Gotz ta book my ticket soon!!!

Gala3

A fellow Lymphomaniac hosted his first fundraiser in celebration of his 3 years post stem cell transplant, in support of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Canada. The event raised $6000. and was a great time!

peeking in

Just poking my nose into my neglected but not forgotten blog. Perhaps reading back on some of the blogs from early last year will inspire me to get writing. I did keep up my journal for the most part over the past year, mostly so I would be able to go back and tell the tale if I ever got blogging again... "ever?"
My stemcell transplant turned out to be harder than I ever could have imagined and I just couldn't keep up my blogging. Most days I was just too tired, and I think at other times it was just too hard to live it, let alone talk about it.
As I approach the first year anniversary of my stem cell transplant I’m going to try and get back to my writing and go back and share this experience. Not because it was so awful, but because it's over and I have begun to move on in so many ways. I just need to figure out where to start?

Light the Night Walk- Ottawa

The 1st Light the Night happened on October 16th at City Hall. The turn out was huge, they say about 1500 - I believe it! Team Lymphomanaics was on the scene. We met up for coffee & cupcakes just after dinner, and got busy doing our hair!

The event started at twilight with registration and some drawn out speeches "we can't hear you!" and then collecting our balloons. Walkers carry illuminated balloons with lights in them - white for survivors, red for supporters and gold in memory of loved ones.

At dusk we started out our 5km walk beside the canal. It was a little bit chilly, and a little too long for someone like myself in recovery but we had fun with our balloons, glow sticks and group antics!

"Cancer Can't Dance Like This" Show & After Party in support of the LFC

V & I worked pretty hard (with some help) to put together the first official Lymphoma Foundation of Canada fundraiser in Ottawa on the tail end of the Lymphoma Information Seminar of Sept 17th.
The night started with a one-man comedy show called "Cancer Can't Dance Like This" by Daniel Stolfi - a lymphoma survivor. After the show we had dessert & cocktails, a silent auction, and door prizes!
The event was a huge success that I had started planning and then had to back out mid-way during the worst of my treatments. I came back on to the project when I was feeling better, but it was allot of work for my tired body... maybe a bit too much!

Im behind on my own blog, but guest blogging here:

Check out The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation Blog:
http://www.ottawacancer.ca/en/home.aspx

Thanks!

I have exorcised the fever... it's in the sink.

The night before my platelet transfusion I got a fever but it didn't last long on the thermometer, so I didn’t wake anybody up and spent the night sweating it out – literally. The next day (Fri) I seemed okay and the transfusion went well but my throat, which had been slowly swelling since the day before, was now killing me. So I mentioned the night fever to the doctor and he prescribed some general antibiotics and gave me a lecture about calling the first sign of infection, fever or worsening symptoms.

I left the hospital just before dinner and it was like my body just fell apart on the ride home, perhaps it was trying to tell me not to leave! The pain in my throat was so bad it hurt to swallow my own saliva, let alone dinner, and I was sure the swelling had doubled since driving home so I went straight to bed hurting from head to toe.

At midnight I got a fever and we drove back to the hospital. I spent the night in Emergency because the doctors thought I had an abscess in the back of my throat that would need to be opened and drained – yu-uck! Luckily the scan (I can’t remember what kind I had(?) thanks hydra-morphine) didn’t show an abscess; just a nasty infection that required serious antibiotics, and in my opinion “serious” pain killers! (In Mum’s opinion a serious exorcism too, so I sent her home to get some sleep and holy water.)

Now I'm settled into 5-west for a few days while I get antibiotics for the worst throat infection I have ever had. Last night (Sat) I thought I was feeling much better because the pain and swelling was about 50% less than it was the night before when I was admitted, but today the pain came back big time this morning.
I kept waking up overnight before I was due for my meds in pain and needing them early. This morning I was so sore that the nurse said she could double my pain killers up to 2mg every 4 hours and ran it through my line. 60 seconds later I was overcome with nausea and just made it to the sink to barf up breakfast. And then I felt great again – but that didn’t last long.

Well I guess my breakfast wasn’t digested yet and still chunky, so it wouldn’t go down the drain! That’s one way to get visitors! I have had to endure a steady stream of nurses who came to look at it, who then called the cleaners, but they didn’t know what to do, so then the maintenance guy had to come and assess it with his buddies and then come back with the right tools to take the stopper out of the drain.

As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to have everyone check out my “sink chunks” and then lecture me about the merits of throwing up in the toilet – ya thanks – every single one of them asked me “what was for breakfast today?”

Pain killers! Fuck off, my throat is sore... where’s that holy water?