Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

First off I'd like to wish all my followers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, hoping you had a great Christmas with family and friends, and all the best life has to offer for the New Year!

I will start out with an update on my health and treatments. I had round 3 of my Bendamustine treatments on December 5 & 6th. The one hour infusions each day went well with no complications. Since treatments I had worried about when the bomb would drop and I would become ill again. Well I'm happy to report that the extra week my Oncologist, Dr. Kanjeekal added in between treatments seems to have done the trick, and gave my immune system more time to recover and make the after treatment effects much less than they were last round.

I see my Dr. Kanjeekal next on January 4th and my chemo treatments will follow approx a week later. I did my weekly blood work on Friday due to the holidays, and have not heard anything, so all must be well with my blood counts which is a good thing.

Moving on to Christmas and the celebrations we had. First off was the annual Christmas eve at my Mom's where there was a house full as usual, little ones everywhere! We actually ended up going over early and had dinner with my Mom, and everyone else started arriving around 7pm. Too much to eat and too many "goodies" as usual, but a fun time non the less.

Gifts were exchanged and the festivities continued with conversation, playing with the kids, and as mentioned just  a second ago, all the goodies to be eaten! I think it was probably around 9ish when we left as most everyone else were leaving around the same time.

L-R Brenda, Megan, Emily, Andre &
Chirstina

Brenda with granddaughters Megan
& Emily

Me with granddaughter Megan and
Daughter in Law Bonnie.

On to Christmas Day. The day began with Brenda and I exchanging gifts, which wasn't much as we agreed to keep it simple and set a budget. We were both happy with our gifts to each other. I think it was around or just before noon that my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law arrived and the turkey went in the oven. After the turkey went in the oven and we relaxed a bit and exchanged gifts, again keeping it simple, we sat down to an excellent Christmas dinner prepared by Brenda. Once again too much to eat! but too hard to resist not to sample most of it. Then once again all the "treat" trays were put out.

It was overall a wonderful day with family, exchanging gifts, dining and chatting. Also it was an early night for me as I was very tired, too many "sweets" off the treat trays I think!

My Mother in Law Arnelda, my cat
Squeak and I discussing what is on
the computer.

Trying to get Squeak's attention again.

Squeak and I looking at Facebook
updates on the computer!

We now go on to Boxing day and turkey #2. Boxing day is spent with my son and his family. The weather being crappy we decided rather than making the two trips to pick everyone up we would have them call a cab and we paid for it when they got here. Much easier indeed.

After getting everyone up to the suite and coats hung up we sat around for a bit chatting, turkey was already in the oven as the lessen from Christmas day was to put it in earlier! We then moved on exchanging gifts and watch the grandchildren open theirs with amazement, and happiness. After opening gifts we chatted and played around a bit  with the grandchildren, then it was time for dinner.

Again another turkey, an excellent dinner once again prepared by Brenda and enjoyed by all. Once again good food and too much to eat. even though everyone ate well there were left overs which we will be eating for days!

After dinner there was some more conversation and playing around. It was also decided that our grandson Andre would spend the night with us. My brother then came over to pick everyone else up as my granddaughter Emily was going to be spending the night at my brother's place and with his girlfriends kids.Little did I know just how much of a gamer my grandson was.

This pretty much would be how I was pictured trying to
play on the Wii with Andre! lol.

 Soon as everyone left he was chomping at the bit to play his Wii game we got him for Christmas. So after everything was cleared up and put away, we played video games with him. As usual I was wore out and in bed by 9:30pm. Brenda and Andre were still up playing games when I went to bed.

Andre was the first one up after me and guess what the first thing is he wanted to do? Yep, play video games. I told him after breakfast and after Brenda was up we would play again, which we all did until it was time for him to leave. My brother came and picked him up as he was going to be spending the night at my brother's place.

Then it was....wait for it.......quiet! Time to take the time and get down to some plain and simple R&R! We were both wore out and I'd have to say Brenda was more so than I as she was the cook and dishwasher for both of these dinners. Two turkeys in two days! That is a lot of work not to mention all the other foods that go along with it. Kudos to Brenda for pulling off two successful Christmas dinners. Everyone left pleased with the dinner, deserts, and full bellies! So must have been good.

After a few days of rest and as I write this we are planning a late afternoon/early evening tomorrow with friends for dinner and a movie. Someone else's turn to cook! Not sure where we are going or what we are seeing at the show at this point, but I'm sure it will be a great time as usual.

As for New Years eve, I think my countdown will be around 10 p.m. I could try to stay up but I'm doubtful I would make it to midnight, but you never know, only time will tell.

So I leave you with this, I hope all your Christmases went well, and I wish everyone success and all the best that life has to offer you for this and all of 2013.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

Fifty Four

Fifty Four, what exactly is that number to me. Well as of  today (I posted this Dec. 8 2012) it is my 54th birthday and how old I am now. Fifty four, a year away from fifty five and senior status age for many things which in many ways could be a good thing.

Dr. R. Ramchandren

However, fifty four in my case is what I am thinking of as a "grey area", no pun intended. What I mean about grey area is that back on April 18, 2011 I had an appointment for a second opinion about my current cancer with Dr. Rod Ramchandren a Lymphoma Oncologist at the Karmanos Cancer Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan.

During the conversation with him we discussed and he offered many opinions on things that really matched up with what I had already been told by my own Oncologist back home in Windsor. The one thing that came up several times during the conversation with the thought of doing an allogenic stem cell / bone marrow transplant. This means a transplant using the cells / marrow of a donor. My first transplant was an Autologous transplant which used my own cells / marrow.

My thoughts of doing an allogenic transplant are fixed and firm, NO! I will not do one even if it's the last option left to me, my answer  would remain a firm no. My reasoning is that the odds of finding a 10/10 donor would be extremely rare if at all, and that the chances of recovering from it would be difficult at best due to my already weakened body and immune system.

What has really reassured me I've made the right decision is the fact that my lead Oncologist here in Windsor sent my file / history to the Hamilton (ON) transplant group which is one of two hospitals here in Ontario that do stem cell / bone marrow transplants. The other is London (ON) where I had my "Auto" transplant in December 2008

The answer from Hamilton came back and in my favor! I would NOT be a good candidate for an allogenic transplant. Some might as why I would be happy with this. Well what I can tell you is I've done the Auto transplant and survived that, even though there were a few hiccups along the way. Let's just say I don't ever want to go through anything like that again! Enough said.

So this being my 54th Birthday my wish, desire, and will is to see my 55th and beyond, even if I only get to December 9th 2013, then I've proved them wrong, and this is not just to prove them wrong but it's my will to live a lot longer that makes this, I'll call challenge for now, easy!

I would like to thank all of you that read my blog and encourage you to share it with others, and I would like to thank all of you that have sent me birthday messages via Facebook, Twitter or any other avenue I'm part of.

In the event I don't get another blog out before Christmas / New Year, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and an extremely joyous and Happy New Year!