The Road Set Before Me

Written by Alyssa. I want to apologize for mistakenly telling everyone that mom's treatment was switching to Friday this week. That was incorrect. Mom still had her chemo appointment on Tuesday for this week, and she will switch to Friday next week. Mom’s treatment went well today. The immunotherapy treatment mom gets is pretty painful, so her nurse suggested she try using a heated blanket to see if that helps to ease the pain a bit. Mom isn't certain if it actually helped with the pain or if the fact that she just loves warm blankets was distraction enough, but she said that it did help make the treatment feel more comfortable. Praise God for that! Mom had a nice conversation with another patient who was also getting treatment today. She  was able to share a bit of her journey with her and encourage her with the words of Psalm 139 about how all of our days are ordained "before one of them came to be” and how great of a comfort it is to rest in the peace of God’s sovereign...

Written by Dawn. Hello friends & family,  Treatment yesterday was uneventful so we're thankful for that again. It is painful but rather quick (5 minutes for the immunotherapy and seconds for my chemo) but there is prep time, waiting for pre-meds to work and pre & post vitals. At treatment, the infusion machine was not working so my nurse had to do the infusion by hand, slowly pushing the infusion into me over a period of 5 minutes. For ME it was more comfortable than with the machine, but apparently it is tense work for the nurses, putting pressure on their hands, so I suspect those machines will be repaired asap, or I hope so for the nurses. Manually giving the infusions is also more time-consuming for the nurses, but on the upside we get to chat with them during that time!  Mentally I had a bit of a difficult day on Monday. My treatments have been much easier this time around (although I'm cautious to say that!), and yet the side-effects have been more subtle and I f...

Written by Alyssa. Today Mom had her blood work done and an appointment with her Hematologist/Oncologist, Dr A. The results he was looking at were the ones we shared a couple weeks ago where the graphs showed incredibly positive results to treatments. The doctor was impressed with her response to the last two rounds of treatments and said that it is very important now that they “stay the course” to allow the treatments to continue to do their job.  Mom has noticed that while the treatments have been difficult they haven’t left her feeling as terrible as they did when she went through treatment in 2021/2022. She discussed this with Dr. A, and he stated that because she is healthier now that is likely why she is feeling this way. He also said this is one of the advantages of starting treatment before negative symptoms have begun to appear since it eliminates some of the risks from secondary issues arising.  The beautiful view while walking to the hospital. The doctor also sent M...

Written by Alyssa. Life is full of simple moments that bring joy to our lives. I was contemplating this a bit today. The weekend was a good one with Mom resting a lot on Saturday which helped her to make it to church on Sunday morning. (another thing to be thankful for!) On Monday our family got together to celebrate Thanksgiving together. As is Moms Thanksgiving tradition, she insisted we take some family photos while we were all together. Mom felt up to walking to our neighborhood park and we got some really nice photos together before heading back home. (again, a simple moment that led us to gratitude!)  We had our Thanksgiving meal at our house since this allows Mom to leave and rest for a bit if she feels like she needs it and she can join the rest of us again once she’s feeling better. This worked out well because at one point Mom began to feel nauseated and she did leave to rest for a bit before rejoining us. Often times Mom’s weeks follow a cycle of Monday being “normal”, n...

The view of the CN Tower from the hospital today. With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, it has me thinking about what I am thankful for. Mom has always been a big fan of showing gratitude in the big and the small things of life (I remember this less fondly as a teenager), and as the years have gone by this is a habit that I have picked up on.  When I was in high school, my mom and I read a chapter of the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp together every morning before I started my classes. Ann's book focuses on her finding joy in the little things of life, and writing them down to track all the gifts that she has been given from God.   It was a great experience and one that we both loved doing together. Each of us had a journal to track all our “gifts” - gifts from God that we are thankful for.  After mom’s stroke in 2021, she experienced some times of frustration and doubt, which led me to pull out our journals again. Today, we are still filling them out, and I hav...

  Written by Alyssa Ups and downs. Some weeks have positive things to tell, and other weeks have less positive things to tell. This week we have a bit of both. The less positive is that Mom has had more moments of her blood pressure dipping, which can be scary and means she has to be very careful to not move too quickly so as to allow her body time to adjust. This is especially important when she is getting up quickly from sitting. It’s not uncommon for Mom to get up to greet someone at the door and have to immediately go to sit down on the nearby stairs because of her blood pressure dipping. Another thing is that she has developed a cough which was sort of puzzling to us because she wasn’t feeling sick (thankfully!). After her appointment with her oncologist on Monday, Dr. A told her that he believes her cough is a side effect of one of her medications. While that isn’t awesome to hear, we are thankful to have an answer to that. Her lower blood pressure is believed to be caused by...

  Written by Alyssa. Mom had her third treatment this past Tuesday afternoon. Treatment this week was later in the day which was a bit of a change from when it’s been in the past couple of weeks. The waiting room at the cancer centre was empty when Mom and Dad arrived, which led Mom to jokingly ask the nurses if the janitor was the one giving her treatment today. We’re glad to see her sense of humour is still intact!  The nurse decided to give Mom's stomach a break this week and gave her chemo shot in her arm and the immunotherapy shot in her stomach rather than having both shots in her stomach. Mom said this was less painful and was thankful for a bit of a reprieve. The immunotherapy shot takes longer to be injected than the chemotherapy injection and it is more painful for mom as well. Apparently the injection is a thicker substance which makes it more painful when it goes in.   The treatments seem to be affecting Mom a bit more every week and this week it has been...

  From Dawn:  I was walking in a parking lot the other day and saw a dad walking hand in hand with his little boy. It was a cute view, but what happened next really struck me.  The little boy was around 4, I think, and he was walking fine with his dad, just in front of a store. Then a car turned in front of them. It was still away from them, but it was close enough for the boy to stiffen up and be afraid, recognizing possible danger. The dad didn't flinch. He looked down at his son, and I don't think any words were exchanged. I could see the boy's body relax and trust in his dad's safety! He knew that his dad would look after him!  This was poignant for many reasons, one of which was from our fostering days, when we saw healthy attachment at play. It was heartwarming to see.  But also on a spiritual level. That boy knew that his father was caring for him, even despite the possible dangers along the way!  And it was an analogy for me too - as I walk down thi...

  “ For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” Psalm 63:7-8 This past week has gone by smoothly for Mom, and we are thankful that she experienced very few side effects after her first chemotherapy treatment last week. Mom was a little tired the first couple days, and she experienced some “chemo brain” which gave us some moments of laughter as we went about our regular day-to-day.  On Sunday Mom was able to join us in attending church.  She told us that when she woke up, she just started getting ready without even giving it a thought about whether or not she was up for it.  What a blessing that was!  Then on Monday I came home from work to find Mom making muffins for us.  She says “You know I actually feel pretty normal today!”  Thank you Jesus for these moments! Yesterday was Mom’s second chemotherapy treatment, and Dad was able to go with her again. Mom said the i...