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Hello GMHockey faithful,
I've struggled with whether or not to write this blog but since it's out there now with the submission to vote my wife into space I thought why not? I've told everyone at my office and I got very positive responses with people really appreciating the honesty and disclosure of my personal situation.
As some of you know I was pretty much incognito from about May to November. What many of you don't know it was because my wife had abdominal pain and nausea. We went to her doctor who ordered a CA-125 test and an ultrasound where they found tumors. After surgery it was confirmed that she had Stage IIIb Ovarian Cancer. That was devastating enough and believe me I was a total wreck for several days. The news just got worse when we discovered that the recurrence rate is around 75%. Further to that we discovered that the response rate to chemo for the type of Ovarian Cancer she has is around 2 to 6% upon recurrence. I then spent the next month nursing her back to health from her surgery so she'd be strong enough for chemo where I juggled babysitting from family and hospital stays for the next 3 months followed by a few months of recovery. She had a ridiculously strong chemo that went directly into her abdomen on top of the regular IV chemo. During all this I also had to run the household and take care of a 3 year old and 1 year old. I had a lot of help from family but it's never enough.
We then get the diagnosis of Autism for my 3 year old daughter and have to deal with the mountain of paper work to get her disability tax credit, respite funding, Intensive behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral consultant and speech therapy among other forms for funding and care. Not only that but if you know anything about autism you know it's a very big challenge dealing with the day to day issues of an autistic child. Thankfully she has language, looks us in the eye and appears to be high functioning although not without behavioral challenges.
With the autism to deal with I was suppressing my emotions and fears of my high school sweet heart and love of my life dying from this disease. I returned to work in November full-time and I ended up going to my doctor who told me to take 2 weeks off in the middle of January and come back if I need more. He also put me off 1 day a week until the end of April. I also went on some medication which has really helped bring back joy in my life because at that low point in December / January I was angry a lot and didn't enjoy anything. I couldn't even find the joy in spending time with my wife and children.
I'm glad to say I feel a lot better, my wife is in remission and my daughter is finally getting some speech therapy (privately at $180 per hour - OUCH! good thing I don't have season seats anymore). City run speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioral consultation should be coming over the next month or so. We also got good news from the school she will be attending in September who will likely allow her to be in a regular class with assistance. We've also got our daughter set up to go to a behavioural intervention program 1.5 days per week and she'll be getting an assistant at her daycare soon as well.
Thanks for reading.
P.S If there's interest I can do an update blog from time to time.
Clutch
I've struggled with whether or not to write this blog but since it's out there now with the submission to vote my wife into space I thought why not? I've told everyone at my office and I got very positive responses with people really appreciating the honesty and disclosure of my personal situation.
As some of you know I was pretty much incognito from about May to November. What many of you don't know it was because my wife had abdominal pain and nausea. We went to her doctor who ordered a CA-125 test and an ultrasound where they found tumors. After surgery it was confirmed that she had Stage IIIb Ovarian Cancer. That was devastating enough and believe me I was a total wreck for several days. The news just got worse when we discovered that the recurrence rate is around 75%. Further to that we discovered that the response rate to chemo for the type of Ovarian Cancer she has is around 2 to 6% upon recurrence. I then spent the next month nursing her back to health from her surgery so she'd be strong enough for chemo where I juggled babysitting from family and hospital stays for the next 3 months followed by a few months of recovery. She had a ridiculously strong chemo that went directly into her abdomen on top of the regular IV chemo. During all this I also had to run the household and take care of a 3 year old and 1 year old. I had a lot of help from family but it's never enough.
We then get the diagnosis of Autism for my 3 year old daughter and have to deal with the mountain of paper work to get her disability tax credit, respite funding, Intensive behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral consultant and speech therapy among other forms for funding and care. Not only that but if you know anything about autism you know it's a very big challenge dealing with the day to day issues of an autistic child. Thankfully she has language, looks us in the eye and appears to be high functioning although not without behavioral challenges.
With the autism to deal with I was suppressing my emotions and fears of my high school sweet heart and love of my life dying from this disease. I returned to work in November full-time and I ended up going to my doctor who told me to take 2 weeks off in the middle of January and come back if I need more. He also put me off 1 day a week until the end of April. I also went on some medication which has really helped bring back joy in my life because at that low point in December / January I was angry a lot and didn't enjoy anything. I couldn't even find the joy in spending time with my wife and children.
I'm glad to say I feel a lot better, my wife is in remission and my daughter is finally getting some speech therapy (privately at $180 per hour - OUCH! good thing I don't have season seats anymore). City run speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioral consultation should be coming over the next month or so. We also got good news from the school she will be attending in September who will likely allow her to be in a regular class with assistance. We've also got our daughter set up to go to a behavioural intervention program 1.5 days per week and she'll be getting an assistant at her daycare soon as well.
Thanks for reading.
P.S If there's interest I can do an update blog from time to time.
Clutch
Last edited by Cap'n Clutch on Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:52 am; edited 1 time in total
