Author: edebock

Finally!

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Yesterday I FINALLY had the cancer treatment that my doctors wanted to give me a year ago! Thankfully, mine is a slow-growing, chronic cancer or I doubt I’d be here to tell the tale.

When my neuroendocrine tumours (NETS) were diagnosed last September, the doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton would have preferred to start me on a radioisotope therapy, known as Lutetium-Octreotate, that they had been using very effectively since 2010. Unfortunately, shortly before that time, the government had cut off funding for that treatment citing a need for more evidence of its safety and effectiveness. That necessitated the setting up of a clinical trial, a very time-consuming process.

Unlike many NETS patients, my tumours were equally receptive to a second, similar treatment, so rather than waiting for Lutetium to become available again, I received injections of mIBG in November and January. It wasn’t long after that that my second cancer was diagnosed and treating it became a higher priority. My NETS was put on the back burner while I underwent surgery and radiation to rid me of the acinic cell carcinoma in my salivary gland. In fact, my neuroendocrine tumours weren’t looked at again until a CT scan was done in late July. Dealing with a second cancer was bad enough but not knowing what was going on with the first one was equally disconcerting.

While all of that was happening, the Lutetium-Octreotate clinical trial was finally approved and as of yesterday, I’m finally a participant. So, what does that mean? I don’t feel like a guinea pig because the treatment isn’t a brand new, untried one. Having heard the success stories from Dr. MacEwan, chair of the Oncology Department at the University of Alberta and head of the Nuclear Medicine Therapy/Neuroendocrine Tumour Clinic at the Cross Cancer Institute, a man who I trust completely, I have no doubt that it is both safe and effective. Simply put, participating in the clinical trial is the only way that I can access the treatment that Dr. MacEwan feels is the best one for me so it’s clearly a no brainer. I will remain in the study for up to seven years and will be followed up for another year after that. Data that’s gathered along the way will be retained for 25 years and will hopefully be used to improve patient care over the long term.

For me, there are several advantages to taking Lutetium instead of mIBG. From Dr. MacEwan’s point of view, the fact that it will probably be less harmful to my bone marrow was the deciding point, but I’m happiest about the difference in the precautions that I have to take after each treatment. They’ll still leave me radioactive but the effect of that radioactivity isn’t as far reaching. I didn’t have to stay shut away in the lead lined room after yesterday’s injection and Richard was allowed to visit me. Instead of being in virtual seclusion for two weeks afterward, now it will only be one week and the restrictions within that week are much less limiting. Following an mIBG treatment, I had to stay at least 10 feet away from Richard for all but 3 hours a day. For those 3 hours we were allowed to be just 3 feet apart! I still have to have my own bedroom and my own bathroom for the next week but we can be 3 feet apart at any time which definitely makes life easier. I’m also more free to mix with other people as long as I keep a bit of distance between us and I’m careful to stay away from pregnant women and children under the age of 12. Though there’s still the need for several blood tests between treatments, there will also be periods of several weeks when I’m not required to have any blood work done. I definitely see a winter holiday in our future!

I was told that I’d be very tired for the first week after each treatment but I really haven’t felt tired today at all. I suspect that that might have something to do with the exciting news that we received following this morning’s post treatment scans. They confirmed what July’s CT scan appeared to show. In the 7 months since my last mIBG treatment, my neuroendocrine tumours have remained absolutely stable. There are no new growths and the existing ones have not grown! In addition to that news, the scans also showed very clearly that the cancer in my face is completely gone. We were already quite sure of that but seeing it on the screen was absolutely wonderful!

Now I think I can FINALLY breathe a sigh of relief and begin to live a somewhat more normal life again. I still have cancer. In fact, without a miracle, I always will have, but I also have high hopes that the year ahead won’t be quite as crazy as the one we’ve just come through!

International Literacy Day 2014

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Right now, you are doing something that one in five people on the face of this planet cannot do!

As one who values my ability to read above most other skills, I find that an appalling statistic! According to the World Literacy Foundation, an estimated 67 million children around the world do not have access to primary school education! Equally disturbing is the fact that almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women. Given that statistic, it’s hardly surprising to learn that the majority of the world’s poor are also female.

Today is International Literacy Day, a day for shedding light on the desperate need to ensure that all people have the opportunity to learn to read and write. Education is a basic human right, but one that many people are denied, particularly in parts of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The problem is not restricted to underdeveloped parts of the world, however. Literacy rates in Canada are high, around 97 per cent, but what does that really mean? While they may have basic decoding skills, the most recent literacy study by Statistics Canada shows that millions of Canadians do not have the literacy skills they need to keep pace with the escalating demands of our society and economy. A whopping 48% of Canadian adults over the age of 16, many of them new immigrants, have low literacy skills that do not adequately equip them for the workforce. The situation is similar in the US.

But what can we do? How can you and I overcome such an enormous global issue? That’s where the Starfish Story comes in (adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley).

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We cannot solve the world’s literacy problem, but we can make a difference for one or two.

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This is Marie. My husband and I have been sponsoring her through New Missions, a small organization operating in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, since she was in primary school. She now attends high school and dreams of becoming a nurse. For approximately one dollar a day, we provide her with the opportunity to go to school in Haiti where only 2% of the children finish high school and about 40% of the adult population is illiterate. She also receives a hot meal at school each day as well as regular health check-ups and medical care when it’s needed. There are many similar organizations, including World Vision, that offer you the opportunity to provide a child with the chance to go to school. Perhaps that child could be your starfish!

I also choose to give Kiva loans to impoverished women in third world countries who are helping support their families and educate their children. By investing in women’s lives, society as a whole benefits because women typically reinvest 90% of their income back into their families. In so doing, they break the cycle of illiteracy and help lift their families out of poverty.

Closer to home, encouraging literacy is as simple as reading to a child! Fill your home with books and let the children in your life see you enjoying the gift of reading.

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Going back to school!

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If money had been no object, I’d have gone straight back to university after earning my education degree. I would have pursued a second bachelor degree, this time in cultural anthropology, simply because I loved it. At the time, however, that wasn’t an option. My first degree was paid for by a grant from the Government of the Northwest Territories but that had run out and it was time to find a job and begin supporting myself.

Since retiring from teaching seven years ago, I’ve often thought that if I lived closer to a college or university I’d probably enroll in a few courses just for fun. Although anthropology still interests me, at this point I’d probably choose women’s studies. I’ve never considered myself a feminist because I’m adamantly opposed to abortion (except when continuing a pregnancy places the mother’s life in grave danger). By definition, I suppose I’m a pro-life feminist as I’m keenly interested in the plight of women worldwide, believing that girls and women should have equal rights and opportunities to men. It pains me to know that, in this day and age, girls and women in many parts of the world continue to be denied access to education and to endure obscene cruelties such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

Okay, let me climb down off my soapbox and continue what I started off to say!

Though I don’t regret the fact that I didn’t go to Bible college as a young person and I didn’t encourage my own children to do so, in recent years I’ve also thought that I wouldn’t mind taking a few Biblical studies courses. Recently, I learned of an opportunity to combine all three of my academic interests and audit a course entitled Biblical Theology of Womanhood: Old Testament online for free!

The women’s studies course, offered by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, is described as “an amplified and comprehensive study of womanhood in the Old Testament which overlaps in a general way and is supplementary to systematic theology, especially as concerns the doctrine of anthropology.”

Auditing the course means that I’m not taking it for university credit. I get to enjoy all the lectures and do as many of the readings as I want, but I don’t have to write any of the papers or take the final exam. There are also online discussion groups that I can participate in. I must admit that I felt a tingle of excitement when I received the email with my student ID number! It’s been 39 years since I had one of those!

The course actually started on August 21 but since I was on vacation, I chose to wait until I was back home to begin. As an online student, I’m not tied to the regular Thursday evening schedule. Instead, I can watch the two and a half to three hour lectures whenever I choose. The first one, which I watched this evening, was an introduction to the course and laid the groundwork for what lies ahead. I’m not sure that I’ll agree with everything that’s taught but I do know that I’ll be challenged to dig into scripture and to seek a better understanding of what God’s Word says to and about women. I also know that I’m excited to be going back to school even if it is in the comfort of my own living room!

One year later…

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It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since I heard the fateful news. 365 days of living with cancer have gone by already!

The first days were the scariest when we didn’t yet know what kind of cancer it was and the process of finding out seemed ever so slow. Eventually, we learned that I have neuroendocrine tumours, a very slow growing chronic cancer that often responds well to treatment, and we breathed a small sigh of relief.

There have been dark and disappointing days, especially the day in late March when we learned that I had a second, completely unrelated cancer. That led to seven hours of surgery and six weeks of radiation. There’s still plenty of healing to be done and some long term repercussions but for the most part, I think we’ve put the second cancer behind us and I’ll soon resume treatment for the first one.

Though we’ve spent a lot of time away from home, our gypsy tendencies have been severely curtailed this year.  We’ve spent many days on the road driving back and forth to Edmonton for tests, scans, biopsies and treatments but we haven’t been outside Canada at all. We did renew our passports though and we opted for Canada’s new ten year ones in hopes that my wandering days aren’t over yet.

I often wonder if there will ever be a day when it doesn’t cross my mind that I have cancer. It would be so easy to feel sorry for myself and to focus on the negatives but I refuse to do that! Cancer has changed our lives significantly and we continue to live with lots of unknowns but life goes on and we have much to be thankful for.

I’m ever so thankful for my loving husband who has been by my side every step of the way patiently chauffeuring me to appointments, meeting with doctors and sharing the good days and the bad. We’ve also been absolutely overwhelmed by the prayerful support we’ve received from around the world. I know that that has sustained me through the ups and downs of the past year and that it will continue to do so in the days that lie ahead.

So now, as I move ahead into my second year of life with cancer, completely cognizant of the fact that many people don’t get that privilege, I’m determined to continue living life to the fullest!

Porteau Cove

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As we sat in an Edmonton waiting room on April 10th anticipating our first meeting with the surgeon who was to remove the cancerous tumour from my salivary gland, my cell phone rang. It was our four-year-old grandson, Sam.

“Can we go camping with you this summer?” he asked.

We spent the past week honouring that request at beautiful Porteau Cove Provincial Park, just a half hour drive from his North Vancouver home. At Sam’s age, I lived in an oceanfront house and the beach was my playground. I’ve always said that you can take the girl away from the ocean but you can’t take the salt out of her blood. This week at Porteau was good for my soul!

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From the morning mist hanging over Howe Sound to the sun sinking behind the ridge across the water, our days were spectacular. We watched seals bobbing in the water, bald eagles plunging from the sky to catch fish, and herons standing like sentinels at the low tide line every morning. We also watched the brazen little squirrel that we nicknamed Sticky Fingers attempting to steal food from our table!

Our days were filled with fun. With our two little pirates, Sam and Nate, we built a driftwood fort amongst the logs on the beach and searched for treasure (geocaches). We visited nearby Shannon Falls and toured the Britannia Mine Museum again. We even had front row seats for the beginning of the first Canadian Surfski Championships yesterday. We ended every day around a propane fire pit roasting marshmallows and eating s’mores. It lacked the crackle of a wood fire and the smell of smoke that usually goes along with camping, but the blue sky days and lack of rain have resulted in a fire ban along the coast and only propane is allowed.

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Now we’re back in the city where the next few days will be spent, in part, helping my 91-year-old father with banking and other issues related to my mother’s estate, but the memories made over the past week will be with us for a very long time!

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Baby snuggles

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This morning, we loaded our suitcase into the vehicle and left home as we’ve done almost every Monday since the beginning of June, but this time, instead of heading for Edmonton and another round of radiation treatments, we turned south and came to Calgary to get some baby snuggles!

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After returning from Vancouver last week, we met with Dr. Sandy McEwan, head of the neuroendocrine team at the Cross Cancer Institute, to review the results of the previous week’s CT scan and begin planning for future treatment. We were given the good news that, in spite of the fact that they haven’t been treated or even looked at since the beginning of February, my neuroendocrine tumours are stable. Apparently, there hasn’t been any significant change in them while I’ve been undergoing treatment for my second cancer. Now, with the exception of one monthly injection, I am free of all things medical for the entire month of August!

After being away from home so much recently, it was tempting to stay put for awhile but grandchildren are a much bigger temptation! Simon is almost 5 months old already and I hadn’t seen him since the beginning of June. We’ll be taking care of him and his two older siblings all day tomorrow and the next day while our daughter, Melaina, takes a first aid course. I guess we’ll see how much energy Gram has these days!

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A most awesome adventure

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Visits to Vancouver always involve going on interesting adventures with our grandsons, Sam and Nate, but this trip has been different. This time, we came to say our final good byes to my mother.

Today, with Saturday’s memorial service behind us and my siblings on their way back to Alberta, we were down to our last day and hadn’t been on any adventures. That would never do! As we headed across the Lion’s Gate Bridge and through Stanley Park on our way to the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, I felt myself relax. This morning could be a holiday… no medical treatments, no family responsibilities, just fun with the grandkids.

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Visiting a botanical garden may not sound like a great adventure for a three and four year old, but as we walked through the deeply forested part of the garden, our destination was the Greenheart Canopy Walkway suspended some 20 metres above the forest floor! Unlike most aerial walkways that are bolted to the trees, an innovative cable tension system secures the platforms to huge Douglas firs, Red cedars and Grand firs, many of them over 100 years old. There was a time when traversing from platform to platform on the narrow swinging bridges would have terrified me, but not anymore! Looking out over the coastal rainforest from high amongst the trees was exhilarating. As I said to Sam, it was a most awesome adventure!

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Tomorrow, we fly back to Edmonton and the following day, I have another appointment at the Cross Cancer Institute but for a little while today I could forget about all that!

It’s bell ringing day!

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There’s a widespread tradition amongst cancer treatment centres including the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton where the following poem is posted on the wall of the waiting area outside each radiation treatment unit.


Ring Out

Ring this bell

Three times well

It’s toll to clearly say,

 

My treatment’s done

This course is run

And I am on my way!

 

Today, after 30 treatments over the past 6 weeks, it was finally my turn to ring the bell! I woke at 5:30 a.m. filled with anticipation and the morning crawled by as I waited for one o’clock to arrive. Now that it’s over, it’s hard to put how I feel into words! Perhaps it hasn’t really sunk in yet. Maybe it will seem more real when I board a plane for Vancouver tomorrow instead of heading back to the Cross!

I’ve been told not to expect the side effects to peak for another two weeks and there will be follow-up appointments in the future, of course, but this race has been run. Praise God!

Today was a bit anticlimactic in that, immediately after ringing the bell, I had to go upstairs for a CT scan to see what’s happened to my other cancer in the six months since it was last looked at but I’ve crossed one finish line. I’ve climbed that mountain and I’ve rung the bell! Now it’s time to move on!

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What is art anyway?

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A cool rainy afternoon was a perfect time to visit the Art Gallery of Alberta in downtown Edmonton. We had never been inside the unusual building composed mostly of windows and a winding ribbon of steel before and I was as interested in the architecture as the art inside.

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As we wandered through the exhibits, we saw pieces that we liked, pieces that we didn’t care much for and others that simply made us shake our heads. I couldn’t help wondering what makes something art. What makes one thing worthy of display in a prestigious art gallery and another not? For example, take a look at this:

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Whether or not they’re to our taste, I’m sure we’d all agree that the paintings on the wall are art, but what about the pile of hammers on the table? Yes, that’s what that is, a pile of hammers! What makes this pile of hammers a work of art and not simply a mess on someone’s workshop floor? I’m afraid I really don’t get it.

Perhaps Richard was right when he looked at the photo of two of our grandchildren that our daughter posted on Facebook yesterday.

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“All it needs is a frame and you could sell it for big bucks!” he said. Yes, that looks like art to me!

High Level Bridge Streetcar

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Until I started looking into things to do while we’re in Edmonton for my radiation treatments, I’d never heard of the High Level Bridge Streetcar. Maintained and operated by the volunteer members of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, there are actually four vintage streetcars that operate between Old Strathcona on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River and the Jasper Teminal on the north side, but only one is in operation at a time. Today, it was the Melbourne 930, built in Melbourne, Australia in 1947. In addition, the Society has five more double ended streetcars in operation at Fort Edmonton and several others that they hope to fully restore in the future.

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Prior to September 1951, the Edmonton Radial Railway regularly carried passengers across the upper deck of the High Level Bridge. At 755m long and 49m high, the bridge was one of the world’s highest streetcar river crossings and afforded the passengers a spectacular and exhilarating view. To the delight of visitors to the city as well as locals, seasonal service was restored in August 1997.

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After finding a place to park near the Strathcona Terminal, we originally intended to stay on the streetcar for the 40 minute round trip, but due to the fact that I’d forgotten my water bottle, an absolute essential on a hot day especially since my saliva production has been greatly suppressed by surgery and radiation, we got off at the Jasper Terminal near the corner of 109th Street and Jasper Avenue. After finding our way to a nearby convenience store and securing a bottle of water as well as a couple of ice cream bars, we enjoying our snack in the shade of a tree at nearby Railway Park before catching the next car back to Old Strathcona.

Alberta Legislature Building from the streetcar

Alberta Legislature Building from the streetcar