Around the House

We've been enjoying the wonderful weather by going for walks and working outside around the house, and when it's warm enough, having our coffee and lunch out on the deck. It feels so good after being inside for most of the winter! As you can see from the pictures below, we've been spending lots of time outside.

We decided that, despite the fact that I don't like to be on all kinds of medications, to start taking some pills left over from my last treatment time. (Ellie's interpretation.) And this morning I woke up feeling much more energetic. It feels wonderful to feel happy and motivated again! (This is from the steroids Ellie had to take in preparation of the MRI this morning. I have also introduced small portions of an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons - Gerard.)

Gerard's been re-painting the garage door

I was just lying down for a nap, but instead of sleeping, my mind was spinning with ideas of what to write in my blog.  Now that I'm down at the computer all those ideas have mysteriously disappeared. 

Too bad! So I'll just start writing and seeing what comes out.  Lately I've had lots of good things to write about, but haven't gotten down to the computer quickly enough to record them. I pray to God for ideas and inspiration. I think I need to learn how to listen to Him. I like to be busy doing things, but lately I'm spending a lot of time sitting and lying around, thinking a lot and praying some. And maybe that's what God is leading me to.  

And I've been weeding the flower beds

I experience moments of severe forgetfulness.  When I ask Gerard about things he directs me to the pages of instructions he's prepared to help me be more independent throughout the day, and also to things I've written or talked about with small hints to get me back on track.  I admire him for his patience!

So for now, I'm finished cleaning up the front yard flower beds, and have moved to the back yard. Two flower beds are done and now I'm into the vegetable garden.  It's so fun to rake the leaves off uncovering various emerging perennials like rhubarb and onions! We still have rhubarb in the freezer from last year so I'd better start using it before the new crop comes in.

Gerard came down to  check and see whether I needed any help with this blog post, but I told him, "No thanks."  I'm trying to get this together all on my own.  Well, it took me about three hours to load the pictures from my camera into the computer and then into this blog.  And then to come up with the text, and I finally got it!  Thank you, Lord!

All right, time to get out there to do some digging!  Talk to you again soon!

Some Random Thoughts

The other day Gerard and I went out for a walk and experienced a form of precipitation that we've never seen or heard of before! We found out that this hail-like frozen rain  is called graupel. According to our dictionary it means "frozen droplets of water that resemble hail"  Interesting! Have you ever heard of or seen this before?

 The daffodils are just opening! This is the first one.

Physically I feel fine.  Even though it's slower than usual, I can still walk for an hour and can work in the garden for two hours straight, no problem. I regularly do the dishes and the vacuuming. But emotionally I feel very weak and vulnerable. The last few weeks I frequently break into tears for no apparent reason. and feel sad even on happy days recently. I would be happy to sleep all day ,A steroid pill makes me feel happier, but keeps me awake during the night.  So we're trying to figure out what to do; what to take for energy and what to do or take to allow me to sleep at night.

When we see our oncologist this week we will ask about this situation. I don't like being on all kinds of medications, but I guess maybe in this situation it is necessary to take something, despite my negative feelings about depending on medications.


Here are some words that friends have shared with me and they really speak to me:

"I am holding you by your right hand - I the Lord your God - and say to you, "Don't be afraid. I am here to help you."  Isaiah 41:13
     and...
The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deut. 33:27
     and...
"What do you want me to do for you?"  Jesus asked.  "O Teacher," the blind man said, "I want to see!"  "All right, it's done.  your faith has (made you whole) healed you." And instantly the blind man could see and followed Jesus down the road!

This last verse makes me ask: "Why am I not healed?" I have thought and prayed about it often enough. This makes me feel depressed and I don't know what to do about it. I'm thinking about this a lot these days and it dampens my attitude all the time. "Please help me Lord!"

Saturday Festivities and a Look at the Garden

A few days have quickly slipped by since my last blog entry. So time to catch up a bit...  Today we had a very early lunch and then drove up to Barrie to a wedding shower for Julianna, Gerard's niece. It was wonderful to spend a few hours catching up and celebrating with Gerard's sisters and nieces. In the meantime, Gerard cruised around Barrie, checking out the area where he used to live with his parents. We hadn't been up there for months, so this was great! 

Julianna and Kerry-Ann, two of Gerard's nieces.

It was good to spend time with the Duiker side of the family and catching up on some of their news. I noticed the care that Gerard's sisters were showing me the whole afternoon and mentioned it to him as we were going home. We talked about going up to enjoy time with his family more often.

Card from a Friend

During the last couple of weeks I've been feeling kind of tired and on the verge of having the flu, so we've stayed home a lot.  This was making me feel somewhat down and discouraged. So working in the garden was encouraging and going out today really lifted my spirits.  Hopefully I'll be up and around and totally well again soon.

Chives in a barrel

Seeing the new growth outside is so encouraging and energizing!  Look at the chives and the rhubarb emerging!

Rhubarb popping out of the ground

I keep wandering around outside checking for more and more new growth. And every time I look around there are new bits of green pushing through the soil. So exciting -  this fresh new spring time growth!

Visit with the Boys on Wednesday - by Gerard

We hadn't been to Henry and Melanie's since before the last chemo treatment; so it was high time! When we came in the door we were greeted by Charlie in his Maple Leafs shirt; "so cute" as Emily would say. We read to and played with the boys for a while and had a snack with them. Melanie showed us the plans they have for basement renovations starting next month. They include waterproofing and rearranging everything to give Ken (Melanie's Dad) his own room and upgrading the whole area; quite a task. Then I went with Oscar outside so that that he could run off a little steam by showing how he could ride his tricycle around the block. In the meantime Ellie had some Charlie (and Melanie) time by themselves.

Oma with Charlie

 When Oscar and I came back in I read to the boys from the books we take along each visit. This time it was about Franklin the Turtle and "Franklin's New Friend" Moose. Then we had lunch together and talked a bit.

Opa reading "Franklin's New Friend" to Oscar and Charlie

After lunch Oscar wanted to dress up in his Spiderman outfit; so I helped him into it and he happily showed it off and played in it. (Sorry no photo.) Then we all went downstairs to inspect some of the preparations they are making for the renovations. Lots of work to be done. Thank you Melanie for hosting us and letting us spend some time with the boys.

We enjoyed a visit from Mark, Rosemary and Hannah last Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow we visit Alida in her house and get to see Jeff and Alida's preparation for "Nugget". Great to have all this family time.

After we got home and had our naps, we enjoyed a visit from Tom and Helen who were in town for a medical appointment. Good to get caught up with long-time friends. Ellie is going out tonight with a friend who invited her to a play "Much Ado About Nothing". This is a Spakespeare play done "Bollywood" style; hope she enjoys it.

Thankful for All Forms of Support

I'm so thankful for the encouragement and support you are surrounding us with in so many ways.  It feels so reassuring in low-energy and somewhat discouraging times. Yesterday I received a call from a church friend, wondering how things were going. I told her, considering the circumstances, things were fine. Well, she said, I haven't seen any updates on your blog lately so I'm just calling to see if you are OK.

That's when I broke down in tears.  Yes, we are OK. Yes, my physical strength is relatively good. We walk about an hour every day and have been gardening a few hours a day whenever the weather is good. But emotionally we are both kind of tired.  We isolated ourselves quite a bit during my low immunity period of this month's chemo routine, but then we both caught a cold anyway. We've been out walking, eating healthy, resting a lot and are gradually regaining our energy.

We defied the rules of staying away from people by coming to the Easter services anyway.  Just couldn't stay away!  It's depressing to live in isolation.  Sometimes taking risks raises our spirits and in the long-run it's probably healthier to break some of the rules and be happy than to obey the rules and feel depressed. 

We received two of these mum-like flowers that I've never seen before

So aside from all the emotional stuff, life goes on. In our extended family there are two weddings and four babies on the way! Lots of reasons for celebrations in the next few months.  For us, the happy focus is that Jeff and Alida's baby is due in seven weeks!  Can/t wait to meet this little one soon! So exciting!  Thank you, Lord!

about six more weeks!

Well, that's all for today.  

Enjoying Spring!

Thank God for the arrival of spring!  We have been getting outside a lot these days, enjoying the healing and reviving warmth of the sun.

Our front flower beds are full of these little blue scilla flowers. And below you see our first tulip flowers of the season. They just opened up today!  

Due to my low immunity level at this stage of my chemo treatments, I have to stay away from groups where people have colds and other germs to spread. So we figure it's probably easiest to isolate ourselves for the week. That isolation tends to make me feel kind of depressed..  

Gerard knows I love gardening and nature so he suggested we go to Edwards Gardens and Wilket Creek Park this morning. We didn't find many spring flowers there yet. So we're planning to go again in a few weeks. So instead, we took a walk in Wilket Creek Park.. 

The weather was very mild. It felt so good to do some walking in the woods!  Wonderful to get some exercise and fresh air and be immersed in nature!

Being isolated because of my low immunity level from the chemo treatments, gets me really down.  I thrive on being with people, so isolation is emotionally difficult for me.  So we try to cope by getting out like we did today, and by keeping in contact with people by phone. Gardening also lifts my spirits, so we've been occupied with spring cleanup around the yard. Exciting to see the spring plants pushing their way up through the soil!

This squirrel was so preoccupied with  his food that he let us get really close.

This is the Day that The Lord has Made

Hi There!  Time for a little update.   What a big transition from being attached to an IV pole that has to go with me wherever I go, to being able to freely go wherever I like. Yesterday, my first day back home, I'd wake up during the night or from a nap, being totally disoriented as to where I was until Gerard reassured me that I was at home. By now I've pretty well re-oriented to being home.

My short-term memory is really bad and that frustrates me so much!. Gerard is being very helpful and supportive, but I don't want to bother him with questions all day long. So he has written up answers to questions I ask him a lot and then I check those before asking him (when I remember that process).

Otherwise, physically things are going quite well.  It's hard to believe that I was confined to my hospital room and IV pole recently and now this evening Gerard and I went for a 50-minute walk. This afternoon I worked in the garden for two hours (with rest breaks on the front porch), cleaning out the fall and winter debris from the front flower beds!  What a change! I'm finding lots of tulip, daffodil, and crocus shoots pushing their way up through the soil.  Love it!  I hope to gradually work my way around to the back yard clean-up. What a change of lifestyle from earlier this week!

cutting down last year's sedums

Life feels frustrating for me sometimes these days - especially my poor memory. This morning this quote from what we read in our devotional booklet really spoke to me...:

... To find joy in this day, you must live within its boundaries.

I (God) knew what I was doing when I divided time 

into twenty-four hour segments.

I understand human frailty,

and I know that you can bear the weight

of only one day at a time.

Do not worry about tomorrow or get stuck in the past.

There is abundant Life in My Presence today.

Quote from "Jesus Calling" - Enjoying Peace in His Presence. by Sarah Young.

a bucket of pansies ready to be  divided and planted 

This morning my friend, Beth stopped by with this bucket of pansies. I just love pansies and hope to plant them into the barrel on our back deck tomorrow. Now it's time to relax for a while before going to bed.  Good night!

Back Home Again!

I'm home again! It feels so good to get out of the isolation caused by an outbreak of a super bug on some of Sunnybrook's wards, including ours. There were signs everywhere. Lists of warnings and precautions.  We had to wear clean robes and masks and wash our hands before and after every move we made, it seemed.  We were isolated to our rooms and had to buzz the staff for help with every little thing we could otherwise have taken care of ourselves. We saw far less of the staff than usual, who would try to assess our general condition by just peeking their heads through a narrow opening in the door rather than having to change their robes, gloves, and masks before coming right into our rooms.

Because there was the possibility that I had been exposed to the virus through one of my previous room mates, I had to have samples of nose swabs and stool samples, etc. sent to the labs to be analyzed, It took two days before the result were in, so during that time I just had to sit and wait. There was some movement around the ward, but some rooms were completely isolated. Not a pleasant experience. Fortunately that was the extent of my involvement with this super virus. 

Once the chemo was flushed out of my system and the possibility that I might have been infected by the super virus was ruled out, I was allowed to go out of my room and to see my visitors - lots of them! I didn't get a picture of everyone, but here are a few...

Alida works at Sunnybrook, so she dropped by during her lunch break once the threat was cleared

and Jeanette visited, first by phone and later in person

Family members - Anneke, Carel, David, Irene, and Alida visited me in the cafeteria. 

Now it's time to re-adjust to being home again. This week has been such a constant stream of adjusting to new situations - hospitals rooms and room mates,and moving in and out of isolation and now between hospital and home. It's going to take me some time and maybe some sleeping pills to settle down from this eventful week. Gerard says it's going to be beautiful weather tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to getting at some more spring clean-up in the garden.!

   

Thank your for all your loving support through e-mails, phone calls, cards, and visits! Love hearing from you! Don't worry, we take the phone off the hook for some quiet time once in a while.

Chemotherapy Round 3 - Wednesday and Thursday

On Wednesday Ellie was still in isolation till early evening. Then the medical staff decided to move her out of isolation into another room with two other female patients. Alida visited her there after the move and after her 12-hour day shift. Ellie had another good night's sleep and woke up with renewed focus.

Thursday was a day filled with visits in person and on the phone. Jeannette visited her again in the late morning and then exited as four family Geleynse family members (Anneke, Carel, Irene and David) arrived at lunch time. So they took Ellie and all went to the food court to have lunch together. Alida took her lunch break and spent it together with the others. They had a fun time together. Below you can see some of the photos they took. In the circle below you can see Ellie at 12 o'clock then clockwise are Alida, Irene, David, Carel and Anneke.

Look down into the camera now

In the hall at Sunnybrook Hospital

Later on after an afternoon nap, Ellie received calls from Jean and Naomi and a visit over the supper hour from me. There may have been others; that's all I know about. Ellie was exhausted by the time I left. She said "It was worth it!" So now for a good night's sleep.
Thank you for all the care and attention you have spent on Ellie. Praise God for all the medical treatment she is getting and for the wonderful staff that take care of her.
Ellie is doing well and will probably come home Friday afternoon.
Gerard.

Chemotherapy Round 3 - Monday and Tuesday

Late afternoon on Monday we travelled to Sunnybrook Hospital. We arrived there just before 5 pm.
Ellie's nurse took us to her room, a private room. We dropped off her belongings in the room and went down to the Food Court for some wraps for supper. When we arrived back in Ellie's room we discovered she is to be in isolation until it was determined that she did not have a superbug. The nurse tooks some swabs to be sent away to be analyzed. Results to be in on Tuesday evening. I needed to put on a gown and gloves so that I would not affect Ellie when I was in the room or take anything back out if she was infected. Ellie also could not leave the room without donning the same protection.
Ellie in isolation; what a downer for her!
I stayed with her for some time and then went home. Apparently a friend, Jeannette called and made arrangements to visit her on Tuesday. Then Ellie had a long phone visit from Mark which she really appreciated. Thank you Mark. After being hooked up to IV for hydration purposes and after taking some medications including a sleeping pill she had a great night's sleep.

All this yard waste and more was picked up today

When she woke up on Tuesday morning, Ellie was all disoriented. She didn't realize where she was and walked out to the nursing station without the special gown or gloves to find out what was happening. Her nurse very rudely told her to get back into her room. Ellie was beside herself when she phoned me; it took a while for me to calm her down. Fortunately she was able to relax after some explaining and soothing talk.
Henry called her at his lunchtime and chatted with her for a while. Thank you Henry. After that Ellie was started on her dose of chemo which takes four hours to complete. Then Jeannette came in with green smoothies and Extreme Pitas for lunch; she also took along a CD player with a very beautiful peaceful CD. They had a great visit together. Thank you Jeannette!
I came in at about 4:30 to visit. Ellie was listening to the soothing music and was very relaxed.
The bag of chemo was almost gone and a new nurse (very friendly) came and chatted for a few minutes. After she left, the doctor came in to do the spinal injection. We like him very much. He is a short, stout Asian with a very friendly manner and boyish grin. He does a wonderful job with the injection; Ellie experiences no pain at all. After he left, supper arrived for her. We chatted and then I went to the Food Court to have a bite to eat while she had a little snooze. I came back to her room for a while and then went home some time after 7. On the way out, I checked with the nurse but the results on the swabs were still pending. After I came home, I checked Ellie's online record and found that all the swab results were negative; so she should no longer be in isolation. If and when they move her to another room I don't know.
Gerard.

Duiker Easter Celebration

It's so wonderful to share time with family. All three of our children's families had Easter plans with their in-laws on Friday or Sunday, so we celebrated at our home on Saturday.  Everyone lives in Toronto. They arrived after early afternoon naps and stayed until mid evening. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing this time together! All we had to provide was our home (especially our play room), salad and drinks. Everything else was provided by the other three family units. Here's a quick peek at our grand children.

Oscar checking out my sea shell collection

Charlie horsing around with Uncle Jeff

Hannah getting on and off the chair by herself

grandchild number four is on his way - due early June!

I have tons of pictures; way too many to share on this blog.  This is all for now.  Tomorrow we'll move on in time to share with you other highlights of this week.

Ellie will be going into the hospital later this afternoon for chemotherapy round 3. I will keep you posted on any updates - Gerard.

My Father's 90th Birthday Celebration

It's been a busy and exciting weekend!  So much to show and  tell you that I don't quite know where to start.

Most of my pictures were taken on Saturday at my Father's 90th birthday celebration, so I'll start with that. It was a wonderful day! We met with our family for coffee and lunch.  I have so many photos of this celebration! It was difficult to pick just a few to share with you here. But here it goes...

Father with his children in order of age, left to right

   

Opa with his grandchildren who were able to attend

And here is Hannah, one of the great grandchildren at the celebration.
(the only one I got a picture of)

After this family time we helped out at the Open House for Father's friends and members of the congregation.  

                         

Father reading out some of our memories of his 90 years

We had asked all family members to share memories of Father's 90 years. There were about 165 memories submitted by children, grand children, great grand children and some of his siblings in Holland.. Here is Father reading a sampling of about ten of them to us.

Later, after Father and Jeff had gone home, the rest of us siblings spent the evening in Kitchener at Carel and Irene's. And there more of the memories were read to us. Each memory read out triggered further memories that were shared.  It was great fun! A booklet of all the memories was compiled for Father so he could enjoy then all at his leisure. And enjoy them he did!

Visit to Allan Gardens

My sister, Anneke, came from South Dakota to participate in the celebration of my dad's 90th birthday and to visit around in the family. Last night she stayed at our house and today we went to the Allan Gardens together.  We loved getting this preview of spring and both took lots of pictures!  It felt so good to spend this time with my sister!   

My sister taking some close-up shots

Every time I see these cacti I am amazed by them.

cute little violets

Look at the turtles enjoying the sunshine!

I've never seen these flowers before. Anyone know their name?

The Lord has been granting me such good health these days!  It feels so wonderful to feel relatively normal. The two chemotherapy treatments I've had so far are making me feel fine - no side affects.And because of all the special events going on in our family the doctor postponed this week's treatments to next week, giving me a whole extra week to enjoy this energy. Thank you,Lord!