The Bet

Hi to Everyone!
Yes, the half a head that you see above is mine. This picture is from early June so at that time it had about 2 and a half months worth of growth on it. Now being late July, I have added approximately another 1/2 cm in length and it looks a bit more filled in at the front... I am nice and fuzzy and 'salt & pepper' in hue...
THE BET: My dear Mom is an optimistic soul and she seems to think that by Haydens Birthday, which is mid-September, that I will have as much hair on my head as her - ie. enough for 'a style'. I find this very doubtful but hey, what have I got to loose? Hmmmm...now that I think about it - there is no wager riding on this bet...I'll have to think of something to make it interesting...
I am writing far less frequently as my life consists of the standard 'day-to-day' interspersed with late mornings, afternoon naps, and various rest periods - medically/health-wise there aren't any major updates on me. Some wonderful personal highlights included Kel & Steve's wedding and a visit to the Lambie cousins and I thank Mom again for her support of me through these days so I could be there and she acted as Haydens primary caregiver so I could rest when needed.
I hope the summer is treating everyone well - even if it is a bit of a damp one - there are worse things than a little rain - remember that!! :-)
My best to all -
Carey

Bits & Pieces

Hello Everyone!
A couple of entries ago I mentioned that some, well let's call them ‘odd’, events/persons entered my life during the whole hospital in-patient process. You know; the bits and pieces of life that make it both exasperating and humorous in the same moments of time – these are a few of those particular events/persons that I would like to record for posterity - I hope you enjoy them as well…

B&P #1; GOLUM
Okay, this incident occurred the day I had my remaining hair shorn from my head. The nurse who did the job was amazing – I am not referring to her shearing expertise but more so as to how kind she was about the results…she made me feel pretty okay about ‘my look’ as I left my hospital room and went to the common room where my parents and hubby awaited me and my head (we go hand-in-hand per se)…
In the common room also sat a lady visiting her mom on the ward. She took in my new look and after my parents left and it was just me & my husband sitting there she proceeded to tell me her personal experience with chemo-inspired baldness. Now, I am paraphrasing but basically her tale was of her friend who went through chemo a little while back and that on the day she first saw her friend bald, ‘she cried and cried for her’ and felt so bad for her because her bald head reminded her family of that awful creature named Golum from the Lord of the Rings tales and they nicknamed her that!!!. So, there I sat, freshly cropped, thinking that I now too am a living, walking Golum and hoping my friends reactions were not to ‘cry and cry’. What a lady – open mouth, insert foot! After she finished her speech I literally sat with my mouth kind of gaping at her and made a quick headway back to my room, where after thinking about her audaciousness, had a good laugh.

B&P #2; ANNA
Ahhhh, dear, sweet Anna… I had a couple of roommates during my hospital stay prior to getting a private room and my favourite was Anna. Anna was not an oncology patient. The poor lady, bless her, actually had a heart failure incident that night before her very large 80th birthday party but there wasn’t space in the cardiology unit so she became my roomie. Little, sweet, 80 year old Anna spent half of her time looking out the window and rating the construction workers physiques and the other half trying to persuade me to break out of the hospital with her to hit some strip clubs down the way in St. Catherines. I kid you not. She was awesome.

B&P #3; CO-Ed
I made history at Henderson Hospital. A very special roommate of mine, and I, both deserve a placard or something equally notable, in our humble opinions…
It all started with a strange notice on the hospital walls. It read that the hospital had initiated a 6 week trial where they were implementing co-ed rooms for better occupancy and billing practices to the insurance companies…yadda, yadda, yadda…I do not remember all the itty-bitty details as it certainly was amusing but in no way related to me -so I thought. Ha-ha. Enter the Hospital Coordinator. A bouncy, cheerful, determined and word wise lady who told me of a young man who needed to get in to the hospital right away [Okay], and there were no rooms available [Uh-huh], and without a room his treatment would be delayed [Why are we telling ME all this?]…and I had an empty bed beside me so would I volunteer to be roomies???? [Ikes!] Sooooo, with that, what on earth could I say but yes??? (He was asked the same line of questions he told me…i.e., would you mind rooming with a girl???) Low and behold, a ½ day later my new roomie is a dude named Antony! Good guy…nice guy…but a guy!!! What the hospital only told us after the fact was that we were the FIRST and only two patients in the whole trial period to date to agree to this strange new world!! It was only for a couple of days and he really was a gentleman but I must say that sharing a room a là old university-roommate style but with the opposite sex was definitely a strange experience. Kudos to us for being so liberal!

B&P #4; A REALLY ODD (Bad) DAY
Okay, I laugh at this one a lot. It did not take me long to put it into perspective and enjoy the surreal-ness of this particular day, really it was not even a whole day, it was just a morning but, oh-my-gosh; WHAT a morning…
So I begin about 7am-ish. I am in the itty-bitty bathroom in my room, the one I am sharing with the dude. The hospital has this insane idea that a person AND an IV pole can fit comfortably into a 3X4 foot closet already occupied with a toilet and sink…laughable. Oh, and I must mention the bi-fold privacy door with no lock. You see, that is important because that was what was yanked open at full force at 7am by a hospital orderly with me in there – Ikes! She yelped, I yelped louder as both my privacy was invaded and an IV pole was slammed into my knee and from that day forward she learned to knock! Mortifying but a recoverable incident soon to blend into a forgettable day if not for the quick-on-that-incidents-heels moment when the other kindly orderly brings in my breakfast tray with a cheery ‘Good Morning, Sir!’. As a new Lady-Baldy, I was not amused.

We could end there. Sure. But this is ME. I am a magnet for the ridiculous at times. So, my next prize moment occurred about 10am. Antony was gone for the day for treatments and tests so it is just me in the room. This man walks into the room and asks me, ‘Do you need to go to the bathroom?’ Ummmm, huh? Well, this is the maintenance man and the reason he is asking is he has to remove my bathroom door but before he does, ‘do I need to go?’. Okay, this can’t be real I think. Ummm- why, dear man, do we have to take away my washroom door? Is there a shortage? Are we rotating them? Well, apparently they have to take the whole door away for the rest of the day to add little pull handles to them and…blah, blah, blah…I am too kerfuddled with the thought of not having a bathroom door to care about the details, so OFF it goes to bathroom-door-maintenance-world and I am left to contemplate which bathrooms in the unit have doors remaining should I need one…
Good enough for one weird day huh? There’s more! Of course there is more! My dad comes to visit and he is sitting at the end of my bed just before noon when he looks at me and says ‘An old man just went into your bathroom’. (You know, the one without a freaking door!). Now, just because it doesn’t have a door does not mean it is publicly accessible!!! You have to walk into my room and then into the washroom, which the old feller does. And sans-door, he proceeds to tinkle. OMG! He then shuffles out of my room back into the hall…with me never hearing a flush – ugh! Now bless his soul, this is a really old guy and we are sympathetic, so my Dad goes into the bathroom to make things as they should be but he quickly exits to tell me the old guy has tinkled EVERYwhere. Like the toilet wasn’t even a passing thought for aim. This bathroom has become a curse!! A vortex for the wacky I tell you! Some rapid depressions of the call button got the whole room sanitized efficiently and thoroughly thank goodness but, honestly!!!!
So, that is it. An amazingly odd 5 hours in the life of me on this strangely bad morning.

I hope you have enjoyed these random experiences of mine as I took a look back in time. I personally chuckle when I recall them…or at least smile wryly.
Speaking now in the present, I can tell you that I am feeling better as this time goes by and though still in need of many good sleep hours, I am regaining more energy and able to get out for some periods of time which definitely helps me feel back a part of the human race.
With humour, hope and my best to you all,
Carey