The recent activity of packing up suitcases to head to Victoria for 5 days stirred up memories that I had pushed to the back recesses of my mind. A few of the memories were welcomed back to the forefront spaces, but my consciousness was also crowded with several unpleasant ones that I would gladly have left tucked away for many more years -- if not forever.
The more things change ...
CHANGE #1: As I drove off the ferry headed for the city, my car was like a homing pigeon, self-directing to the Oak Bay neighbourhood of Victoria where I spent three months last spring. Trouble is, Rachel and Stu no longer live in the house where I camped out for those months of chemo. It still stands, but half dismantled, contractors busily renovating it for the new occupants. Is "my" bedroom still the same? How about the bathroom where I mustered up the fortitude to stab myself with daily injections? As we drove by last evening, I didn't want to look too closely, desiring to remember the house the way it was.
CHANGE #2: Bringing supper so Rachel wouldn't have to cook after a day at school, I stopped by Safeway (remember the one I could hardly walk home from last year?) -- or so I thought -- for some additional dinner supplies. The store was "in transition" to a Save-On Foods and was closed for one day ... yesterday! Way to rub the change in my face!! That's the store where I picked up all my anti-nausea prescriptions; that's the store I walked to almost daily for cooking supplies for suppers; that's the store where I often met my friend, Debbie for coffee. Gone!!
CHANGE #3: In order to help Stu complete his homework assignment of collecting sea water for a chemistry lab, we went on a family outing along scenic Dallas Road. Who knew "Two Chairs with a View" could procreate?? There's now "Three chairs with a View" -- an extra one for an additional friend to sit with me! Who wants to relax in the new red one?
CHANGE #4: Rachel's new home is several miles from their former Oak Bay one. However, desiring to visit my old stomping grounds, I set out on foot both to get in my RUNClub playwork and to see familiar sites. My main destination was 'the chairs'. Initially, I was completing my required 4.5 minutes walking, 1.5 minutes running, seven times over, but after 5.1 km I still wasn't at the chairs. Determined to get there, I walked on, covering another kilometre before finally seeing the chairs beckoning to me. I complied by resting there, viewing the gorgeous seascape and contemplating life for half an hour before setting off to retrace my steps back home. Thankful for the enormous change of having more-than-adequate energy for the trek, it was good for me to realize just how far my fitness level has come since being able to rejoin the exercising world. I am often guilty of only whining about where I want to be, and not acknowledging the progress I've made.
CHANGE #5: I'm not nauseated at the thought of coffee ... or any other substance that passes my lips. Metallic tastes and peeling gums are no more -- in fact, I smell coffee right this minute and I'm catapulting out of bed to pour a large mug.
... a few have stayed the same
SAMENESS #1: The B.C. Cancer Agency still welcomes cancer patients with warm volunteers, of which Stu is now one, gathering volunteer hours for his med school application. My car instinctively turned down the dead-end road on which the Cancer Agency resides. Oh, the numerous hours I endured there, visiting with oncologists, trying to get blood samples, or camped out in the horseshoe of chemo chairs.
SAMENESS #2: Victoria remains one of the world's most beautiful cities! Although my memories are an eclectic mix of the pleasant and the horrific -- this city brought me the majority of my chemo and it's
 |
| Spring Blossoms |
No comments:
Post a Comment