Heat, Chemo, Canada Day and a Rant

Dr. Hugh Tildesley

We are now into our second week of unrelenting sunshine and record temperatures. I am surprised that LA man Hamish cocoons himself in our cool basement waiting for the sun to go down and temperatures to drop. As he goes for his usual nighttime walk I look carefully that his dental work is intact and that he is not wearing a cape.

These temperatures are not good for chemo man, I need to keep up with fluids and so far it has been incredibly challenging. Like Hamish I stay out of the sun and keep cool. Golf is ill advised under these conditions. I have to admit the temperatures and the chemo have sapped me somewhat. I met with Dr. Wong today and we have come up with a few strategies to mitigate against side effects, which include fatigue and early satiety.

The past few weeks have seen many cards and letters arrive. I am touched. I apologize that I cannot answer them, but that should not be considered a lack of appreciation.

I love reasons to celebrate. Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, special memories. Canada falls into that category. It was a busy day.

I was to have played golf in the morning but demurred due to the heat. I did go to the club, as we were to celebrate George Seslija’s birthday.

A little background. George moved back to Vancouver from Toronto about 8 years ago. He had been a longtime friend of Kurt Aydin, and joined our group on a regular basis. George is a very good player but a better dresser. After a few games with him I introduced a new $5.00 reward (those who play with me know I will offer $5.00 rewards for difficult shots etc., they are not bets, the recipient keeps the bill if he executes a called shot). The new reward was called the “ Georgie”, awarded to the best dressed on the first tee. He won the first 8. As this process progressed, the group changed. Russell bought some new hats, abandoning the salt stained, faded caps he usually wore. Butler began wearing the latest samples given to him by high end manufacturers, Slugger got his treasured Scottish sweaters out of mothballs, unfortunately Aydin insisted his tacky red belt and red shoes was some how fashionable (needless to say he never won a Georgie). Now on the first tee there is in fact some preening as lobbying occurs for the reward.

George is serious about many things but clothes are near the top. He is a Harry Rosen customer, he does not shop there, he has his clothes tailor made by Harry.

The group gathered and awaited George’s arrival. As he made his way to the table, dressed in a red shirt, red belt and white shorts he was in full Canada dress code as were all at the table. George does not walk, he saunters, he will often stop to greet and shake hands with his fellow members. At times it is as if he was on a modeling gangway. As he sat down, staff presented the table with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and his birthday was toasted. This formality completed, AJ Papp played “Dedicated Follower of Fashion “by the Kinks from his iPhone.

Simultaneously he and I sang aloud a particularly colorful verse:

Round the boutiques of London Town,
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends,

His gift from the group was a rare bottle of Gin and designer martini glasses to honour his favourite drink. He did not need to say a word, the smile said it all.

Donovan entering Bird's Nest Stadium Beijing 2008

Canada remains very important, especially having had the honour to attend 3 Paralympic Games as a team member and accompanying Donovan as the 2008 flag bearer.

That evening we had a Canada Day dinner. Catherine decorated the garden, and the whole family pitched in for a meal of flank steak and lobster tails. We had Bruce and Christine Arroll join us along with Drew and Alice Thompson. The Arrolls are from New Zealand but spent a number of years in Canada as Bruce pursued studies complimenting his MD. He is a highly successful researcher and well published.Our children played together frequently and still remain in touch. The Thompsons are of course long time family friends and in fact their daughter Emily graduated from medicine in Auckland and the Arrolls were incredibly helpful in both her and her husbands career. Emily and her husband, both MDs, and now in residency programs are doing well in their adopted country. Why they are not welcomed back to Canada will be the subject of a future rant.

Round 3 of chemo starts on Monday, there are few advantages to the poisons but I have noticed that mosquitos that bite me quickly nose dive , succumbing to acute  chemo toxcicity.

What follows is not required reading:

I have time on my hands. The Internet diabetes management takes less than an hour per day and frankly is a lovely distraction. I have more time to follow the news and current events.

The Vancouver Plebiscite: Time for a rant!

In collective bargaining there is a strategy known as “triangulation”. This happened to our Residents and Interns Association in 1980 when we were bargaining for improved working conditions in Alberta. I sat on the negotiations committee trying to get a contract for the group. At the time I had returned from being a GP to pursue postgraduate training, I worked 60 + hours per week for $14,200.00 per annum. As a GP I had netted 70K and worked less. Residents were defacto employees of the hospital; we had individual contracts with them and were paid directly from their payroll. When we tried to bargain, the hospital would posture and say” Oh no we can’t decide on your wage, you bargain with the Alberta Hospital Association”, when we approached the AHA, they said,” love to give you raise but it comes out of the hospital budget.”  Beautiful.

When a strike was called magically a bargaining committee with both AHA and Hospital representation was struck and a long lasting mechanism of negotiations was set in place.

In Vancouver we have an entity called Translink. It spends $1.5 billion dollars a year. An unelected board appointed by the Provincial Government supervises it. It has a reputation of bloated, overpaid management, arrogance and inefficiencies. More importantly the public has lost faith in the organization and it’s governance.

It’s funding sources look like a Pac man game:

Fuel tax-24%, (17 cents per litre)

Property tax 21%, (increase 3% per year to keep with inflation)

Fares 32%

Parking tax 4%

Bridge tolls 3%,

aircare 6%

Power levy $2.00 per month per household.

Of course all of this comes from the same place, the citizen but who has the time to question this paper trail.

Recently a plebiscite asking for .5% increase in sales tax to fund capital improvements for the system. The total would be $8 billion over a decade. Our local mayors spent approximately $7 million to convince the citizens to vote yes. In spite of elections last fall none of these candidates ran on a “yes” platform or gave any hint of spending these funds in this manner. The taxpayers association paid $40,000. of donated money to support a “no” vote.

The result was a resounding NO

Now the triangulation game.

Mayors: we never wanted the plebiscite anyway, the Province made us do it!

So why the hell did you spend $7 million of our money to try to manipulate the outcome!

The Province: The mayors could not be trusted with the process, the public has spoken! After all 2/3 of the funding was already guaranteed by Federal and Provincial governments (mmm where does that money come from? You and me the taxpayer)

Translink: It’s plethoric, self important windbag of a CEO had the gall to say the vote had nothing to do with translink!

If this guy actually had to get elected he would quickly understand how out of touch he is.

In fact our citizens went on strike. We want a separate elected board that has to face the public, not hide in in camera meetings. It is called responsible government. The harsh reality is that Translink is irresponsible, tax payers are demanding better.

Here endeth the rant.