Month: October 2013

What about Halloween?

/ edebock / 10 Comments

IMG_3134_2

We went to church with a dinosaur this morning; a bright orange Tyrannosaurus Rex named Sam! To the left of us, there were two little pumpkins and to the right, a ladybug and a monkey. A spotted leopard sat in front of us and as I looked around the sanctuary I spotted a ballet dancer, a fireman, a pirate, and a clown. R2-D2 and Princess Leia were there too but there were no witches, ghosts or ghouls. “Let’s be more creative than that,” parents at Cap Church were told last Sunday when it was announced that the Cap kids could wear their Halloween costumes to church today.

Whether or not we should participate in Halloween has become a great debate within the Christian church. There is no doubt that the celebration has its roots in ancient pagan rites and superstitions and it’s also a holy day for those who practice Wicca, a modern religious cult that engages in witchcraft. For most people, however, Halloween is simply a secular day of fun. It has religious significance only to those who give it religious significance. To my mind, if some people feel uncomfortable participating in Halloween activities, then they should refrain from doing so but the rest of us should simply be discerning and avoid those activities that might detract from our Christian witness. It also behooves us to avoid judging those who make decisions different from our own.

Personally, I applaud the approach taken by Cap Church. In an article published in recent church bulletins, Pastor Emeritus, Paddy Ducklow, wrote about what he called “the issue of how our faith impacts our culture and neighbourhood, or how surrounding values harm our kids.” He wrote first of safety, urging parents to teach their children how to be safe in an unsafe world. He also advised them to show the closeness and care of God by being with their children. He encouraged Christian men to exhibit a “father’s heart” during a potentially scary time by going door to door with their children as they trick-or-treat. He recommended that parents use Halloween as an opportunity to help their children make righteous choices, staying away from images of witchcraft, death and violence. I especially appreciated his recommendation that parents make Halloween an opportunity to know and enjoy their neighbours. Rather than being aloof, avoiding contact with our neighbourhood on a night when many are out and about having fun, Halloween is a great opportunity to engage with them.

I would love to know where you stand on this contentious topic. If you do choose to comment, however, please show respect for those who express an opinion different from your own. I’d love to see a lively conversation develop but no personal attacks.

Taking a break

/ edebock / 5 Comments

After a mostly sleepless night worrying about how to deal with everything in my parents’ apartment, we decided to take a break today and go on an adventure with our grandsons, Sam and Nate.

Vancouver is enjoying a fabulous October so the drive up the Sea to Sky Highway to Britannia Beach was spectacular. The mine, which operated there from 1904 to 1974, was once the largest producer of copper in the British Empire and is now home to the fascinating Britannia Mine Museum. There the boys enjoyed panning for gold, riding a train into the depths of the mine and inspecting old machinery.

IMG_3160

IMG_3167   IMG_3168
Ready for the underground tour!

IMG_3172

IMG_3176_2   IMG_3179_2Sam was dwarfed by the wheel of the gigantic haul truck.

After exploring the museum, we stopped for a picnic lunch at Porteau Cove on our way back to the city. The sunshine sparkling on the ocean and the smell of the sea were good for my soul and probably good for my blood pressure too!

IMG_3184

IMG_3190

Feeling somewhat rejuvenated, we’ll head back over to the apartment this evening to continue the work that still needs to be done there. Hopefully, I’ll have a better sleep tonight!

Why in the world did they keep THAT?

/ edebock / 2 Comments

This is without a doubt the funniest thing we’ve found while cleaning out my parents’ apartment! Do you have any idea what it is?

IMG_3158

In the winter of 1975-76, my father fell on the ice and broke his hip resulting in a partial hip replacement. The surgery wasn’t entirely successful and he endured many years of chronic pain before it was redone. This was his first prosthetic implant! I have absolutely no idea why he kept it but like many people of his generation, he had a hard time throwing things away. When my sister and brother were here a couple of weeks ago, they found income tax receipts dating back to 1948, the year my parents were married!

Needless to say, sorting through everything our parents accumulated over nine decades of life and 65 years of marriage has been somewhat overwhelming. It’s difficult not to get sidetracked as we sift through the memories. Dad’s extensive collection of Inuit art, purchased directly from the artists in the various northern communities that he traveled to during his years of working for the government of the Northwest Territories, already went back to Alberta with my siblings but we’ve found other bits of art that they obviously treasured too; cards and drawings made for them by now grown grandchildren and carefully kept all these years!

Reminders of their world travels are scattered throughout the apartment. Today I came across a list of the 66 countries that they visited written on the back of an envelope. I also found the itinerary for their tour of China taken almost 30 years ago, so similar to the trip we took just 3 months ago. The old slide projector and boxes full of slides also went home with my sister. I look forward to looking at their pictures and comparing their experience to our own.

Yes, it’s easy to become nostalgic and to get caught up in reminiscing but we’re working against a deadline here and I’m beginning to panic! The apartment has to be completely cleaned out by the end of the month and I have to be back in Alberta for a medical appointment on November 1. I also have a huge urge to clean out my own stuff when I get there! Otherwise, someday our children will be doing exactly what we’re doing now and asking the very same question:

Why in the world did they keep THAT?

What comes next?

/ edebock / 4 Comments

We finally have a respite, a break between medical appointments, and we’re going to be able to make the trip to Vancouver that was aborted six weeks ago when my doctor called to deliver the news that I have cancer! The nature of the trip will be a little different than it would have been back then though. There will be time for adventures with our grandsons, Sam and Nate, of course, but while I was undergoing all sorts of tests at the Cross Cancer Institute, my sister and brother were in Vancouver helping our 90 year old father move into an assisted living facility. They weren’t able to stay long enough to deal with everything in the apartment that had been my parents’ home for more than 25 years though so we will be sorting, packing, storing, selling and giving away; doing whatever needs to be done to have the place empty by the end of the month.

It will be very nice to have this break from all things related to cancer! This week has been about dealing with symptoms. Neuroendocrine tumours produce excess hormones that can have a variety of effects. In my case, these include painful stomach cramps, diarrhea, and high blood pressure. The hormones may also be responsible for the fact that my heart races occasionally. In addition, I’ve recently developed another common symptom known as flushing. If you’re talking to me and my face suddenly turns red, you haven’t embarrassed me or made me angry and no, I’m not menopausal. I’m too old for that! That’s just me flushing!

I had my first Sandostatin injection on Tuesday. It’s a slow release medication that’s supposed to suppress the production of these hormones and thus alleviate the symptoms. I pray that it’s effective and that I begin to see changes soon! In addition, my family doctor prescribed high blood pressure medication this morning and I’m walking around with a Holter Monitor dangling from my neck. The tiny battery operated monitor is attached to five electrodes that are stuck to my chest and it’s keeping track of my heart’s rhythm for a 24 hour period. Once I turn it in at the hospital tomorrow morning, I expect to be free of all things medical until Nov. 1!

Shortly after that, life is going to get crazy for awhile! I have my first radioisotope treatment on Nov. 8 and I will be so highly radioactive afterward that I will be isolated in a lead lined room until the following day! Once I’m home, I will have to live like a hermit until 14 days have passed but more about that in a future post. For now, I just want to enjoy my freedom!

One in a million!

/ edebock / 7 Comments

I received an email this morning telling me that I’m one in a million!

“Kiva just hit the 1 MILLION lender mark! You are now officially one in a million inspiring changemakers, pioneers, and poverty fighters! We can’t thank you enough for helping Kiva get to this point.”

Since I don’t want every post I write to be about living with cancer, perhaps it’s time for another one about this amazing organization. I first learned about Kiva in 2010 when I read the eye opening book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kiva is a non-profit organization that allows a person to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in one of 72 countries around the world. Though Kiva provides loans to both men and women, I choose to lend to women who are borrowing money to purchase specific items that they will use to generate income to help them support their families and educate their children.

Since March 2010 when I made my first loan to Rann Sar, a Cambodian mother of four who wanted to purchase two cows to begin a breeding program, I have invested in a variety of livestock, numerous sewing machines, some hairdressing tools, two restaurant refrigerators, two stoves and a portable food stall like the ones we saw on the streets in China. But how can $25 purchase a cow or a stove? It can’t. Many lenders pool their resources to fund each loan.

Over the past three and a half years, I have made a total of 22 loans but I’ve only invested $125. How is that possible? As each borrower makes a monthly payment on her loan, my share of that payment is deposited in my Kiva account and I receive an email notifying me of my updated balance. I could withdraw the money at any time but instead, as soon as my balance reaches $25, I search the Kiva database and choose another woman to lend to. I can’t begin to tell you how excited that makes me! This truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

I recently heard it said that people around the world are praying for things that we take for granted. That really impacted me. We are so blessed and we take so much for granted. With Thanksgiving just around the corner (this weekend in Canada and next month in the US), perhaps this is the perfect time to think about helping someone else achieve their dream, feed their family or send their children to school. It’s as easy as clicking on the logo below or the Kiva banner in my sidebar and investing $25!

kiva_121x64

I’m a zebra!

/ edebock / 11 Comments

“Medical students are taught when hearing hoofbeats, to think of horses, not zebras. Neuroendocrine tumours are rare, and therefore are considered to be zebras.”

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETS) are very difficult to diagnose. The symptoms are usually vague and similar to more common health problems. Many family doctors have never encountered a NETS patient. When presented with symptoms like stomach pain and diarrhea, they naturally think of things like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease or lactose intolerance. They think of horses, not zebras.

Every time my symptoms flared up I’d be frustrated over the fact that we couldn’t figure out what was causing them but I’d think to myself, at least it isn’t cancer! It’s been going on too long to be that. If it was, surely we’d have known about it a long time ago. Like most NETS patients when they’re diagnosed, I’ve probably had cancer for several years!

Breast cancer patients have their widely recognized pink ribbons but we NETS patients have our aptly chosen zebras. Knowing this, I decided to do a bit of research to find out if there was anything about this beautiful animal that I could apply to my new life with chronic cancer.

The first thing I learned is that every zebra’s stripe pattern is unique. They may all look the same to us, but each one is an individual. I am not simply a cancer patient. I am still the same person I was before this diagnosis was made. I am unique!

I have quickly learned that the team at the Neuroendocrine Tumour Clinic at the Cross Cancer Institute treats each one of its patients as a unique and whole person. When we sat down with Dr. Makis and nurse coodinator, Karey McCann, on Wednesday, they wanted to know about more than my medical history and my symptoms. They wanted to get to know me as a person.

I also learned that zebras are highly social and courageous animals. When a member of the herd is wounded by a predator, other zebras will come to its defense, circling the injured animal and attempting to drive the predators away. They know the importance of having a support system!

How fortunate I am to have a vast “herd” of supporters making this journey with me and you, dear readers, are part of that! I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate all the comments that you’ve been leaving for me. They definitely make being a zebra a little bit easier.

Dalian Forest Zoo, China

Dalian Forest Zoo, China

Reason to celebrate!

/ edebock / 31 Comments

We came away from our meeting at the Cross Cancer Institute yesterday feeling relieved and very thankful. The doctor we met with actually used the words “good news” and spoke of long term survival.

The first piece of positive news is that the cancer has not spread to my lungs or any other major organs! Other than the growths that we were already aware of in my colon and my liver, the only definite spread is to one lymph node in my thorax. There may also be something in the left side of my face so I’m to have a CT scan of my head and neck sometime soon to get a better read on that.

The very best news is that my cancer proved to be receptive to both mIBG and Lutetium, the two radioisotopes that I was injected with last week. This means that I am an excellent candidate for the newest and very best treatment available for neuroendocrine tumours. How fortunate I am to live close to Edmonton, the first centre in North America to begin offering this kind of therapy! I will receive an injection of one of these radioactive agents approximately once every three months. It will basically seek out the cancerous growths and attack them. This has a very good chance of stopping the cancer from growing and spreading, basically making it dormant, or actually shrinking the growths. There are no major side effects and patients can live for many years on this kind of treatment.

Though it doesn’t happen often, there have been rare cases where the cancer has disappeared completely but we were cautioned that even if this happens it is very likely to reoccur. The goal of this therapy is control, not cure but I continue to hang onto the hem and pray for a miracle! Should God choose not to grant complete healing, however, it is reassuring to know that there’s still reason to believe that I’ll be around for quite awhile!

Surgery to remove the primary tumour from my colon may be an option at some point in the future but chemotherapy is not particularly effective in fighting neuroendocrine tumours and is only used as a last resort when other therapies aren’t effective. So, I won’t be losing my hair! I actually would have been okay with that and even have friends who were willing to shave their heads as a sign of solidarity but with winter coming on, perhaps it’s good that we get to keep our hair. Bald is beautiful but it could also be very chilly!

In addition to the radioisotope therapy, I’ll also be receiving monthly injections of Sandostatin, a medication that will inhibit the release of hormones by my tumours and thus alleviate the symptoms that I’ve been dealing with, particularly the nasty stomach cramps that have worsened recently. Unlike the radioisotope injections, which I will have to go to Edmonton for, my first dose of Sandostatin will be administered by my family doctor and after that, a visiting nurse will give them to me here at home.

Sandostatin will also protect my heart from damage which can be caused by excess hormones. That leads me to the final piece of good news; last week’s echocardiogram showed that my heart is in excellent condition. Though I’ve probably had this cancer for several years already, it shows absolutely no sign of damage and I don’t need to restrict physical activity or take any other precautions. I can continue doing my 20+ push ups every morning!

As yesterday was also our 37th wedding anniversary and we felt that we had a lot to be thankful for, we stopped for a lovely celebration supper on our way home. I was even going to indulge in a decadent dessert but when nothing on the menu appealed to me, we headed for Starbucks and enjoyed pumpkin spice lattes for dessert. After all, they’re practically hot pumpkin pie in a mug!

Next on the agenda is another trip to the city tomorrow, this time to attend an afternoon session entitled “A Journey of Well-Being with Neuroendocrine Tumours” where we’ll hear from the experts about a variety of topics including the latest treatments, nutrition and how to use it beneficially, and how to live the best life possible with this diagnosis. This will also give us an opportunity to meet other patients, their friends and family members, and survivors as well as more of the health professionals.

O Canada

/ edebock / 8 Comments

Prominent women in Canada are agitating to change the wording of our national anthem. Author, Margaret Atwood, and former prime minister, Kim Campbell, are amongst those who are lending their voices to the campaign to rid the song of what they consider sexist language. Apparently, they are offended by the line “in all thy sons command”.

Canada flagWe Canadians are constantly making changes to our national symbols. In fact, we seem to be a bit unsure of our real identity. The present flag isn’t the one that flew over my elementary school and this wouldn’t be the first time that our national anthem was altered. The offending line in the original anthem, written by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908, read “thou dost in us command” but in 1914, Weir himself changed it to its present wording. Considering that, at that time in our history, women were not yet legally considered persons, this could possibly be construed as a sexist sentiment, implying that only male loyalty was being invoked, but does anyone truly believe that it means that today?

Rather than reverting to the archaic language of the original line, “in all of us command” is being proposed as the new gender-neutral version. While I don’t really have a problem with this, I can’t help feeling that only a very insecure woman would actually feel excluded by the present wording. If women like Atwood and Campbell are truly concerned about the plight of women, I’d far rather see them take a global view and speak out against issues that really matter; issues like poverty, illiteracy, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and honour killing that continue to endanger the lives of girls and women in many parts of the world.

According to Atwood, “Restoring these lyrics to gender-neutral is not only an easy fix to make our anthem inclusive for all Canadians, but it’s also long overdue.” Really? That one little change would make it all-inclusive? What about the second line, “Our home and native land”? Does that include our 6.8 million foreign-born residents? More than 20% of our population is not native to Canada.

And then, I almost hate to mention “God keep our land” which was also not part of the original song. As a Christian, I certainly don’t want to see that part deleted but does it include the many Canadians who follow other gods or no god at all?

Regardless of how our national anthem is worded, I’m very thankful to be Canadian right now. In many countries, our life savings would be rapidly eaten up by the cost of my medical care and our retirement would be in jeopardy. Instead, when we meet with the doctors tomorrow to discuss treatment, we don’t have to worry about whether or not we can afford it. In Canada, we don’t pay a cent! Now, that’s really something to sing about!

ohcanadalyrics