Four years ago today, my strong, sweet, beautiful cousin Kathy lost her long-fought battle with brain cancer. We lost her far too soon and still miss her every day. This picture of Kathy and me was taken in the spring of 1972, over 40 years ago. Yikes.
Been thinking about her a lot over the weekend, about cancer and illness and how many people in our life are fighting right now.
In Kathy's honour, I'm trying to focus on the good times and remember all of the goofy stuff we did as kids together. Usually we would see each other at my nana's house on Jasper Avenue in Smiths Falls. Nana is gone now too, almost 15 years this fall. It's hard to believe how quickly time passes sometimes. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that it happened. I don't think that you ever get over a loss like that.
Best we can hope for is to laugh more often than we cry when we look at back at those we've lost.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Friday, August 03, 2012
front of the line service
As I've mentioned here before, Mark had surgery in June, late June. He had been suffering with kidney stones for a while and finally they called his number and he got to go in and have those suckers blasted with lasers. It was a fairly simple procedure, no incisions, done by a surgeon who confided that he had kicked ass at Dragon Slayer in the 80's. Good stuff. Excellent result, Mark's had an awesome recovery. All is well.
So, we find out this week that he needs to have another surgery. Slightly more complicated surgery this time, to deal with a completely different issue. The issue was identified during his Kidney Stone diagnosis and some of the pre-surgical screening stuff he had to do.
Now, because he has been a surgical patient so recently, and us being thoughtful folks who don't want to cost the fragile health care system anymore money than we need to, we were hopeful that we could save the taxpayers some money and us some time, by avoiding the pre-surgical screening stuff.
When we met with the new surgeon (different issue, different doctor - both are AWESOME), he gave us a form to fill out and we figured that was the end of it. Mark gets a call on Wednesday that he is required to go in for another PSS. When he called back yesterday to talk to the folks in charge, he explained how he'd already had one and, had filled out a form. They were insistent that he go in and told him that it would only take 10 minutes because all they needed was a blood draw. Fine, he parks the cab and goes in.
One hour and ten minutes later, he walked out, fuming. I can't blame him. They did do the blood work but they also sat with him, went over his questionnaire (the woman who he met with had his form from Monday with her) again. Not only did she ask each question again, slowly, she circled his answers which had already been checked off.
Dumb.
Now, this is an excellent hospital with helpful, well trained, courteous staff. We're very happy about the level care he's been receiving in recent months and have no doubts about the level of care he'll continue to receive when he goes in for his surgery in a week and a bit. Honestly though, how much did it cost the system for him to have that meeting yesterday? Not to mention the wages he lost by being in there instead of out on the road. Maybe I'm just crabby from the heat but this really bugged me and I know it bothered Mark too. Ugh!
So, we find out this week that he needs to have another surgery. Slightly more complicated surgery this time, to deal with a completely different issue. The issue was identified during his Kidney Stone diagnosis and some of the pre-surgical screening stuff he had to do.
Now, because he has been a surgical patient so recently, and us being thoughtful folks who don't want to cost the fragile health care system anymore money than we need to, we were hopeful that we could save the taxpayers some money and us some time, by avoiding the pre-surgical screening stuff.
When we met with the new surgeon (different issue, different doctor - both are AWESOME), he gave us a form to fill out and we figured that was the end of it. Mark gets a call on Wednesday that he is required to go in for another PSS. When he called back yesterday to talk to the folks in charge, he explained how he'd already had one and, had filled out a form. They were insistent that he go in and told him that it would only take 10 minutes because all they needed was a blood draw. Fine, he parks the cab and goes in.
One hour and ten minutes later, he walked out, fuming. I can't blame him. They did do the blood work but they also sat with him, went over his questionnaire (the woman who he met with had his form from Monday with her) again. Not only did she ask each question again, slowly, she circled his answers which had already been checked off.
Dumb.
Now, this is an excellent hospital with helpful, well trained, courteous staff. We're very happy about the level care he's been receiving in recent months and have no doubts about the level of care he'll continue to receive when he goes in for his surgery in a week and a bit. Honestly though, how much did it cost the system for him to have that meeting yesterday? Not to mention the wages he lost by being in there instead of out on the road. Maybe I'm just crabby from the heat but this really bugged me and I know it bothered Mark too. Ugh!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
pooling around
We've had a lot of stuff on our plates this summer and it hasn't left us with much time or energy to use for much that is fun.
Having said that, we did get to two Roger Waters shows in June and earlier this month, Mark and a good friend of ours, drove to Quebec City and stood with 75,000 of their closest friends to see Roger wrap up the Wall on the Plains of Abraham.
Roger shows aside though, we have just been running and running. I've been pretty busy with work stuff, Mark's been recovering from his Kidney surgery and the days have just flown by.
On Saturday afternoon, on our way home from doing some errands, we drove by the outdoor municipal pool which is ridiculously close to our house. A couple of years ago, the pool was demolished and rebuilt and it reopened last summer. We wanted to get there last year but it was either too busy or the weather was crappy and we never made it.
When we drove by on Saturday, it didn't seem too busy so we decided to go for the evening swim at 5 p.m. We were SO glad we did. I love to swim and it had been ages since we had been. The facility is gorgeous, the staff are very friendly and obviously very well trained. I was quite impressed with the way they dealt with the kids who were having dive-off contests in the deep end. The place has sunny spots and shady spots and even provided really comfy lounge chairs.
On Saturday evening, we had such a good time that we went back on Sunday morning. We'll definitely go back again, hopefully this weekend if the weather allows. We're starting vacation on Friday night and I think a few visits to the pool will be on our agenda. I totally forgot how much fun it is to be in or near the water. We're both nursing a bit of sun burn this week but I think it was worth it!
Having said that, we did get to two Roger Waters shows in June and earlier this month, Mark and a good friend of ours, drove to Quebec City and stood with 75,000 of their closest friends to see Roger wrap up the Wall on the Plains of Abraham.
Roger shows aside though, we have just been running and running. I've been pretty busy with work stuff, Mark's been recovering from his Kidney surgery and the days have just flown by.
On Saturday afternoon, on our way home from doing some errands, we drove by the outdoor municipal pool which is ridiculously close to our house. A couple of years ago, the pool was demolished and rebuilt and it reopened last summer. We wanted to get there last year but it was either too busy or the weather was crappy and we never made it.
When we drove by on Saturday, it didn't seem too busy so we decided to go for the evening swim at 5 p.m. We were SO glad we did. I love to swim and it had been ages since we had been. The facility is gorgeous, the staff are very friendly and obviously very well trained. I was quite impressed with the way they dealt with the kids who were having dive-off contests in the deep end. The place has sunny spots and shady spots and even provided really comfy lounge chairs.
On Saturday evening, we had such a good time that we went back on Sunday morning. We'll definitely go back again, hopefully this weekend if the weather allows. We're starting vacation on Friday night and I think a few visits to the pool will be on our agenda. I totally forgot how much fun it is to be in or near the water. We're both nursing a bit of sun burn this week but I think it was worth it!
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
surviving
So we both went back to work yesterday. Kind of glad it's a short week.
Also glad that we survived our "vacation" last week. I use the quotes around the word because in my head, vacations are relaxing and last week was not relaxing. It was fun at times, frustrating at others, worrying and scary too.
After a whirlwind, 3-day period spent zooming up and down the 401 to see 2 Roger Waters shows, we landed back at home, pooped and happy. The shows were so fun but I had, stupidly, booked the furnace maintenance/inspector dudes to visit us at the crack of insanity on Tuesday morning. We had arrived home from Ottawa at 1:30 a.m., gone to sleep around 2:30 a.m. and were not thrilled to have to crawl out of our pit at 7:30 a.m. to await the 8 a.m. arrival of furnace guys.
I spent the morning outside with the dogs. The dogs, Sam in particular, hate it when strangers visit the house. He barks at them for what I believe are a number of reasons:
1. He’s informing us that we have allowed a stranger into our house and stranger = danger
2. He’s informing the stranger that no guff will be allowed in Sam’s watch. If that stranger gets out of line, watch out, cuz he will bark MORE at him!
3. Once it appears that the stranger is friendly and not going to cause any danger, Sam needs to tell him that he’ll protect the no-longer stranger but he needs to come here RIGHT NOW to be protected
4. When the time comes for the stranger to leave, Sam needs to let him know that it’s NOT SAFE outside and the stranger needs to stay with Sam. If he is out of Sam’s sight, Sam cannot protect him.
Simple huh? If the door to our basement was somewhere else, we could have probably been in one part or another of the house. Unfortunately, our basement door is smack in the middle of the house so the best we could would be to hide out in a bedroom and that would have been less fun than outside.
On Wednesday, Mark finally had his kidney stone surgery. We arrived at the hospital for 10 a.m., almost immediately saw the surgeon and Mark went into the OR at 11 a.m. I was told when he went in that the surgery would be about 2 hours. What they don’t tell you is that you need to factor in the time that it takes for the Anesthesiologist to get their stuff done. I later learned from a nurse that it’s normally around an hour. When the surgeon came to find me (while Mark was in recovery), he told me that the actual surgery was 2.5 hours. I’m not sure if this is a lot but the Doc told me that he used 6 laser fibers to blast the stones in Mark’s kidneys. Kinda glad that the Doctor also confided that he was a wiz at video games. I think that helped. Because Mark has sleep apnea, the Anesthesiologist and respirology folks insisted that Mark spend the night. Neither of us was happy about that but in the end, I think it was better than coming home the first night. When he did get home, he experienced some back pain (not to mention some pain peeing) for the first few days but that seems to have subsided (as well as the blood in his urine). He needs to go back to the clinic in a couple of weeks for a follow up but hopefully, after that is done, he’ll be done with the kidney stuff for a while. It’s been a really long haul, waiting for this to happen, we’re both pretty relieved that it’s over with.
So while last week wasn’t relaxing, it was productive and, at times, pretty fun. We have more time booked off in August which will see us having the roof on our house replaced and also getting a new chimney liner installed for our furnace.
The good times just keep on coming at our house!
PS Happy Birthday Hartland Covered Bridge! You are 111 years old today. I took this picture when you were still a very spry 101 years old. Hope you get some cake today to celebrate!
Also glad that we survived our "vacation" last week. I use the quotes around the word because in my head, vacations are relaxing and last week was not relaxing. It was fun at times, frustrating at others, worrying and scary too.
After a whirlwind, 3-day period spent zooming up and down the 401 to see 2 Roger Waters shows, we landed back at home, pooped and happy. The shows were so fun but I had, stupidly, booked the furnace maintenance/inspector dudes to visit us at the crack of insanity on Tuesday morning. We had arrived home from Ottawa at 1:30 a.m., gone to sleep around 2:30 a.m. and were not thrilled to have to crawl out of our pit at 7:30 a.m. to await the 8 a.m. arrival of furnace guys.
I spent the morning outside with the dogs. The dogs, Sam in particular, hate it when strangers visit the house. He barks at them for what I believe are a number of reasons:
1. He’s informing us that we have allowed a stranger into our house and stranger = danger
2. He’s informing the stranger that no guff will be allowed in Sam’s watch. If that stranger gets out of line, watch out, cuz he will bark MORE at him!
3. Once it appears that the stranger is friendly and not going to cause any danger, Sam needs to tell him that he’ll protect the no-longer stranger but he needs to come here RIGHT NOW to be protected
4. When the time comes for the stranger to leave, Sam needs to let him know that it’s NOT SAFE outside and the stranger needs to stay with Sam. If he is out of Sam’s sight, Sam cannot protect him.
Simple huh? If the door to our basement was somewhere else, we could have probably been in one part or another of the house. Unfortunately, our basement door is smack in the middle of the house so the best we could would be to hide out in a bedroom and that would have been less fun than outside.
On Wednesday, Mark finally had his kidney stone surgery. We arrived at the hospital for 10 a.m., almost immediately saw the surgeon and Mark went into the OR at 11 a.m. I was told when he went in that the surgery would be about 2 hours. What they don’t tell you is that you need to factor in the time that it takes for the Anesthesiologist to get their stuff done. I later learned from a nurse that it’s normally around an hour. When the surgeon came to find me (while Mark was in recovery), he told me that the actual surgery was 2.5 hours. I’m not sure if this is a lot but the Doc told me that he used 6 laser fibers to blast the stones in Mark’s kidneys. Kinda glad that the Doctor also confided that he was a wiz at video games. I think that helped. Because Mark has sleep apnea, the Anesthesiologist and respirology folks insisted that Mark spend the night. Neither of us was happy about that but in the end, I think it was better than coming home the first night. When he did get home, he experienced some back pain (not to mention some pain peeing) for the first few days but that seems to have subsided (as well as the blood in his urine). He needs to go back to the clinic in a couple of weeks for a follow up but hopefully, after that is done, he’ll be done with the kidney stuff for a while. It’s been a really long haul, waiting for this to happen, we’re both pretty relieved that it’s over with.
So while last week wasn’t relaxing, it was productive and, at times, pretty fun. We have more time booked off in August which will see us having the roof on our house replaced and also getting a new chimney liner installed for our furnace.
The good times just keep on coming at our house!
PS Happy Birthday Hartland Covered Bridge! You are 111 years old today. I took this picture when you were still a very spry 101 years old. Hope you get some cake today to celebrate!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
outside the wall
It was a busy weekend for us. We had a little roadtrip to Toronto on Saturday and Ottawa on Monday to see Roger Waters on his final leg of the Wall Tour.
Mark saw the first two shows of the tour in Toronto back in the fall of 2010 and then he and I saw shows together in Ottawa and Montreal.
The versions of the show we saw over the weekend were both different from those we saw in 2010. Roger has changed up some of the animation and wall projections to accommodate a much wider wall. The wider wall is used in outdoor parks and stadiums and it was used at the Rogers Centre on Saturday evening.
We got our tickets through Roger`s online fanclub, in a presale special. In Toronto, we were in the front, centre section, row 23, in the centre of the row. My seat was actually partially over the big cable which goes from the mixing board to the stage. Funny thing about the board in Toronto, it was so big, and the floor of the old Skydome so expansive, they put a portajohn in the enclosed area for the crew.
In Ottawa, the smaller wall was used inside the ScotiaBank Place. Incredibly, Mark and I sat in the front row, of the centre section, in centre seats. I say sat but we actually stood for the entire show. Front row is an amazing place to see the show from.
I have put up two sets of photos on flickr (you can find them if you click on the image here). During each performance, Roger has local students come on stage with him during Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two. It was very neat to see the kids up close last night. There were three teachers who were in the pit, in front of us, while the kids were performing. The teachers were all very vigourously doing the choreography and singing along with the kids. As we were leaving, I recognized one of the teachers and hollered at them to get their attention. I had taken quite a few photos of the kids and gave them my card so they could find them online. While I was doing that, the show promoter was nearby and gave me his card so I sent him a link today. Everyone was so friendly and lovely in Ottawa last night, it was a terrific experience.
There was one big change to the show, both nights. After the children go off stage, Roger sings a new part to Another Brick in the Wall. He`s singing about Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineering student who was murdered by the London Police in a tube station in 2005. He was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot in the back of the head several times.
The show is very powerful and if you have a chance to see one of these final shows, I would go. Mark is going to be at the final show of the tour, in Quebec City next month. He saw the original show in New York in 1980 so it`s a nice way for him to close this circle with Roger.
Mark saw the first two shows of the tour in Toronto back in the fall of 2010 and then he and I saw shows together in Ottawa and Montreal.
The versions of the show we saw over the weekend were both different from those we saw in 2010. Roger has changed up some of the animation and wall projections to accommodate a much wider wall. The wider wall is used in outdoor parks and stadiums and it was used at the Rogers Centre on Saturday evening.
We got our tickets through Roger`s online fanclub, in a presale special. In Toronto, we were in the front, centre section, row 23, in the centre of the row. My seat was actually partially over the big cable which goes from the mixing board to the stage. Funny thing about the board in Toronto, it was so big, and the floor of the old Skydome so expansive, they put a portajohn in the enclosed area for the crew.
In Ottawa, the smaller wall was used inside the ScotiaBank Place. Incredibly, Mark and I sat in the front row, of the centre section, in centre seats. I say sat but we actually stood for the entire show. Front row is an amazing place to see the show from.
I have put up two sets of photos on flickr (you can find them if you click on the image here). During each performance, Roger has local students come on stage with him during Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two. It was very neat to see the kids up close last night. There were three teachers who were in the pit, in front of us, while the kids were performing. The teachers were all very vigourously doing the choreography and singing along with the kids. As we were leaving, I recognized one of the teachers and hollered at them to get their attention. I had taken quite a few photos of the kids and gave them my card so they could find them online. While I was doing that, the show promoter was nearby and gave me his card so I sent him a link today. Everyone was so friendly and lovely in Ottawa last night, it was a terrific experience.
There was one big change to the show, both nights. After the children go off stage, Roger sings a new part to Another Brick in the Wall. He`s singing about Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineering student who was murdered by the London Police in a tube station in 2005. He was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot in the back of the head several times.
The show is very powerful and if you have a chance to see one of these final shows, I would go. Mark is going to be at the final show of the tour, in Quebec City next month. He saw the original show in New York in 1980 so it`s a nice way for him to close this circle with Roger.
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