellipses design - good colours for her. The others are beanie type hats in lighter materials.

We came home and Val played around with these new items. On and off they came. She tried the tubular item several different ways; she is a natural for the 'pirate' version. But in the end, she opted for her navy blue Tilley winter hat for our outing to the symphony. It was cool enough in the evening to need the head covering outside, and in the symphony hall it was warm enough to not require anything.

At the end of it all Val pronounced that, if you're going to look like a dork (which she claims to in most head gear because it tends to emphasize the smallness of her head), you have to stay true to your own style of dorkiness, i.e., peculiarity. Thus the Tilley hat.

The symphony was wonderful. Superb playing of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 3 by Andre Laplante, followed after intermission by Holst's The Planets with the women's choir from the University of Manitoba. The musicians and singers deserved every moment of thunderous applause we gave them.

It's a busy week coming up: furnace is being cleaned tomorrow (morning's are now cold enough for a blast of heat), blood work for Val on Tuesday, then chemo session 2 on Wednesday. Here's hoping all continues to go well...

Some of you are asking how I am doing and if I'm taking care of myself. I am fine and I am taking care of myself. Going to work every day is good for me and coming home with time and energy to give to things here is good for me, too. I am reading a Kate Morton novel (light) and also enjoying a serial story featuring my favourite pony book character, Jill. It's fan fiction, an entirely new genre for me, and it's fun to read each new chapter as the author (Jane Badger) posts them online. I discovered that Jill has  her own Facebook page, which is how I came to find the fan fiction. Who knew!

That's all for today.
Amanda

Hair-raising tales (1)

The insertion of the port into Val's upper right chest area went smoothly. Some pain resulted, mostly managed with regular Tylenol. The nurses and doc were all very friendly and competent, according to Val, who came out of the procedure with her usual post-IV-sedation merry mood and short-term-memory incapacity. I have come to know this stage of the post-op recovery only too well. Val is quite charming and quite funny on those drugs!

Home to lunch - Val was ravenous, then sleepy. I went to the college. Yvonne came over to "Val sit". I presumed Val would simply sleep the afternoon away and all would be quiet. Well. Not quite.

Photo montage of Val's evolving hair style.
Chester, the cat, wasn't sure what to make of it all! 

I came home around 5pm to discover an energized house: Unbeknownst to me, Yvonne has hair-cutting skills - and the scissors to go along with them. She and Val had set up a hair-salon in the sun room, and Yvonne had proceeded to give Val a spiky Mohawk-style hair cut.

I was greeted by two giddy women who were truly pleased with their work. And so was I. Val had enough product in her hair to give a really good effect, and she no longer would have those long red hairs falling out by the handful (which began in earnest in that morning's shower).

The process didn't end there, however.

Yvonne ordered in dinner and then continued with the cutting. See the photo montage for the final effect. We think Val looks rather distinguished with such short hair.

We realize the fall-out will continue, so today is hat-shopping day. We will see what the local shops can offer for daytime and indoor wearing in this fall season. The wonderful warm 'Jeannie Beanies' knitted by Val's yoga frieand Jeannie are beautiful and fit Val's tiny head splendidly, but they will be too warm for, for example, tonight's symphony outing.

Stay tuned for the continuation of the Val, Hair & Hats story...

Turning a corner

It's a busy week coming up: Val will have the port inserted this Friday (6 AM admission, but she should be home before lunch time), which will make the regular chemo sessions easier (no IV poking each time). Tuesday is blood work, then Wednesday is chemo session no. 2.

Val began to feel a tingling sensation in her scalp recently and, today, she experienced her first hair loss. Ah, well. We knew it would begin eventually...

Chemo brain is making an appearance in our house. This evening, while making dinner I was searching furiously for the tongs with which to serve the green beans. Val claimed to have washed them up earlier and put them way. But where? I opened many drawers. No tongs anywhere. I even checked the fridge to see if she had put them away in a crazy place.

Then I looked to the left of the stove, behind the serving dish I had put out. Yup. There were the tongs. Put there by me. Ahem. Pardon me. Is chemo brain contagious, do you think?

We are planning to go to the symphony this Saturday and then attend a BBQ with our friend Yvonne and others on Sunday. Here's hoping the weather holds and Val feels up to all the outings.

Stay in touch. We love hearing from you.
Love,
Amanda