Rearranging the Furniture

This is Galen’s fifth night at home! We have been going back to the hospital morning and night to get set up with the drugs for the day and to see the doctor, but today they gave me the drugs for a 24-hour period, so we don’t have to go back in until tomorrow morning [...]

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It’s 4:00 in the morning and I can hear Galen in the kitchen checking out the food in the refrigerator. Good sign. He has an appetite. After losing 30 pounds in the last month because nothing would stay in his stomach, now we are working at getting some nutrition back into his body. And its [...]

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When we say that we are living day to day, we really mean it. We see the future in our visualizations, in our dreams of camping and traveling. We don’t know what the day after today holds for us, or next week, or next month (as is true for everyone). We only know that we [...]

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For those of you who would like to know when a good time to visit is, it would be when Galen is feeling good. That would be the ideal time! Otherwise, he may be fast asleep, groaning and vomiting with nausea, or spaced out. Sorry – we never know! We asked the palliative care nurse [...]

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A friend gave us the name and number of a man in Regina, Stuart Martin, who has been advising cancer patients for a couple of decades and is a cancer survivor himself. We needed someone to advise us on the ins and outs of using medical marijuana. There are so many different online companies and [...]

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We were fortunate to have three friends sit in with us during our session with the oncologist. One of them took notes for us. Here is a part of what she noted: “Dr. Ahmed explained that it was almost impossible for them to tell what the primary source of the cancer was.  When they did [...]

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I never did like roller coasters. Paying to be scared out of my wits. I prefer slow, thoughtful, cautious movements through space and time. But now (how did this happen anyway??) we are thrown onto this ride, supposedly near its end. Galen has referred to his pain and nausea as a roller coaster. For two [...]

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Yesterday we found the best way to get to Tim Hortons. Not that we are big fans of Tim Hortons, unlike 99% of the population. Although they make really good tea. Steeped tea. They must use a process approved by the Queen. I scouted out the route on my own first, wandering through overhead walkways [...]

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Galen has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in the abdomen. The first oncologist that we saw recommended that no treatment be pursued, as the treatment would be too hard on him and not extend his life enough to make up for the extra pain. We are getting a second opinion with another oncologist next [...]

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It’s Father’s Day. A year ago today I was with my parents in their condo, helping out with the parts of their lives that were becoming more difficult. . . cooking, cleaning, paying bills, driving. We had gone to church, of course. It was a rare time when my parents didn’t go to church on [...]

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