Trial round 2

After the call on the Monday from NIH to say the trial was back on, I had to readjust my thinking again.
My friends were back in town, Erika, Andrea and Cathy all met for lunch and we discussed the progress which had come to light and also the progress that Cathy had made after her recent separation from Troy. We were able to start to talk and make plans of what I should do for the next part of my journey. Over the next day I decided that I would fly down on the Sunday 17th a opposed to the 12th. This giving me time to arrange care for the kids, see Heather and Finlay receive awards at the Coho AGM and also celebrate a family birthday for Heather, as she wanted a trip to the zoo.
So the plan was set, Heather and Finlay would stay at Andreas from the 17th -20th. Jill, Dave, Helen, Josh and Sam would arrive on the 20th and continue with the holiday to Peachland on the 23rd for a week. Managed to get everything organised for school and booked some of their activities for fall.

Saturday was filled with final arrangements, buying shoes for the kids, an excellent visit fro Chad and Shannon who had driven across Canada in 4 days in order to visit with us. The kids has a brilliant time having a water fight. Jo and Natalie also visited in the evening, then I eventually packed.

So off we flew after an emotional cheerio from the kids. Finlay hopes that they can find a cure for my cancer and reminded me that it will be ok if I die as I will be able to look down on them and that when he dies, then we can be together again. Heather gave me a wonderful hug and both of them will miss me....not as much as I will miss them. However I know they will have lots of fun and will be in good hands. It will be harder this time, being away from the kids with James here, the family seems more separated than before. Finlay has been more concerned with the fact that we will both be away. This time I know it is going to be straight into it on arrival, no tourist days, here for the full four weeks, also the realisation that this isn't going to be a breeze and the potential of my strength, fitness and quality of life being compromised all for a trial, that may or may not work. Also hearing from Janet with her disappointing news that the good cells which they had engineered had not been strong enough to stand against the bad guys. But how can I not give it a go. All these options now come with a cost. Tom Baker is only offering me chemotherapy which will definitely compromise my health and only potentially extend my life for 2 months.

We arrived late on the Sunday, was admitted, had blood work, ECG, urine etc and finally got to bed at 01.30, for a sleep before waking to book Heather and Finlay for swimming lessons for the fall and then a chest xray. Giving James and I the afternoon to buy groceries and go out for a meal.

Next day was a 8 am arrival at the ward, for a ct scan at 9.40. Later on met with Dr Patel and his team. Swallowing has now changed, it seems a bit more restricting when I don't concentrate on chewing, I also have right sided rib pain. All will be revealed when they go over the results of the ct scan later. But my tumours may be active and growing again.