December
27th, 2016
Greetings everyone !
Whether you or your family have had an
exciting year, a boring year, or a difficult year – the close of the year gives
an opportunity for retrospection as well as the chance to start anew. Christmas
gives us a chance to appreciate what we do have – the great and the small
gifts – not the ones under the tree.
Talking to Chris about this past year and
what to put into our annual letter suddenly brought life into sharp focus. We would have to conclude that 2016 was a
difficult year. Many things this year
have stayed pretty much the same, many have changed, and many health issues
have made us realize how vulnerable we all are and how life is too short not to
be living it to the fullest.
Early in the year Chris was diagnosed with
colon cancer. During the pre-surgery
tests, the doctors found he also had bladder cancer which was unrelated to the
colon cancer. They wanted to do the
bladder cancer surgery first, which they did, and they were able to remove the
cancer tumor which had not spread. Once
recovered, he was scheduled for colon cancer surgery which was in the recto-
sigmoid junction. During the resection,
they removed about a foot of his colon and re-attached it with 24 titanium staples. His abdominal incision was from the navel
down to the groin and required 19 staples to close him up. Chris was very fortunate because neither of
these 2 separate cancers had spread which meant he did not have to have chemo
or radiation. These surgeries and post-op
recoveries spanned a good 9 months of the year. Chris is fully healed from the bladder
surgery and goes back for checks every 6 months, but is still healing from his
colon surgery, in particular the incision. He is on yearly colonoscopies now.
For the most part,
things went as we expected or as we were told, but boy can cancer and surgery throw
you for a loop! Here’s what I
learned.
- its hard to do
everything by yourself
- you get no time to
yourself (unless you go to the bathroom
often)
- you feel guilty
every time he is in pain, even though there is nothing you can do about it
- you feel better
when the baby steps get bigger (like now
he can bend to cut his own toenails!)
My health issues were small compared to
Chris’s and yet they were a real setback for me. I guess the stress of dealing with the
cancers, my more than heavy workload at the office, my commuting, and generally
having more on my plate than usual took their toll. I was averaging 4 hours of sleep a night for
months, and I ended up in the doctor’s office with a multitude of pains, bodily
malfunctions, and brain fog. I was told
my central nervous system had shut down – nothing was working properly within,
and I was sleep deprived. Amazing how
stress can deplete you. I ended up having
to take a month off work, and seem to have recovered and am averaging at least
6 hours sleep a night now. In August I suffered a very bad blow to my
head which resulted in a concussion.
My skull still hurts today. I had
my first ever colonoscopy in August – they found a couple of polyps in the
transverse colon and in the sigmoid – and these were removed. I go back again in 3 years.
So these were the main health issues for us
this year, and we hope they are behind us as we move into 2017. Rather
than go into a lot of detail on the rest of the year, here’s a wee list of ‘highlights’ to sum it up:
- We had to replace our washing machine
- Chris sold his work truck in the spring since he is now retired
- Our good friend Randy passed away in May. Chris was the one to find him sitting in his arm chair where he had slipped away peacefully in front of his television.
- We got to meet Randy’s sister and her husband, Debbie and Rick, from Calgary. We had never met them before, and we have become good friends. Out of sadness comes joy!
- We had to repair a portion of our stone patio in May due to a big dip that was a safety issue
- I bought a new Toyota Rav4 car (4 year loan)
- We sold our motorhome, which we bought last year and never used
- Our beloved “Jake” passed away suddenly in July, which hit both Chris and I very hard. Jake was so much a part of our lives
- We sold the boat in August, since we no longer had anything to tow it with now that the van was sold. This was a hard decision for Chris
- We had a record crop of apples and Italian plums this year – amazing abundance!
- My good friend Gwen came from Hastings, UK to visit us in September. Her first trip to Bowen. The weather was not as cooperative as we would have liked, but we had a lovely visit regardless of the rain
- We added a new puppy to our home this year – Ajax: Another German Shepherd like our Jake, and it’s nice to have the little critter padding around the house. Tomorrow he will be 5 months old and is playful and curious and a terror to our cats
- Chris’s cousin Eve came from London, UK for her second visit to Bowen. We had a great visit and hope to go back to England ourselves next year. We want to rent a canal boat and putter around the “Oxford” canal loop
- Chris required another “Aclasta” blood infusion in November for his Padgets disease in the femur. He had not needed an infusion in 3 years, so they seem to be getting further apart
- We did not take any vacation this year
- Chris is looking forward to cataract surgery in February 2017 and new Toric lens implants
We are a little older, I am
2 sizes bigger, and I can only hope we are in some ways a little wiser. We continue to be those people who don’t
do facebook. I continue to make time to
update my blog on a monthly basis with any activities, so feel free to check it
out from time to time to see what is going on at our place or in our lives.
http://josie-ontheroadagain.blogspot.ca/
For those of you who have Instagram accounts, we do too, and we love
sharing photos daily or every chance we get.
Please feel free to follow at
@josieontheroad or you can also
follow Ajax now because we gave him his
own account @ehjax1
We wish you a wonderful 2017 filled with good health, happiness and
laughter.
Chris &
Josie
Ajax
Smoke & Gypsy
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