Booked our trip to Instanbul and Ankara today. Kathryn leaves on Aug 20th for Ankara for a teaching job at Bilkent University, and will be there about a year. Laura and I plan to be in Ankara for the end of Ramadan (Sept 30th) ... Kathryn will have that week off.
So ... after cruising all the travel sites (Travelocity, Expedia, BootsnAll, Hotwire, etc) finally decided on a KLM-only trip. Vancouver-Amsterdam on Sept 14th. Amsterdam-Istanbul on Sept 19th. And home from Instanbul-Vancouver on Oct 4th. Decided to spend some time in Amsterdam because (a) it was about $200 more expensive than a direct flight and (b) my uncle Kenneth died in WWII and is buried in Nijmegen, Holland - about an hour from Amsterdam.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Stu Diack's Memorial
Stu Diack's Memorial was today at Grace Lutheran Church in Port Coquitlam. Although Stu didn't go to Church, his son John does - and he got permission to use the Sanctuary for the service. It was very moving - Chris Manseau (Stu's grandson, son of Janice and Ed), read the eulogy - interspersed with letters Stu sent home from WWII read by some of the other grandchildren (who are mostly 20-somethings). Chris had a special mention at the end of the eulogy for his mom, Janice. She put work on hold when her mom, Doris, was dying with cancer in 2001, and she did it again for her dad in 2008. Stu died at home surrounded by his family on Friday, June 27. He lived a full life, and his legacy is his family - we should all be so blessed.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Kathryn's Birthday
Today is Kathryn's 23rd Birthday. We met for dinner at Engima on West 10th Ave with Kath, Dave, Mary, Shawn and Ali. See Flickr for pictures of everybody else.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Oh, Minnekhada...
This is actually a bit of a test to see if anybody actually reads this blog. On Canada Day, July 1st, I went for a hike up Minnekhada (yes the same mountain that gave me the "early warning signs" that led to my open heart surgery two years ago) with Mike, Brenda and Janice. At the top of the High Knoll my right leg and right arm seemed weak and slightly uncoordinated. When we were coming down from the top, Janice asked if my leg was sore because I seemed to be limping. We went for coffee after the hike and I biked home without any problems - the weakness seemed to have gone away. We had a BBQ with the Plymouth Crescent crowd that night, and all was normal.
The next morning (Wednesday) I had a couple of teleconferences, which I did from home. I noticed that the weakness was back (not as severe) and that my typing was slower with many more mistakes. My speech seemed a little slurred, and my handwriting was basically illegible too. After talking with Steve Hall (I work with him), decided I best go see my doctor - who's office is just down the street. Dr. Woods didn't like my story - it had warning signs all over it, and referred me to the "Stroke Prevention Clinic" at Vancouver General Hospital. The clinic called on Thursday morning and I had an appointment on Friday at 11:30am.
I met with the Neurologist (Dr.Teal) and his resident (the Stroke Clinic is run by VGH and UBC) for about an hour. They could notice a slight difference between my right and left sides, and also with my fine motor skills on the right side. Dr.Teal got all my recent lab results, including the MIBI imaging done last September, and sent me next door to get a CTA (CAT scan/angiogram). The results of this test were posted on their internal web, and when I was done with the scan, Laura and I went back over to the clinic to talk with Dr. Teal about the results. The CTA showed a small stroke had occurred, but that it was already mostly healed. There was no tumor, and the large vessels in my neck and brain were all clear and OK.
Because there was confirmation of a stroke, but not obvious source for the clot, Dr. Teal sent me downstairs for bloodwork (12 vials!) and then upstairs for a heart ultrasound. The heart ultrasound also showed everything was working properly so all the major, obvious sources of the clot were crossed off the list. I'm to call Dr. Teal on Wednesday July 9 to see what the bloodwork showed. In all, Laura and I were at the clinic from 11am to 6pm. We saw Dr. Teal 3 different times, had a CTA scan, an ultrasound and bloodwork all done within 200 meters of his office. Pretty impressive. Stay tuned for the results!
The next morning (Wednesday) I had a couple of teleconferences, which I did from home. I noticed that the weakness was back (not as severe) and that my typing was slower with many more mistakes. My speech seemed a little slurred, and my handwriting was basically illegible too. After talking with Steve Hall (I work with him), decided I best go see my doctor - who's office is just down the street. Dr. Woods didn't like my story - it had warning signs all over it, and referred me to the "Stroke Prevention Clinic" at Vancouver General Hospital. The clinic called on Thursday morning and I had an appointment on Friday at 11:30am.
I met with the Neurologist (Dr.Teal) and his resident (the Stroke Clinic is run by VGH and UBC) for about an hour. They could notice a slight difference between my right and left sides, and also with my fine motor skills on the right side. Dr.Teal got all my recent lab results, including the MIBI imaging done last September, and sent me next door to get a CTA (CAT scan/angiogram). The results of this test were posted on their internal web, and when I was done with the scan, Laura and I went back over to the clinic to talk with Dr. Teal about the results. The CTA showed a small stroke had occurred, but that it was already mostly healed. There was no tumor, and the large vessels in my neck and brain were all clear and OK.
Because there was confirmation of a stroke, but not obvious source for the clot, Dr. Teal sent me downstairs for bloodwork (12 vials!) and then upstairs for a heart ultrasound. The heart ultrasound also showed everything was working properly so all the major, obvious sources of the clot were crossed off the list. I'm to call Dr. Teal on Wednesday July 9 to see what the bloodwork showed. In all, Laura and I were at the clinic from 11am to 6pm. We saw Dr. Teal 3 different times, had a CTA scan, an ultrasound and bloodwork all done within 200 meters of his office. Pretty impressive. Stay tuned for the results!
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