Countdown

Yes - the countdown is on!  Ten days until Linda's surgery. Cath is bringing the RV here on Wednesday so we can start loading up; then we'll be on the road on Friday morning and hopefully settled that night. We're glad we're going to have a few days in Calgary before the surgery - probably visit a few casinos (yes I have maps to them all!) and, of course, chow down at The Olive Garden. I checked the weather forecast for Calgary for September/October and groaned loudly. I guess we've become acclimatized to the lovely autumns here - funny how the pain of prairie weather can be forgotten - kind of like childbirth.

Linda's in good shape; she's been golfing a lot this summer with her Mom and that's certainly built up her strength. And all the bocce has built up those deltoids! Her spirits are good, too. We both are feeling positive and thankful that Linda will be taken care of by an expert.

Background

Linda was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on April 27 and had her first surgery at Vancouver General on May 18. During that surgery, the docs changed the diagnosis to pseudomyxoma peritonei - an 'umbrella' term for a rare form of cancer (hence, the one in a million - we always knew she was a rare bird!) which usually starts in the appendix. It's a slow-growing beast that lives on the surface of organs - both of those characteristics are good news. Linda's specific kind is mucinous adenocarcinoma of the intestine.  A primary debulking was done in Vancouver and then we were referred to the Tom Baker Cancer Center in Calgary where we met with Dr. Temple in June. What a relief that he could (and was willing to) answer all our questions - a very knowledgeable man about this pesky beast. During our consult with Dr. T., he mentioned a hospital stay of 4 - 8 weeks. Well, didn't our heads snap up! Both of us thought he meant 4 - 8 days but he assured us that he said and meant weeks. Linda will stay in the hospital until the possibility of complications has passed and she is well on the road to recovery. Another sigh of relief after the previous hospital experience.

Last week

Last week we went to Calgary for Linda's pre-op consults and tests - saw doctors and nurses, had blood work done, and other tests. From the info given during the consults, we have a better idea of the road ahead and the potholes that may be on that road. Linda's surgery is scheduled for Thursday, September 9; we will be traveling to Calgary on the Saturday before (September 4).
While in Calgary last week, we had the opportunity to visit our 'new home' there. Linda calls it a trailer park (visions of push-up bras and cut-offs and smokes!); I prefer to call it an RV campground. Dear friends (Lynne & Cath) have lent us their RV for our sojourn (4 - 8 weeks depending on how Linda progresses after surgery). Linda's Mom, Lucille, is coming with us and so are the pooches, Coady and Chicklet. The campground is only 10 minutes from the hospital so Lucille and I will be able to pop over often to make sure they're taking good care of our Linda.

Test Run

Welcome to our experiment! Please be patient with us as we wend our way through blog construction. We hope that this will become our method of information dissemination while we are in Calgary.