2017.... the fun year continues...

To those who don't know as of yet, over the past few months, the symptoms of my cancer have gotten worse. I scheduled some rush MRI's with one of my oncologists as I wanted to see if I freaking out for no good reason, or was I right in thinking that something was different. To make a long story short, the cancer has combined with my spine at the brain stem and has metastasized at my lower back. The doctor had given me about 4-5 months to live. It has put our lives in a bit of a tail spin to say the least. 

Now of course this isn't the best news one could hear from one's doctor but we are taking it in stride. Today I start radiation to those troublesome areas to extend my life. I believe that I will have 5 treatments, as they are treating two places once again. I get a shiny new mask, my third, and some snazzy new tatts from this. Time will tell if it all worked out or not, but I haven't handled it normally yet so I don't expect any different.  

I do ask for a little space over the next little while, as I don't want Cavell or  myself overwhelmed with messages to return. Know that if we do receive messages, we may not reply, at least for a while, but that doesn't mean we didn't read your message and appreciate the thought. 

It may sound a bit crass but look at what we are facing here. I shall keep the social media world in the loop with regards to my progress but again please listen to our wishes. 

Thanks again and we shall be in touch.

2017... the ride continues.....

As some of you may know, 2017 hasn’t been the best year for the Mason/Smith household. As per my blog earlier, you’ve learned of the good and majority bad that this year has put on us. This little blurb will explain how wonderful this year has been over the past month and a half.

After a good report on my liver/lymph nodes toward the end of February, I trip to the emergency room showed I had a potential brain bleed where I had my surgery in January. For this, I was taken off my routine of daily blood thinners to slow down any possible bleeding from said cut. The beginning of March, I start to think I am coming down with a cold which turns out to be pneumonia. After three trips to my family doctor, which included about seven hours of waiting for him, a bottle of antibiotics/puffers and two cancelled events for my birthday, I was declared by him that my sickness was gone. Little did I know that the next day would be the kicker.

March 23, I asked Cavell to come home early as I thought that I did too much that day and I beat myself out. By the time she got home, I could barely breathe, ended up in an ambulance (my first time in one, cross that off the bucket list) and shipped to respiratory emergency. There the head doctor on call said that I had a blood clot right at the top of my lungs which was causing me the distress and difficulty in breathing. Meanwhile this whole time I had a mask on giving me oxygen. So besides the potential brain bleed that I had, the clot had to be taken care of. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. The resident doctor came in to discuss the situation for us and he was young with a calming voice but tact, which was his downfall. He said to me that the there was one of two things that could happen, though Cavell and I already made the decision. One, that we could take care of the blood clot and not worry about the brain bleed which would mean I could pass away or two, that we could take care of the bleed and leave the clot which would result in me possibly passing away. Cavell and I were shocked that he was allowed to speak with patients seeing how bad he was at talking to them, the last thing I was thinking about was “passing away.” He then continued on asking me when my diagnosis was, I was like 2011, he then asked how long the doctor gave me. Again, we were floored. A friend of mine who taught that course would roll over in his bed if he had heard of the insensitive remarks of the resident. Cavell told me after he left that if he came back into the room, she would vehemently ask to speak with someone else.

From there was a trip to ICU, where I had to wear a full, eye/mouth shield to get my oxygen up for a day and be on the gas for at least another few days. This was with me overcoming my fear of bedpans very quickly to say the least. I was in this place for four days until my levels of oxygen was high enough that I could go to a ward room which I could work on my amounts of O2. Meanwhile my sister and her boyfriend came down, again, which was her second trip home from BC this year. The hoot that was before me were my roommates, who I was 20 years younger than all, gave me enough ammunition for another blog or two. Oh, and I had to cancel a trip with my buddies which was planned way in advance as I couldn't fly of course. Poor Cavell spent a long time on the phone with West Jet cancelling my trip before it happened, even though I had insurance put one. The patience on that one!

All that being said, I was told by my regular and radiation oncologists, that one of my lymph nodes in my chest has potentially moved into my lung and caused my difficulty breathing and that there was two spots in my head that were the same size of the original spot back on June had showed up on my MRI. This meant that I had to get a stronger dose of radiation for my chest AND my head at the same time so a fitting for another mask and re-marking of my chest was inevitable. Luckily the marks of my chest were fine but I needed another mask.

On  April 6th, I was allowed to go home. Cavell, my sister and me where glad the hospital stay was over. I start radiation this afternoon which hopefully will take care of the largeness of the cancer in my head as well as the lymph node in my chest. Having both the same session will be new to me but hey, who else could take it all.

Special thanks to those who kept it quiet on social media the past few weeks, thanks to the visits, food and presents that accompanied that long stay at the HSC. I am the picture of "Men's Health" by the way, if that picture was crooked. :) 

2017…. What a start to a year….

Well, to get in the Coles notes version of my 2017 so far, my mother passed away due to an unexpected illness on January 3^rd in which we buried her on the 9^th, for which still throws me for a loop when you see a person that often especially after the past six years and the special person isn't there anymore. The 9^th a friend of ours passed away from a terminal battle with cancer, on the 10^th a goodtime friend who was down for Mom’s funeral fell down some stairs and broke his heal and femur. My sister, her boyfriend and the family friend had a literal up and down with the airplane to Halifax and Toronto in which after the parts were needed in NS and they scrapped the plane in TO, which made for one long day to get them back to British Columbia. Then came the MRI which was supposed to be a breeze on January 15^th which turned out they picked out three spots of potential cancerous tissue for which I was scheduled to go back under the knife on January 24^th. Ah the fun times of such an awesome year.

Today is February 24, the brain surgery was a success and I can almost drive and lift over five pounds again which is a sigh of relief. A lot of people don’t know or realize that anyone who has any major surgery has to wait an additional four to six weeks of not being able to lift or drive or even bend over whom had a craniotomy. Luckily, the nurse who I saw when I was discharged, which in fact was sent home after a measly five days after my surgery as there was no room at the Inn, I only have to wait a month to get back into the swing of things once again and believe you me, it can’t get here quick enough. I’ve had enough Netflix and not being able to do hardly anything but have slowly snuck some things in to save my sanity. I do have to go back to get a MRI done next month to see how the surgery went but that’s the least of my worries.

My CT results which I got this week was finally good, the only report I was scared of. Everything is stable as of now and the last TACE procedure that I had back in November has actually shrunk down the cancer in my liver which is a definite bonus. This means no more surgery for me at the moment which is a fine relief to both Cavell and I.

I’d like to thank those who made it out to see me this past month, whether it be via text, Facebook message or visit as it kept me in the loop and always helps knowing that people do have your back when you’re stuck with a crappy disease. It also was dawned on me that I could complain about having cancer and go through the repeated surgeries that I tend to go through (at the moment there is five major surgeries, three port surgeries, three TACE procedures, multiple CT and MRI’s, over 50 rounds of chemo and 20 rounds of radiation) but that’s not my style. :) I believe that everything happens for a reason and for some profound lucky reason I was given this, not by choice mind you but to offer the ‘out’ that people may need that I can provide.

It’s been a while since I posted anything to either website recently, YACC or my blog, as I was lucky enough to have writer’s block along with not giving a care in the world about writing which was a curse and bonus.  Yes of course you need to take some time off and rehash some of the things that have come to light recently but it wasn’t good in a way as it hampered me in sharing some of my stories. I promise to the lucky viewers that it shouldn’t take me this long again to write something as worse comes to worse, I have a good few recipes. :)