More Tests

Life can be quiet and easy on the Sunshine Coast: but it can also get complicated and busy.  

Mom at Jake's lake place outside of Edmonton: summer 2014

Mostly it is complicated and busy.

After the initial diagnosis of cancer, the trick is to find out how extensive it is and what to do about it.  These things take time and lots of tests. 

A few repeat phone calls..

And a few trips to the mainland.

And you have to tuck all this stuff among the regular stuff that keeps you busy at this time of the year, after all, t’is the season.   

And from the very start of the season, Mom has been sick with a cold.  She has some good books, historical novels by Upton something.. so has found staying in bed not so hard.  Jackie got her some cold tablets.  She has been drinking lemon and honey drinks by the gallon and then switched to Neo-Citron.  She has Vicks on her chest and oregano oil on her feet. Nevertheless, we had to call the nurse when after two weeks she was just not getting better.  Just a cold but nevertheless our plans to get to Vancouver on Sunday for early morning blood tests and a bone-marrow biopsy, at the Vancouver General Cancer Centre were cancelled.

But a few days later we were back on the ferry.  Mom wasn’t strong enough to move around much.. I had to talk her out of the car and into the warmth and light of the upper deck of the 12:30 ferry.   By 3 we were at John’s, amid all their Christmas preparations.  Mom got her new shoes, from our trip to Vegas, off,  moved some Christmas lights and a bit of knitting on to the coffee table and settled in for the night.  

Thursday morning was a lot warmer in Vancouver than it had been the week before when we were there to meet with the specialists.  And, this time we knew where we were going as we had followed John last week and the journey was simple enough, even at rush hour. With the two of us, we were able to use the HOV lane and headed straight to the clinic.  I dropped mom off at the door, and drove around the corner to the clinic's underground parking, which made it easy.  Mom was still slow and coughing, but as usual, was a real trooper. 

View of Vancouver from the window

600 West 10^th did not look like a hospital from the outside, but inside it sure did: that nondescript green paint and a lone, surely donated piece of colorful art on one wall of her room.  A hospital bed, the bathroom in one corner, a chair for me and a little table for the doctor.. that was it.  The busy hallways. But it had a beautiful view of downtown Vancouver.. 

A nurse came in and explained the procedure.  She was followed by a technician and finally the doctor: not our doctor, but a bone marrow specialist.  She marked mom’s hip with a sharpie marker, then gave her a couple of needles to freeze the area.  She took a big needle and withdrew a fair amount of bone marrow.  Next, she began to drill and scape off some of the bone.  It took ½ an hour, but mom was ok.. jumping just once when they hit a nerve, but basically relaxed.  Afterward she was fine.  The procedure itself was ok.. and a great relief to have it behind us. 

Back home in Madeira she spent a few days relaxing, but yesterday was up and decorating for Christmas.  Her cold is better and she is looking forward to playing bridge with the girls today.  It has been almost a month..

The phone just rang.  We have to head in this morning for a CT Scan at the hospital in Sechelt.  Should be back for cards. 

It is sunny and cold this morning.. looks beautiful.  Life here on the Sunshine Coast can be quiet and easy. 

But mostly, it’s not.