A brief Hiccup

Status Report:

Dr. Hugh Tildesley

The most recent blood work showed a drop in the white count and neutrophils. Quite frankly, I have been on the poisons regularly since June ,(8 months) and expected this much earlier. The consequences are that I will delay chemotherapy until the white count is above 3.0. In addition these counts make me susceptible to infection and any fever will require antibiotic intervention.

The other tests such as liver function remain stable, the bilirubin, which was a worry last time, is back to previous and normal levels, the tumour marker is the lowest since I started chemo.

I in fact welcome this turn of events, the bowels will have a chance to recover, there are still poisons in my tissues (hopefully concentrated in the tumours) that have an effect.

A repeat blood count done 4 days later showed improvement, not quite back to baseline. The tests will be repeated in another few days.

Unfortunately this led to our cancellation of the trip to Tofino, I want to be more stable before I travel.

The strategy will be to increase the interval between therapies to allow recovery.

Another home technical addition:

Chromcast Schematic

For Christmas, one of Donovan’s friends, Bo Meng, presented me with chromcast. They have known each other since starting St Georges together in grade 8.

I installed it recently and highly recommend it! It will stream anything that you may have on your laptop or phone onto the big screen. The picture quality superb as is the ease of operation. As we stream more and more onto our laptops, our cable bills will continue to shrink, this is highly facilitative if you share this goal!

The Arts Report:

The High Mountains of Portugal, Yann Martel

The award-winning author of Life of Pi provides 3 separate tales, in 3 separate time periods. The read is entertaining, at times I was shaking my head as to how eclectic his imagination is. The descriptions beautiful and the last 1/3 of the book to me the most touching. As usual everything is drawn together over the last 5 pages, without the trickery of Pi. A recommended read.

When breathe Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi

This is a memoir of a neurosurgeon at the end of his training diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. He trained in literature and as a writer before medical school. Despite the sadness of his situation his depictions are honest, the support from his family and especially his wife a blueprint of support. We will all face death, this book helps. His wife is a heroine in this story and compares favourably to Deborah, falling just a tad short in that regard.

Rantage Follow-up

Last week’s blog described unfortunate behavior of an AC employee at the gate in Palm Springs. I received a prompt reply, with a promise to investigate. They are not allowed to share the results of their investigation due to “privacy”.

I patiently await an upgrade certificate.

Social: Catherine was back for reading week, and as always quite busy. She has completed an application to transfer to UBC for her last year of law to be closer to home.

View from Catherine's Summer Residence

She will be home for the summer and has rented a small abode on Point Grey road. The view is indistinguishable from that seen from Gorgeous’ home, the square footage equal to one of their powder rooms. Trevor Linden is her next-door neighbor. The poor guy gets enough of the Tildesleys’ as he often swims beside Donovan at the Arbutus.

Hamish is still contracted by EA, and is confident that their initial project will get to the next level of full development. In the meantime he is working diligently to get a work visa, this time he has hired legal expertise.

Donovan is grinding at Buntain Insurance, hovering by the phone awaiting the next call for comprehensive insurance services from the blog faithful.

We will be traveling to Tucson next month as Liam plays in the Tucson Invitational Tournament.He was mentioned in the last blog, a pitcher for George Fox University who is now in the starting rotation, quite an accomplishment for a freshman!

We will meet up with his parents, Dan and Sue Kent, tentatively staying on a golf course as I hone my game for the annual Bandon 2 man Best Ball tournament. This year after decades of nagging Dan and his brother Ted will be joining us.Ted has met most of our pose there should be no integrative challenges.

I continue to work, 2, ½ days in the office and to manage patients on-line. This past month saw 2 of our papers accepted for publication. An onerous process ably stickhandled by our GAP student Dan Shearer. An initial draft of our glucose treatment in cancer is in the works. I am hopeful it will be submitted by the end of March.

Until next time…..