Ground Hog Day!

Ground Hog Day!  Feb 2^nd – the little furry guys are unanimous – 6 more weeks of winter!  (the ground hogs think so, too).  :)

Today marks the start of Day2 of my chemo-radiation treatments and so far, so good.  Admittedly, Day 1 was a scary prospect with a sleepless night leading up to it.   8 hrs of chemotherapy and almost 2 hrs of radiation prep & treatment in the middle of it.  It would seem daunting to the toughest of souls but with Tammy here to give me moral support, the day was a breeze (well, a relative breeze).   

Shae came over to chemo with me this morning and it was really nice to have someone there with me again today.  Yesterday, I sent Tammy on a reconnaissance mission in the chemo ward to investigate the most appropriate, and popular “chemo-ware”.   She came back with the deduction that it is sweat pants and moo-moo’s for me for the next few months.   Woohoo. 

The wireless is down in the hospital right now and I find myself coerced into going to one of the many, great patient seminars they have at the hospital - this one is New Patient Orientation.  I'm not really new but I missed all of this by doing things all out of order at the beginning of this process (that's SO Lori!).  I grab a cup of coffee, sit and listen to the steady “whhhhoooosh,hoooooshh” of the chemo pump in my knapsack beside me.  Yes, my awesome day/trek pack purchased for this trip to Peru has become my carrypack for the chemo pump ... ahhh, the irony of life.  

I did learn some interesting stats during the presentation:      

• Nearly 50% of North Americans will get cancer in their lifetime
• This cancer center treats over 800 patients per day  (seriously!)  (that’s over 200,000 patient treatments per year!)
• With 10 Radiation units, Tom Baker Cancer Centre is one of the largest treatment centres in North America

It makes me wonder what we are doing SO wrong with our world to create this type of demand for cancer treatment!

I guess I must be dealing well with everything so far ... they’ve asked me to be in their next “inspirational” video for the cancer center.   I guess I’m a good actor ... but then again – it’s only day 2!   Ask me again in a few weeks.  ;)