2007

2007 looks like it will pick up where 2006 left off for Carolin. In the first week she'll be at the hospital for a spinal trace (a first for her) and an MRI of her head, in addition to the usual Herceptin intravenous. She is also working with her normal doctor ('normal' as in not cancer-related) on a problem with her finger tips that are painful. She's said before that January would be back to the full cancer treatments so she should've asked for a hospital parking pass for Christmas. 2007 will have more visits to the nice folks at the Foothills hospital.

From our house to yours, may all of you who have supported Carolin for so long, have a happy and healthy New Year.

Sandy

Disney's Tropical Christmas

I'm happy to report that our Christmas was merely confusing. Somehow Santa visited a small stateroom without waking anyone up. As for the hallways of our mighty vessel, I'll be quite happy not to hear Christmas caroles played on a steel drum for awhile. You really need snow for the proper effect although Disney tries hard with soap bubbles distributed liberally in common areas. Jessica's Christmas breakfast consisted of chocolate and Pez's - some things stay the same no matter the latitude.

Carolin's working hard to be independent. This can cause scenes later in the day when she runs out of energy but you can't fault her determination. As we all work through this we're learning when to offer help and when to get out of the way. Tomorrow we'll be home. I hope Calgary still has some snow.

Disney 3

There are some things you learn cruising. On this one I learned that any long series of ship horn blasts that doesn't sound like a Disney theme song, means we should get into our disney insignia life jackets and proceed to our nearest Goofy Getaway life raft. So far it's just been drills.

Made landfall at St. Maarten's. We passed on the canned tours and grabbed a taxi to a nice beach. We wanted to bypass the cruise companies and support the locals. I don't think the locals need our help any more. It cost $15 just to sit under an umbrella on a beach. But it was a nice beach and Jess had a great time racing waves and making friends. And big surprise - we avoided sunburn. Guess we had to save something for tomorrow.

Carolin did fine. A nap in the afternoon did wonders and she and I snuck away for a nice evening meal at the fancy cruise ship restaurant. Jess played at the kids club and didn't even miss us.

More later.

Disney 2

The cruise was to be the highlight of the trip and it looks like it will live up to the advance billing. None of us has been on a cruise before so it's all new and exciting.

Jess is having a very good time and is making a new best friend at a rate of about 1 per hour. She gets a kick out of getting her own food whenever she wants. Of course her choices are always healthy. Carolin's walking, not riding while on board. This limits how far we can go at any one stretch but there's often a rail or a wall handy if she feels too tippy. Lots of kids.

First stop was the exotic port of Key West. It poured rain all day so we weren't tempted to try the Key Lime Pie they advertised. Food isn't what we're short of.

Disney 1

Westjet got us to Orlando quite nicely and the luggage found its way to the hotel room by magic. Carolin is riding a wheelchair full time from the Calgary airport.

Disney World is very spread out. We ride buses to wherever we want to get to and so are now familiar with the challenges of wheelchairs and public transportation. A surprising number of disney rides accommodate people in chairs so we haven't been limited too much there. Carolin will transfer into seats in some rides. Jess wants to push most of the time.

Carolin's vision is poor and she has to work very hard to read menus. Things at a more than 20 ft are not visible for her. This combination with the commotion that only Walt Disney can put together, wear her out fast. It was a challenge to stay up late enough to catch one of the firework displays.

High points for the Magic Kingdom park and the bus drivers.
Low points for Epcot's rides with the exception of Soaring over California which was fantastic.
Two days with rain. Saturday off to the cruise.

vacation countdown

Carolin's difficulties getting around are continuing, The neck pain seems under control but the combination of double vision, bad balance and medication wears her out quickly, and a good nap in the middle of the day is necessary. Through all of this she keeps her conviction that she's going to get past this problem soon.

She'll see the radiation doctors for the neck and brain in the new year. On Tuesday we go on a trip so she and Jess can have some fun together. Several people have urged her to stay home but she won't cancel her chance to make memories with her daughter. It should be a special trip.

She has asked me to explain that she can't answer the emails of support she's getting. She values them and doesn't want people to think she's ignoring them. She wants me to wish Merry Christmas to everyone and that she'll be back blogging in the New Year.

Sandy

Staging results

Carolin had a battery of tests last week. This week we heard the source of the double vision and headaches.

The doctor says that the cancer is out of control right now. The brain tumour is larger but more MRI's are needed to determine if it's swelling (necrosis) or new growth. There is some (inconclusive) evidence that the cancer has spread to the outside of the brain. It is the source of the vision problem. Large doses of steroids are the treatment.

The neck pain is not entirely from the collapsing vertabrae. New cancer has appeared in the neck bones and is winding around the nerves. This may respond to radiation. A second opinion will be sought about treatment. Carolin sees the neck/cancer doctor tomorrow about stabilizing the neck. She has more pain killers in the mean time.

The liver spots are getting bigger however that is not a concern given the problems above.

Nobody is more upbeat about this than Carolin. It's amazing to me.

Sandy