Prince George's Serial Killer Part 6

Back again. Yesterday was a big milestone in this journey. He had his 10th, and final radiation treatment!Our son and his girlfriend drove out to Prince George to bring us home (yes, we are very lucky parents). 

  It was a very busy morning, treatment at 8:30, meeting with the Director of the center at 9, and an appointment with the dietician at 9:30. Chuck was a wee bit disappointed that his favourite Rad Tech was not there for his last day, as I will go into later, as bizarre as it may sound, sometimes in this darkness, you will find people who stand out, people who somehow give you a little candle of light, and become hope in what seems like a pretty hopeless time.  Radiation is over and done very quickly, just minutes, so we had to wait to meet with the director.  Dr, Miller, was not what we expected. She was a very friendly woman, just sat down with us and offered to answer any questions we had. As I mentioned earlier, the nurse Practitioner Eunice, had done an amazing job of answering those questions that were hanging on us. the 15 minutes or so with her, had allowed us to understand so much, and Dr. Miller told us she would make a point of speaking with Eunice to acknowledge this. We were able to explain the crap we went through with Padma, and as she said, in the best of times, it would be nice to not give a Dr. who was leaving, a patient a month before that time, but...as we now know, these are not the best of times, and staff is limited. She explained the oncologist we will see on December 4th, is a specialist in chemotherapy, which is reassuring, he has been in practise for around 40 years, so clearly he will know what he is doing, right? She also explained that radiation continues to work about 2 weeks after the last treatment, and then a patient needs some recovery time for inflamation to disappear, so that is the reasoning for the waiting time before beginning the next step. Dr, Miller did not make us feel like we were taking up her time, it was all in all a pleasant meeting, and again, we left feeling pretty positive.  Minutes later, we were in the dieticians office. Now, at the beginning of his last week, Chuck did lose weight, maybe about 4 lbs, that was when we started pumping calories in with his feeding tube, and by the end of that week, he had turned the corner, and his appetite came back full force. We spent the last weekend, splurging at WhiteSpot, and he enjoyed a huge Bento Box Sunday night. He managed to gain all the weight lost back over that period, and the dietician was pleased. She told us she had never had a patient show such quick results from radiation before. She even mentioned that perhaps he could speak to the oncologist about removing the feeding tube! Happy, Happy! So now we are home, waiting till the 3rd of December to drive back to PG for our face to face meeting with Dr. Saltzman. 

  Now, as promised, I am going to go on to an unexpected experience throughout this step of our journey. We have actually met folks who clearly enjoy their jobs. The nurse practitioner...Eunice, somehow she has the ability to bring calm into a room, you get the feeling she is totally focused on the patient, and speak in a manner, us ordinary folks understand, forever grateful for her ability to lift a massive weight off our shoulders, her explanation of palliative, and her take on statistics, and not curable were so comforting. I need to put down the words she used in regard to not curable, because those were the words we took to heart. She explained simply, say you had high blood pressure, they cannot cure that, but, they can offer treatment that will control it, not curable but hey tons of people live a full life with medications treating something that could kill them. There is always a spectrum with cancer and statistics, a patient could be on one side or the other of this spectrum, so we simply cannot focus on the negative side, as of course we now know he can indeed be the person who gets the right treatment and we simply adjust to an added medication in our world, we know we still have a very long road to travel, but the light is getting brighter at the end, thanks to Eunice. Now I have mentioned James the nurse, who hails from Smithers, maybe it is because he is fresh and new, but again, when he sits to speak with us, he exudes care and compassion, so lacking in the system today, and so refreshing. Those random people who make one feel like they are the focus, make all the difference in the world. I will be bringing him one of my Da'Bees honey jars when we go back on the 4th. Then there is Derick, the Rad tech. Chuck says he is the topic of conversation in the Radiation waiting room. He has the ability to bring smiles to all who must go through this treatment, which is not always easy. I have to wonder how one can do such a job, and spend the day uplifting his patients, but somehow he has the gift. I am glad we had the meeting with the Director, because we were able to acknowledge these special folks, and now she knows which of the staff have made their marks with us and others.

  Oh, Oh, this is getting long winded, but..I must go on.  My family always jokes about how unsocialable I am. I know, those friends from back in the day probably find this strange, as I know I was always surrounded by my "homies" growing up. But as time went on, I became extremely selective on folks I allowed into my bubble. I was so upset when we found out we would be staying at the Lodge surrounded by a bunch of sick people. Silly me!! Cancer is a pretty huge, scary word. Before we decided to put this journey out to the world, we immediately decided we were going to travel it alone with only our dearest and closest . But clearly that has changed, and somehow I found new friends. My disgusting smoking habit is actually how I found these folks, we of course, were banished off the property to perform our daily dirty rituals, so we bonded within our tiny group. This is where I learned the stories of others along the same road. Not trying to make myself look special, but facts are, unless you travel this road, you really cannot understand the enormous ruts along the way. To speak with the ones who have been saddled with the diagnosis, is actually a benefit, you no longer feel alone. That is huge! In some ways it adds a bit to the burden, because you join their journey as well, they become important to you, and their down times you tend to share with them, as they share yours. So, no matter that I decided my focus was just going to be solely on Chuck and nothing else, now I have these special folks who suddenly have come into my little bubble, and I am ever so grateful for these strong amazing wonderful new friends. Diane, wow, she has a story that is absolutely unreal, and perhaps one day she will share this medical F*ck up with the world. Ray, who is at the Lodge with his daughter Lynne, who has moved her world around to hold her 81 yr. old Dad's hand through their journey. See, we are not alone, and our journey is not the hardest, oh there are others at the Lodge who I know some of their stories, but thing is, these 3 folks somehow connected with me, and have become one of the expected positives in all this crap. My family is shocked that Debbie Downer, the most unsocialable person on earth, managed to allow herself to make new friends ..but it is true. And I am ever so grateful I went out of my comfort zone to do this. 

  Alrighty, I need to stop now. Made Chuckie a huge breakfast, and he is on his second coffee, so far, life is semi-normal in our house.