Delays, Disease, and Destruction

Although this post sounds kind of ominous, and for the people affected it was, we have come through unscathed.

Once I got the "all clear" to travel after a good CT scan, we hopped in the car and overlanded to Calgary.
The intent was to visit family that had been crossing their fingers for several months hoping things would turn out OK. We would stay with Kelly D, who lost her husband (and my buddy) to a glioblastoma in 2010.

We took two days from Vancouver, and stopped in Revelstoke overnight. The following day, which was supposed to be a quick run into Calgary, turned into a major delay on Hwy 1 just outside of Field, BC. A terrible accident (non-fatal) closed the highway in both directions for about four hours. We were there for all four - I couldn't bring myself to turn around and detour through Golden and Radium. Thirty degree heat, open asphalt, and a thousand stranded cars and semi-trailers.

On the Saturday my cousin, Debra, hosted a family dinner with the "surface of the sun" temperatures Calgary was feeling. Fortunately, she had air conditioning. Unfortunately, it was the first sign for me that something might be wrong.

I woke up Sunday morning shivering, and with a 39 degree fever. I called BC Cancer, thinking this might be a side effect of the Nivolumab, but they said it likely wasn't. I was to monitor it and go get checked out if things remained the same or got worse. It got worse really quickly, so Laura drove me to Emergency at Foothills Hospital to get checked out. Alberta Health still had me in their records from thirty years ago in Okotoks.

Dr. David Choi was attending, and he was excellent. Came back to me in about an hour and said "you have a screaming urine infection" (UTI). They also ran a blood culture to make sure nothing was growing there either, and a chest x-ray just to round things out. The chest x-ray did show suspected LLL pneumonia.

So I was put of Levofloxacin for a week. This is the same drug used for Anthrax. They also gave me a nice little form to show who had done what, and to copy it to my GP.

I actually felt worse on the Monday, but things had definitely improved by Tuesday morning. As I write this on Sunday, all systems seem back to normal.

When Laura planned our trip, we were going to end it with four days at the Panorama Ski Resort (not to ski, we have a membership with Hilton Vacations). It cost her a lot of points so it was important to go if I was OK.

I was OK but the planet is not OK. Jasper was destroyed on Wednesday night, and the scene is horrific. We got a phone call from a friend in Invermere (just outside of Panarama) on Thursday morning that it was "apocalyptic" there too. Laura called the General Manager and she said "do not come" and they would refund the points. 

So we stayed an extra night in Calgary and headed home taking the southern route (Hwy 3). We took our time there as well, and divided it over three days. Note that we probably dodged a wildfire or two on the trip home as well. Smokey in many of the places we stopped, until we got west of the Okanagan Valley.

Three down, ten to go.

This week was treatment number three of Nivolumab. Up to now, there have been no side effects whatever, so it's pretty much like a saline IV for a half hour.

But this time was preceded by a meeting with Dr. Lilly Lee. She was standing in for Dr. Noonan - my regular oncologist, who is on vacation. I found her somewhere between my urologist - Dr. Wong - and Dr. Noonan in terms of temperament, although she has significantly more clinical experience than either of them (I guess her age as late forties, early fifties - and has been practising oncology for twenty years). Pretty pragmatic. Pretty matter-of-fact. But with an empathetic veneer. 

Anyway, she and I talked for about a half hour. She referred to the Nivolumab as the "insurance therapy" they were not able to offer just a couple of years ago. Back then, a person in my position would be left to go home and see what happened - there was no additional treatment available for muscle invasive bladder cancer. You either lived or you died.

Although I couldn't really pin her down, she did admit that a clear CT at this stage was a good thing. In her practice she would likely not do another until the full course of treatment was done (one year) - or maybe none at all. Her comment was "why go looking for trouble". I can see her point - if there are no symptoms and something is discovered, all you do is introduce anxiety. If there are symptoms, do the CT to help determine what it is.

So for now, things are good. I feel great, we're travelling again this summer, and have booked flights to The Canary Islands in November to see our friends Andrew and Cheryl on their catamaran (that's their boat in the photo).

Carpe diem?

PS: I did buy a watch. Casio G-Shock custom made for me in the UK.