Two Weeks Home

Teresa’s been living at her own home for two weeks now. Marian visited from Ottawa for the first week to help with the transition, and had a great time. “Visiting with Mom is like a vacation!” Part of the relaxation involved watching DVDs: Saving Private Ryan and The Pursuit of Happyness, a nice balance of weighty and light fare.

Sophia's blanket is coming along nicely

Since Teresa went solo during the second week, it was somewhat different from the first week. It takes about 10 days for the effects of a chemo treatment to wear off, so Teresa was still a bit fatigued. Plus the house is distinctly quiet – when you’re alone anywhere, the silence can be deafening sometimes. Teresa is still not well enough to leave the house unassisted, so there’s an element of cabin fever as well. You can get a closed-in feeling unless you escape those four walls once in a while.

From the archives: Christine (left), Teresa, and Theodore

Still, Teresa likes being at home. Cooking her own food in her own environment is a simple pleasure. Sometimes a bit of loneliness creeps into the mix. The pastor of Mom’s church dropped by this week for a visit, and Teresa appreciated that he took his time. Pastor Dan suggested that maybe Teresa was feeling a little blue because she had been looking forward to returning home for so long, and the reality didn’t match expectations. That old Peggy Lee song comes to mind –
“Is That All There Is?”

Summer '07: Teresa's sister Corrie (left), Teresa, sister Mary, niece Miriam (front), sister Nelly (rear), daughter Susan (shades), sister-in-law Shirley

Teresa plans to stay at home for as long as possible. Once the radiation starts she may return to John and Susan’s for a week or two as necessary, but that would likely be short-term only. Next week Teresa expects to get firm dates for her course of radiation treatment, which will probably start up in late March. The radiation will involve four weeks of treatment (Monday to Friday each week) at Credit Valley Hospital.

A Welcome Visitor

Teresa has been living at her own home since Saturday Feb23, enjoying the independent life for a week or two. Marian is visiting from Ottawa, and provides welcome support for tasks like meal preparation and grocery shopping. Back at Susan and John’s place, we’ve noticed a significant drop in the number of incoming phone calls this week. Coincidence? I think not!

Marian (left), Teresa, Susan

The final chemo treatment took place on Wednesday, an important milestone in Teresa’s battle against cancer. Towards the end of March the regimen switches to radiation. Teresa will receive four weeks of radiation treatment (Monday to Friday) at Credit Valley Hospital. Unlike chemotherapy, the only notable side effect from radiation is fatigue. There’s no hair loss, no cankers, or any other unpleasantness. That’s certainly a welcome change from the many and varied side effects of the last five months.

After radiation's done, Teresa is slated to receive Herceptin treatments every three weeks for one year. Herceptin is administered intravenously at the hospital, and promises no hair loss or nausea. This therapy is supposed to prevent the growth of new cancer cells. For more info about Herceptin, click here.

Relocation plans – well, that’s enough with the house maintenance. Teresa has taken an apartment at Holland Christian Homes here in Brampton, a lovely two-bedroom unit on the second floor of Hope Towers. She plans to move in the spring, exact date to be determined because of uncertainty about the radiation treatments. Life at HCH will be much simpler - no snow to shovel, no water heater to fix, no skunks to evict! Just one call to maintenance does it all.

HCH has six towers, and over 1,200 residents

Teresa already has three sisters living at HCH, and she is well known there from her years of volunteering. As any HCH resident will tell you, it’s a great place to live. For more info, click here.

Reminder - spring is around the corner!

Final Chemo Treatment (#8)

Yep, the end is in sight – Teresa goes for her FINAL chemo treatment next week Wednesday. It’s been 21 weeks since she started chemotherapy, a pretty difficult road that has involved hair loss, fatigue, and shifting residences for a few weeks. In late March, radiation treatments start up and hair growth should return.

Teresa is feeling pretty good right now. Energy levels are up slightly, and she’s able to handle light housework such as ironing and washing dishes. Last Saturday, Teresa had a great time at her church’s ladies potluck lunch. That was one of the few non-medical outings that she’s had in the last couple of months. Many thanks to Sherry Grant for providing transportation.

Sherry Grant and Teresa - off to the potluck lunch

On Saturday, daughter Marian arrives from Ottawa to spend a week with her mom at Mom’s house in Brampton. The prospect of moving back home for a couple of weeks is exciting for Teresa, since of course there’s no place like home. When Marian returns home after a week, Teresa plans to try going solo for another week. This is one tough lady!

Susan's orchid - not as cute as baby Sophia, but still nice to look at

Next Tuesday will be a medical double header; besides the usual pre-chemo treatment bloodwork, Teresa will meet with her doctor to discuss a series of injections that she’ll receive over the next year. Once the chemo treatments are over, Teresa is supposed to get these monthly injections at the hospital to keep the cancer under control – kind of a “chemo lite.” We’ll have more info on these injections next week.

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Marty’s Funeral - here are some photos John took of his brother’s funeral service on February 5 in Thunder Bay, plus other related events. You can review the pictures by clicking this link:

Marty's funeral - pix

If you click View as slideshow you can view the pix quite nicely. You can see the captions for each photo by clicking the “i” that appears in the middle of the first photo.

February Blahs

The watchword for this week was “tired”. Might be the weather or might be the chemo, but whatever the cause Teresa was rather sapped of energy. However, Teresa has much experience with fatigue at this stage of the treatment, so it’s nothing unusual.

With all the snow in Brampton this past week, Mom’s quite happy to be living elsewhere for the time being. Her neighbour agreed to keep her driveway clean of snow, which has been a real blessing this year. Unfortunately, the big storms last weekend made it impossible for Marian and Lee to visit from Ottawa, but that’s life in the snow belt. The new target for the Dekorte visit is later this month.

Teresa actually ran the show here for a couple of days while John and Susan were up in Thunder Bay for the funeral of John's brother, Martin. Susan flew up with John’s mom on Thursday January 31, returning Saturday evening February 2. In situations like this you can certainly see the difference that experience makes!

New and Improved - due to file size limits, last week’s George Lassche slide show only contained four slides. If you click the link below, you can view all the slides in the original PowerPoint show.

George Lassche slide show

The link opens a new browser window and takes you to John’s Flickr account. Once you are there, just click View as slideshow (just above all the picture tiles, on the right) to see all the slides in order. Once the slideshow starts, you’ll see a circled “i” in the middle of the photo. Click the “i” to display captions. When the slideshow is over, you can just close the browser window.

Also, note the new link to the Family Hartwick blog, in the Links section on the right of this page. Just click that link to check on the latest happenings with baby Sophia, Christine, and Mark.