It would appear that I’ve missed posting the results of a pertinent appointment or two… the first was a followup with Dr. Williams, my surgeon, on the 19th, and the actual face-to-face with Dr. Naiker on the 20th.Okay, so let’s deal with Dr. Williams first.We started off the session by being evaluated by Dr. Williams intern, Gugan… and I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t get her last name. She was great, however. Funny, personable and quite thorough in her questioning and probing.Dr. Williams was also in pretty good form… We ambushed him off the top with a ‘hello’ … Continue reading Filling in the blanks…

And when I got home from work on Friday afternoon, I found Gail in a terrible state. She had spent the afternoon ruminating on what the medical receptionist had said, and was absolutely freaked out. A friend of hers, Nancy, had actually come over to the house to try to keep her calm while they waited for me to get home. And she had ‘blown off’ a fairly important meeting because she was so distraught.We talked… and I was so frustrated with her interpretation of the phone call, and actually quite worried about her state of mind that I called … Continue reading …and when I got home…

Oddly enough the recent battle with cancer has resulted in more planning for the future, rather than less… we have spoken with people who are focused on ‘taking it one day at a time’. For us, it has become about finding a through line to retirement and what I can only refer to as ‘contentment’. Gail is completely reevaluating her career strategy. In an ideal world, she will retire in 6 years. Also, in that ideal world, she will suddenly rediscover job satisfaction. Will she be able to do both? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that … Continue reading

Benjamin Disraeli once said in a speech that “change is inevitable”, and that “change is a constant”. The challenge is for us, as individuals or as a society, is to grow with the change. And a big part of the growth associated with change is ‘acceptance’, or at least being able to acknowledge the change and work with it, while still moving forward.Okay, so I’m not entirely sure that I’m rising to the challenge. The cancer has forced certain changes into my life, into my ways of doing things, into my perceptions of things. I’m supposed to grow along with … Continue reading

I’ve been trying to upload some photos of the Tall Ships that I took in Liverpool, but the blogger system is rejecting them for some reason… I’ll have a quick bash at ’em and try to figure out what’s doing on…Its been a nice weekend for me… kinda quiet, though. Saturday, while Jennifer and a friend were in Calgary at the zoo and then having lunch with my sister, I got on my motorcycle, and fighting horrendous head winds, drove out to Lake Wabumum and back. Interesting experience. I thought my bike was a difficult ride until I started passing … Continue reading

Wow… its been a few days since I last wrote. Sorry ’bout that… I arrived home on Tuesday evening, on time… the flight was a good one. Air Canada can be so good, why do they have to make the domestic flights such a challenge? I sat beside a young woman from the UK who is on a temporary work visa in Canada; an estimator with a big UK engineering firm who has been secunded to ATCO to help on the construction of their contribution to the Alberta power transmission grid. She was quite excited and quizzed me about Edmonton … Continue reading