Little Big Horn - Custer's Last Stand

We drove today from Billings, Montana to Buffalo, Wyoming. Enroute, we spent a few hours at the Little Big Horn National Memorial. It's a beautiful park, and one of the only battles the USA has been in where they marked exactly where people fell/died. Everyone is buried either in a mass grave, taken "home" by the natives (for warriors), or in the case of Custer himself, buried at West Point - where he graduated. The battle grounds are littered with tiny white (for US Calvary and civilians) or red (for Native American) "grave" markers. I noticed that, over time, the story is becoming less US Calvary - centric and more balanced. The Native Americans give a pretty good tour which describes the avalanching mistakes made by the US Calvary, resulting is this bloody slaughter. Everyone under Custer's command died.

Pompey's Pillar....

The pastor at Mike's funeral said something quite profound; "we live this one life like we have two". We only have one life, so when you get near someplace you might want to see, go see it! We are only about 30 minutes away from Pompey's Pillar - where William Clark carved his signature into the sandstone - the only physical evidence that the Lewis and Clark Expedition ever took place (who knew?). So we went. We also took a look at some petroglyphs left by early American natives, before the time of the horse, near here....

Gulf Oil Spill

Although this isn't  really a "spill" - more like a "fountain" - the devastation is the same.
This photo from the Boston Globe: http://tinyurl.com/2465cbg

Welcome to Billings

We're now camped out at a KOA on the Yellowstone River, in Billings, Montana. Last night, we were beside the Boulder River near Big Timber, Montana (the film "A River Runs Through It", was filmed there). The temperature is starting to warm up - not quite shorts weather, but nearly. En route to Deadwood, Sturgis, Mount Rushmore, The Crazy Horse Monument, Devils Tower, Sundance, Little Big Horn - there's a lot to see in this part of the USA!

Cancer research for Mike...

Everyone that knows me, knows of Mike Devall. Mike died on May 22nd of his cancer, but had a special relationship with Dr. Gerry Minuk, from the John Buhler Research Centre. The JBRC is part of the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Although Dr. Minuk's research is primarily hepatology, he is a friend of Mike's sister (Shaunna) and took special interest in Mike's case, researching it (specifically) and has recently launched new cancer research, inspired by Mike.

Initially, we thought that we should direct some funding his way, but have since learned that he, himself, has donated to the charity Kelly and Mike chose. Please donate anything you can to:

Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

620 Colborne Street, Suite 301

London, Ontario  N6B 9Z9

Canada

How to Return Facebook's Privacy Settings to What You Signed Up For

Everybody who uses Facebook should have a look:

How to Return Facebook's Privacy Settings to What You Signed Up For

Mike's Funeral

Too many funerals for young people (first Jack, now Mike, almost me). Mike's service was beautiful, and one of Mike's friends (Cliff) read my eulogy. Several people from the old HP days came, which was really nice - we promised to stay in touch (even Pius Ching, who left for HP-China some twenty years ago, was there).

Henry Irving, a long-time HP friend and one of Mike's business partners was there, along with his wife. Henry and I were on HP neophyte training together some 26 years ago. Bohdan, my too-tall friend was there as well, along with Hal, MaryLynn, Balvinder, Mark Mesunes, and Dave Vincent - all from HP/Agilent.

Farewell, my friend......

For posterity purposes (and especially since I want to keep a copy), here's my eulogy...

Hi ... my name is Cliff, and I'm reading this for Doug - who's been a friend of Mike's for over 25 years. As fate would have it, he survived a stroke in October of 2009, and lost his voice. His voice is slowly coming back, but he's asked me to read this for him, as he can't at this point. 

Laura and I first met Mike and Kelly when I started with HP in Edmonton in 1984. Actually, that's not quite true - I had met Mike several times when I was a customer of his at Northern Telecom in Saskatoon. I remember thinking at that time that it would be cool to become his friend, because the guy was smart, funny, and not too tall. Fate struck later that year, when I was offered a job at HP in Edmonton where Mike and I would work together. Mike helped us move into our little apartment in West Edmonton Village. He and Kelly had recently bought a small house in Mill Woods. I remember leaving work with Mike one Friday, and he reminded me the we had to come up with ten ideas to make a million dollars before the weekend was out. Laura and I owned a very large aquarium at the time, so one of our ideas was breeding piranha.

A short time later, Mike and I went downtown to look at this new computer "the Mac". Mike was so impressed that we gave up on the piranha idea, and decided to start writing software. Our first and only attempt was with a thing called "Turbo Pascal" and we never got past creating a logo. There seemed to be a new "get rick quick" scheme hatched in Mike's brain every day. We were transferred back to Saskatoon in '85, and Mike left HP to go to Northwest Digital soon after. The Friday afternoon schemes had to happen over the phone, or on shared weekends - of which there seemed to be many.

In the fall of 1984, Mike told us that Kelly was pregnant. Not to be outdone, we got pregnant too. Caitlin was born in the April of 1985, and our daughter followed that same summer. Then Brennan was born in June 1987, followed closely by, you guessed it, our son later that same summer. Nothing like keeping up with the Jones'. Over those early years, although we never seemed to live in the same city, we saw lots of each other. Camping trips to the Okanagan, road trips to Oregon and California, family holidays in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, or Vancouver. Our kids grew up together, and the four of us new parents were looking forward to growing old together. 

Our first time staying with Mike and Kelly was shortly after the girls were born. We were now living in Saskatoon. At the time, they had two dogs. We slept in the living room while the dogs destroyed the kitchen. Actually, one of the most embarrassing moments in Kelly's life, I'm sure, was having to clean up after a dog with diarrhea while people she barely knew slept in the living room beside her. There's no stronger way to start a friendship than with a little embarrassment. 

I also remember one summer, shortly after we'd moved back to Vancouver, that Kelly and I went out for a run ... bottom line, Kelly and I got separated, she went right and I went left, and the police eventually brought her back to our place. During all of this, while everybody was freaking out and I was convinced she was in a ditch someplace, Mike said to me "don't worry - she'll show up - she get's lost all the time". If he was worried, he didn't show it, and his calm was reflected in the kids - it was no big deal.

In 1996, Mike and I had some training in San Jose, California. Good excuse for a road trip - with the company paying for hotel rooms! Anyways, Mike told us all about driving through a giant redwood tree somewhere in Northern California when he was on training a few months previous, so we were forced to go along with Mike on his grand adventure to find the tree and drive through it. Needless to say, there turns out to be several trees you can drive through in California, and after the third one, I made Mike pay for my car too. The kids thought it was hilarious, as I got more and more frustrated about this stupid tree...

As recently as two years ago, Mike and Kelly joined us in Palm Springs for a week, and Mike and I started to talk about what the next 50 years would look like. This was before any of this had happened to him or to me, and I tried to convince him that buying an RV was a good idea and that eventually Kelly would agree - he just had to sell it hard. We looked at some RV's down in Palm Desert, and Mike even helped me convince Laura that I had bought a big truck from the local Toyota dealer in Indio. He let her stew about that overnight before letting her know it wasn't true. Mike called later that same summer to explain that the 2-Buck-Chuck we were drinking, was actually $3.15 buck chuck by the time he got it home to Calgary. This was as complicated as life got - how to import cheap wine through the border at Sweetgrass.

When Mike was diagnosed last year, I asked him if he was ready for this .. if he'd made his peace. He said he had, and in my opinion he did way better than me in handling his fate. He had last summer on the boat in Sicamous, perhaps his favorite place, and he looked happy. We saw them again as soon as I could travel after the stroke in February, and he looked content. We saw him yet again a couple of weeks ago, and he looked content ... now he was spitting food and laughing just like me, trying to talk and swallow without choking! As a matter of fact, the only time we've seen Mike truly unhappy was when the Oilers traded Gretzky.

One of my favorite pieces of advice about living comes from an unusual source, Ricky Gervais, creator of the TV series "The Office". Ricky said this in an interview once, and Mike and I talked about this as being pretty true: "Live your life, have a laugh, and try not to hurt anybody". From my perspective, Mike succeeded in all of these.

Mike was a great friend, the smartest guy I ever met, and his best friend just happened to be his wife. He will be missed. We love you Mike.

Snow...

It's officially winter here in Okotoks. Laura and I went to get groceries (at the WalMart Superstore - someplace I never thought I'd go - and still feel guilty about), and while we were inside, the temperature dropped to ZERO and it started to snow. Welcome to Calgary in the winter (that'd be all-year-round except for 3 days in early August)

Okotoks RV - Mike's Memorial

This is a second attempt at actually USING this Blog. It's been a couple of years, so please bear with me....

Laura and I travelled here to Calgary to attend Mike Devall's funeral tomorrow on Friday, May 28. Mike suffered through a year of brain cancer, and sadly passed away last Saturday. We're here for a week, and then will travel back to Vancouver through Deadwood/Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Craters-of-the-Moon Park, etc... We'll spend most of the summer back in Vancouver.

We came here initially from Palm Springs in late April to see Mike one last time. We left our trailer here in Calgary (at Hal's place) knowing that we'd be back soon. Yesterday, we moved the trailer from Hal's place to the Lions RV Park in Okotoks.

Dave (our son) is now travelling through Italy, and Kathryn (our daughter) is still teaching in Ankara, Turkey. She'll be home, for at least a year, in July.

How I Became Doug 3.1

OK, it's actually been over a year since this happened, but I'm going to insert it into my blog in the appropriate place (back date the entry). I'm doing this for two reasons: (1) At the time, I was incapacitated to the point where writing in a blog was impossible and (2) to fill in the many-month gap in the story - trying to do this before I forget everything that happened (I probably have already forgotten a great deal). The dates are going to have to be approximate (other than the initial event) - Laura had them marked on a calendar - but then we went and threw the calendar out at the end of 2009.

The Event

I was feeling somewhat peculiar on Monday, October 5th, 2009. I can't specifically say what it was, but I wasn't feeling completely OK. I went in the morning - must have been about 11am - to get my hair cut. When I got back home I hassled Laura and Dave about taking the dog for a walk, and they must have left about noon. I had some lunch, and remember a flushed/hot feeling behind my right eye ... I thought this may be a sign of a stroke, so I had a glass of water and laid down on the couch for a bit. I told myself that I would get up in a bit and check myself for signs of a stroke at that time. Weirdly prescient. When I got up from the short nap, at almost exactly 12:30pm, I could feel my right arm and leg starting to go numb. I knew immediately that  it was a stroke, and fortunately the phone was sitting on the coffee table right in front of me. I dialed 9-1-1 and they sent an ambulance right away.

I could hear the ambulance arrive, but at this point couldn't move or talk loudly. I could tell they were at the front door, and after some intial banter (don't know if they could hear me or not) came upstairs to find me bent over on the couch. They put me in a chair and carried me out of the house and, as luck would have it, I could still talk and saw our neighbor Angie at the front door. I confirmed with the ambulance guys where I was headed (Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster), and Angie said she'd tell Laura when she got home. I remember she and Dave arriving very soon after I got to RCH.

Royal Columbian

I was met in Emergency immediately by a stroke team, and was admitted by Dr. Mendavev (Neurologist). Shortly after arriving, I was asked to give their permission to administer the clot-fighting drug TPH. At this point I could still write, and filled out some consent forms for the hospital. After the drug had been administered, I was wheeled back into emergency - where I remained for a coupe of nights - before moving upstairs to the Neurology ward. Mom and dad, Rob, Don, and many of our friends visited me at RCH. While at Royal Columbian Dr. Mendevev ran the full gamut of tests - everything from a MRI, CAT scan, brain angiogram, ultrasound of my legs and carotid arteries, and everything except a spinal tap. They found nothing. The stroke was in the cerebellum at the base of my brain. A clot in an artery no larger in diameter than a human hair.  

I felt pretty good in the hospital. I don't remember ever being depressed. I spent that first weekend - October 10-11 at RCH, and had lots of visitors (people wanted me to reimburse them for parking at RCH - very expensive). Physio had me up and walking a few times, and although I couldn't notice it, I leaned heavily to one side - my center of balance had changed. 

Eagle Ridge

I got lucky, and on the Tuesday, October 13, I moved aver to Eagle Ridge Hospital's Rehab Program. I started Physiotherapy with Sandra on Wednesday the 13th, and at this time my voice was basically unaffected, so I had no speech therapy.

I got certified to enter and leave a car that first week (but not to climb stairs), and went out on Saturday to the mall, and to home (downstairs only). Don, Carol and kids came over and spent Saturday with me. On Sunday, we went for a walk (I was in a wheelchair) through Rocky Point, and even went to a movie. Overall, my progress seemed good.

When Kathryn (my daughter, who was working teaching English in Ankara, Turkey) heard the news about me, she came home for two weeks - so I saw her that weekend and in to the following week. Dave, my son, was to leave for India and Nepal on October 6th! Fortunately, he had bought trip cancellation insurance, so got most of his money back. Laura and I contributed the rest, so Dave was made whole, financially anyways.

Second Floor

On or about October 20th, my friend Andrew came to take me to lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Halfway through lunch, I found that ability to chew was gone ... halfway through a grilled cheese sandwich. Andrew wheeled me back to the unit, and they moved me up for a few days to the second floor - Managed Care Unit (normally for cardiac patients - I was in the same bed as I was in in 2006 for my heart!). I went for another MRI, and all they could determine was that there was some swelling in the area of the stroke, which should go down in a few days. During this time, they kept my bed for me downstairs in Physio - so after 2 or 3 days, I moved back downstairs.

Second Time, Second Floor

One evening about October 24th, I passed out while on the toilet. I was unconscious for a minute or so - and I subsequently lost my ability to swallow at will, and talking was off and on. Up to the second floor (MCU) I went again. This time, I was in MCU for 3 or 4 days, and then moved to a general ward around October 27th. I was sent back to RCH for another MRI (note that the ambulance attendants were working to rule - on strike). The results for this one seemed forever to come, but eventually the on-call hospitalist (doctor) let it slip that I had had another stroke. This news really devastated me, but Dr.Mendavev pretty much summed up my situation - it doesn't matter what they find, it only matters how I feel.

While I was on the second floor, I had all kinds of new challenges. I lost my ability to speak completely, so I was using a laminated board with letters on it ... quite the challenge for people to follow me pointing! I couldn't shave or brush my teeth - so mom and dad, who came every day for a few weeks, would help me with those things. I couldn't chew food, so I was on a minced food diet (gross), which I frequently spit up uncontrollably. My brother, Rob, wore a few lunches courtesy of me. While up there Dr. Mendavev put me on Prosac - at that point I stopped  sleeping. I took myself off Prosac after only a week or so, but the insomnia kept on.  I had to be put on a wait list for Physio now, as I had been gone for too long. Finally, on November 12th I moved back down to a new bed in Physio. 

Second Physio

Along with a new bed I got a new physiotherapist (Ruth) and Speech Pathologist (Colleen). Ruth said, the very first day, that if I could resign myself to staying in a wheelchair for a little longer, she would get me walking with no intermediate (and maybe permanent) steps.

I stayed at the hospital for that first Physio weekend, but went home (and upstairs!) every weekend after that. Speech Pathology seemed to be more hit-and-miss. I still cannot speak that well, 16 months post-stroke, but it seems to improve very slowly.

Home

Progress at this point seemed steady. Although I still couldn't sleep, Ruth in Physio had me walking just like she said she would. I was at the Diack Christmas Party on Saturday, December 12th ... I couldn't walk very good or very far, but I was walking. I was home on December 24th - 29th, back for a couple of days, and then officially discharged on January 5th (actually came home o the 4th, and went in on the morning of the 5th to be official). The doctor responsible for the Rehab Facility gave me a prescription for ten Ativan (my request), as it was the only thing that seemed to help the sleep ... if I only knew then what I know now, I'd never have started down the Ativan path.

Today

Although I'm back-dating this, today is January 18th, 2011. It's been almost 16 months since the first stroke (there were 3 or 4 of them in total). The only explanation for all of them has been bad genes. I carry no risk factors for stroke (or heart disease for that matter). The stroke does have it's precursors if I look closely, though. Preceding the stroke for years was a feeling of lightheadedness that has now gone away. I had a two-day-long dizzy spell in 2007 (likely a TPA). I had a weekend-long bout of labrynthitis in the summer of 2007 - likely another TPA. Back when I was a teenager, I had a bout of severe labrynthitis (maybe a TPA). I had a real numb-inducing-fine-motor-skill-affecting stroke (but not long lingering - back to normal in a week) in 2008. Interesting that after that one was fully investigated, the CAT scan showed signs of an "old" stroke. When you add all of this up, knowing that they all affect the exact same area of the brain, and that I've had nothing since, it seems to add up to a major "blow-out" event. That's what I think it was. I think I'll live a long, normal, life once this event is completely behind me (it may take years).

Amsterdam and Istanbul ... not yet

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.

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.

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.

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!

Christmas 2007

Christmas really started off with the Diack party on Saturday, December 22. We got home quite late from that, and had to be at Al & Lynn Cary's for brunch on Sunday morning.
On Monday the 24th, Cathy and Frank came over for dinner and Kathryn brought Pearl home to spend the next couple of days with us. Christmas Dinner was at Rob & Karen's this year, and we met Mom & Dad over there and exchanged gifts. Overall, a nice, stress-free, wonderful couple of days. Didn't even get dragged out to go shopping on Boxing Day ;-)