DAY TWELVE (TREATMENT DAY 10)

Evening all-

I may have mentioned that I normally sit in a little room at the end of the treatment room. Yesterday and today I sat mostly out in the regular area, in front of a big aquarium, with exotic fish. Apparently 10 years ago, instead of an aquarium they had a big room filled with birds. Then they needed more space, so they scaled it back. Anyway, that really confused me, b/c I thought the building was only built 18 months ago. I'll have to ask some questions about that.

Anyway, I sat next to a young man from Calgary by the name of Nelson Matheson. He must be 28-30 now, but when he was 18 he had stage 4 skin cancer. He took chemo at Tom Baker for a year, at far more than the usual dose, and after a year he told his Mom he'd rather just die - he was SO sick, not from the cancer, from the chemo. Then his Mom found this Clinic and brought him down. In 2 weeks here he felt really good. He came back several times, and has never looked back. This time is his first in 7 years, and he's just accompanying his Dad and step-mom. He said he's just getting a "tune-up". He used to ride a quad, so we talked cut lines, and makes and models of bikes, and engine sizes etc. It was a lot of fun. Nice kid. He's upgrading and bar tending part time. Makes $200-300 per night in tips - the girls make $500.00. One of them drives an Infinity SUV. Sure glad I went to law school.

Then Ev came down, Nelson had left by that time, so we repaired to our private room, and played cards. I know 2 card games - solitaire, and now Crazy 8's, which Ev is teaching me. He's much better than I am, and wins most of the time. I say things like "I was really close that time" and "You're just lucky", which is what one says when one gets trounced :-)

After treatment we got a cab ride to the nearest mall and looked for new glasses for Ev (no luck), and liquid iron tonic for me (think Floravit - no luck). Then we went to this huge supermarket - maybe bigger than the RD Superstore, and found lots of fruit and vegetables. So far we've eaten mostly out of cans (as boys will), but it was getting old, and Jacalyn suggested a more balanced diet. Tomorrow we'll have chicken stir-fry. Aaahhh!

So tonight it's laundry (there's 2 free washers and dryers on the 4th floor, available 24/7), then an early night and Church tomorrow. Going to a 1:00 Ward, hoping that it's YSA. Maybe they don't have those down here (YSA wards, that is)

They installed a new President today - saw a bit of the ceremony on TV. When we got a ride to the mall, there was a big protest. They have traffic circles here, and at one of them there's a huge round edifice with a huge statue on it, and the protesters were up there, and around it at the bottom, and protruding onto the street. Denouncing the new President.

Anyway, that's it folks. I'm going to go downstairs and see if the security guard will let me in to take a picture of the aquarium. If he doesn't, sorry, no pictures with todays installment :-(

All the best to you all. Thanks for tuning in.

Grant