Adventures with Wendy

Yes, It's Me! Whee! Napanee!!

2011-07-12T00:23:00.015-04:00

Well, by now you are all probably thinking on a fairly regular basis that I've been abducted by aliens because I am only blogging once every ten or eleven years or so, but I assure you that I have NOT been abducted by any such aliens.

I am, in fact, alive & well, free from any & all encumbrances & am doing just peachy, thank you very much. But thank you for being so concerned!

It's actually a good sign that I'm not blogging, you see, because I'm so BUSY!! I've been traveling here & there & everywhere. At the beginning of June, I was off to Toronto, with a delightful little pit stop at my friends' place in Picton.

Then, I did two or three gigs in the Toronto area, which is always fun! I did a small show for a wonderful bunch of ladies in Pickering, at a beautiful place down by the water. The name of the place is Hy-Tea. The owner's name is HYacinthe & she serves all kinds of specialty teas, so she calls it Hy-Tea. Get it? High Tea? Hahaha!!

I went to a concert with a friend later on that week, and I visited my cousin Jeannie, her hubby & her cutie-pie daughters. So that was neat.

And then, on the way home, I dropped in on Napanee, Ontario. I've been wanting to visit Napanee for quite awhile cuz I like Avril Lavigne & I like her music. Well, some of her music. She's Canadian, eh? And she's from Napanee!

Well, anyways, I had watched this documentary on Avril a few years ago, and there was this whole bit about how crazy Avril is about pizza. She has a fave pizza restaurant in Napanee & there are lots of pics of her at this restaurant, and they've even named a pizza after her there!

There was a pic of her & the owner, and I said to myself, "Self, you should go to Napanee, find that restaurant & get a picture of you with that same pizza restaurant owner!" So that's just what I did! Okay, first, here's the sign for Napanee:

And here's the pic of Avril & the pizza store owner:

And here's the pic of ME with the very same pizza restaurant owner!!

Do you realize what this MEANS?!?!? It means that Avril & I are practically, like, FRIENDS!!! I mean, we've had our pictures taken with the very same man! How cool is THAT!?!? It's like the whole "six degrees of separation" thingy! (er, if you don't know what that means, go to Wikipedia and they'll explain it).

I guess I should have asked the Pizza Restaurant Guy what his name was, eh? Oh, well, he's Greek, so let's just call him Nick. Here's a pic of one of his pizza restaurant windows:

Well, I spent several hours in Napanee chatting with the local shop owners, walking around Main Street or whatever it's called, and checking out the gift shops. It was fun!

Apparently, Avril comes back to Napanee unannounced every once in awhile to meet up with her Canadian pals. Good for you, Avril! Don't forget about us up here in the cold, frozen north! She probably has a couple of mansions in LA with swimming pools & doesn't have to worry about frostbite or blizzards (except the ones from Dairy Queen) or snow tires.

Good on ya, Avril! Save a mansion for me. I'm gonna be famous any day, now....I can feel it in my bones (or is it osteoporosis? Not sure which....)

So that's my big news, folks...I went to Napanee & lived to tell about it. Hope you are all having equally exciting adventures as you laze around this summer. I am gearing up for my big tour that starts this September....would you like to see the lineup so far?

Joy in the Journey Tour 2011 with Wendy Farha:
September 15 - Burlington
September 16 - Hamilton
September 18 - Tillsonburg
September 23-27 - Timmins
September 30 - North Bay
October 1 - North Bay
October 3 - Sudbury
October 5 - Sudbury (to be confirmed)
October 13 - Peterborough
October 15 - Ottawa

All tour details are here: http://www.wendy.ca/content/view/52/71/

Goodness, where will I find the energy? Actually, it just seems to come when it's needed, so no worries. There are spots in the tour where I can rest up.

Well, I must be off to bed. Nite nite!

Love, Wendy (and Timmy, of course)

- Will Wonders Never Cease?!?!?

2011-06-06T09:04:00.011-04:00

Oh, I'm sure you can hardly believe your eyes that it's me here - did you think I'd:

(a) thrown away my computer

(b) forgotten how to blog

Well, happily happily happily, none of the above is true. It's true that I have not blogged since February 13, 2011, but I have a perfectly good reason for that. I've been BUSY!!!

Yes, siree, that's my story & I'm sticking to it. Busy busy busy me. Lots of opportunities to sing & laugh & share my goofiness with people....what fun!

So what have you missed? Well, of course, my chemo treatments wrapped up in February, which is undoubtedly why I stopped blogging - I was FREEEEE!!! I started running around & haven't stopped for a breath yet!

Yes, my treatments for breast cancer started in November of 2009 & finished in February 2011 - what a journey! Since this whole thing began, I have met many dear people battling cancer & many loyal family members walking alongside them.

Some have made it; some have not. My thoughts go out to the families of John, and Laura, and Reidar, and Lori, who lost their weary battles with cancer. In fact, when Lori heard I'd finished treatments & was going to be doing a concert, she sent me this email on April 9th: "Glory, Glory, Halleluia!!!!! So very happy for you buddy. I can't make it on to your wonderful concert because I am working evenings at the Jewish. Love you tons....keep going Wendy. Thrilled for you. Love Lori xxxx"

After a gruelling year, Lori had just finished her refresher course so that she could re-enter the workforce as a nurse, a job she just loved. Despite setbacks with her cancer, she persevered, graduated her course at Christmas, and started a job at the Jewish General. She died in her sleep May 28.

And life goes on. Hopefully those of you who are blessed with reasonably good health can learn an important lesson from those of us who have been afflicted with cancer - don't take your days, or weeks, or months, or years for granted.

Appreciate life. Don't procrastinate. Seize the day. Live intentionally. Don't waste your energy on things that don't matter. Do what you need to do now, not later. Forgive. Keep short accounts with others. Tell someone you love them. Dance in the sun or in the rain. Don't sweat the small stuff. And don't assume you have forever here ~ think about the deeper issues of life.

So in March 2011, as many of you know, I received a clean bill of health. Some of you have asked me if I'm "in remission". Well, I picked up this little gem on the net:

"Many people seem to have a distorted and incorrect definition of the word "remission," as it is used in relation to cancer patients. Most commonly people seem to believe that going into remission means that the patient is successfully treated and safe.

However, according to the American Cancer Society, cancer remission is a "period of time when the cancer is responding to treatment or is under control. In a complete cancer remission, all the signs and symptoms of the disease disappear...complete cancer remissions may continue for several years and be considered cures."

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/242550

All that to say that, for the time being, my oncologist is not aware of any cancer in my body. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing!

I'm not trying to be a pessimist here, but rather, a realist. I don't like the idea of getting all giddy about being "in remission" and then having all hope dashed to the ground if they find something else, somewhere else. I'm optimistic, but not naive, if that makes any sense to you.

I'm not going to assume that it's going to be all clear sailing from now on, healthwise. But those of you who know me, know that I'm determined to be chirpy, no matter what happens!

So in my travels, I am meeting lots of fun people who invite me to stay at their homes when I'm passing through. Here's Terri from Kanata, who, along with her hubby Chris, has blessed me sooo much with her warm hospitality:

In May I did a Ladies' Night Out in Prince Edward County (not Prince Edward Island!) just south of Picton. It was wonderful! 160 ladies came out to laugh, eat yummy desserts, and hear me do my stuff. I met some neato people there & it was fun!

This Wednesday, I'm off to Toronto to do some gigs & I just HAVE to stop in Picton again & see those sweetie-pies....I miss them already! It also breaks up the travel so I don't have to drive 6 hours all in one day.

I'm gonna drive to Kingston, take the ferry from there to the County, eat din dins with Gary & Priscilla, then sleep a couple of nights at Bill & Mary Ann's. Yay!

And whoo-hoo!! Jann Arden, one of Canada's leading singer/songwriters, will be doing a short interview with me on her CBC Radio show "Being Jann" - she's such a hoot! I'll let you know the date it's going to air - I'll post it on Facebook & hopefully on here as soon as I find out. I'm really good at impersonating Jann impersonating her mother, which Jann got a kick out of, so she decided to have me on her show!

So stay tuned, my dear blog-followers....I shall certainly try to blog again and not let another 3 months pass before I update you again.

Blessings!

Wendy

- What Not To Say To Cancer Patients

2011-02-13T20:27:00.018-05:00


Hi Everyone!

Goodness, it's been two months since I last blogged! Well, here I am, finally, so not to worry - I've been either too busy or too tired to blog, but it's about time I reconnected with you guys & gave you some news about myself!

First off - I'm just home from an international 50-city tour! Okay, it wasn't 50 cities; it was 4 and it wasn't an international tour - it was a tour in Eastern Ontario.

And it was hardly a tour. More like a visit, or a trip. Anyways, the part about me being just home is accurate. Ha!

It was such fun! Cornwall, Kingston, Belleville & Brockville are my new fave places on the Canadian map. Met lots of neat people I hope to see again when I return. Thursday night in particular was a real kick - I got to sing, do comedy & share my cancer journey with some lovely ladies at the Brockville Women's Network. It was great!

Here are some of the gals from the BWN:


















On another note.....I'm SO tired lately - my thyroid has been off, so my meds have been increased, but it takes awhile for them to kick in. Also, the cumulative Herceptin treatments have been making me weary, I think. And then there's the chemo-induced menopause - who knows what mischief THAT'S been creating in my system!

I think I just need more chocolate.

Well, I've been meaning to do a bloggy-blog posting on this subject for awhile now: "What Not To Say To Cancer Patients".

I think it's worth talking about, especially since SO many people are getting cancer these days & it's helpful if you know some of the cliches to avoid saying.

Shall we get started? Everything that's in quotes is stuff I've copied & pasted from the web. There are lots of things I found that you shouldn't say, but for brevity's sake, I'm only listing three of them.

Here we go:


1. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know.

Not helpful at all. "This statement puts the burden of asking for help on the cancer patient. Instead, offer to do specific things.....it shows the sincerity of your willingness to help out.

Offer a drive to a treatment, a trip to the grocery store or to do a few loads of laundry. Take the kids for an afternoon or even overnight. Bring dinner over. Offer to help with the patient's elderly parent or to pick up books or books on tape (they choose) at the library."

2. You should read about / take / eat these supplements / herbal medicines / miracle foods.....

Noooo! Personally speaking, I'm *really* tired of this one. If there was a single magic bullet to cure cancer, everyone would be taking it. Since being diagnosed in August 2009, I have received approximately 40 emails with this kind of stuff & I don't like it one bit. I know people are trying to help, but it gets REALLY tiresome to have constant suggestions like these.

If you feel you absolutely MUST advise a cancer patient to try something, why not first let the person know casually that you've heard of something you think might be helpful, but you don't want to send it along unless the cancer patient is interested.

To me, that seems more sensitive than sending unsolicited information. We are most likely already overwhelmed with information, we're tired, and IMHO (in my humble opinion), many of us don't want yet another suggestion from someone who's never even had cancer themselves.

3. Just stay positive!

Uh, excuse me? You're healthy & you're telling me to be positive?!? First of all, this can be really offensive because it's akin to someone standing on the sidewalk watching a train about to run me over, and you're yelling, "stay positive!!!" Definitely not cool. Step out in front of the train with me & then tell me if you feel positive.

Now, I actually DO feel positive, but that's not the point. The point is, I don't think it's appropriate for someone on the sidelines to give such advice. And besides, hearing people tell me to be positive takes all the fun out of being positive!

I've been very determined to maintain a good attitude, so when people tell me to be positive, it makes me feel like they can't see that I'm already positive and it bums me out!

To be fair, I think only two people in the past year & a half have told me to be positive, and neither of them knew me very well. So that's not been such a big deal for me.

Here's a copy-and-paste from the web: "Cancer patients hear endless variations on this “mind over body” theme. There are going to be days when a patient doesn’t feel positive at all, and you certainly don’t want him worrying that he’s sabotaging his own chances of recovery.

And what if he has a stressful job, or is a type A personality who reacts easily to stress — do you want him feeling guilty or worrying that his high-strung personality or tendency toward anxiety either “caused” or will worsen his cancer?

Unfortunately, an awful lot of the literature conveys, in one way or another, the underlying message to cancer patients that they may have “caused” cancer through stress, worry, or a negative attitude, and that they could heal the cancer if they’d only develop a mellow outlook or sunny disposition. All that really happens is that they feel even more anxious about trying not to be anxious, or they feel guilty for not feeling happy."

Finally, here's another good piece of advice: "If there is nothing to say, say nothing at all. Just offer a hug, a hand or a shoulder. Sometimes the most powerful comfort you can offer comes from the heart, not the mouth."

Now, having written this posting, let me say that I have been amazingly blessed by those around me who've been cheering me on and usually saying all the RIGHT things to me. So THANK YOU!!

I think in many ways, this posting is for others who aren't having the same experiences I'm having in that regard. This subject will hopefully help you to be more sensitive & supportive to those around you who've been diagnosed with cancer.

Well, I must toddle off....please stay warm (if you are living in a cold climate), don't get a sunburn (if you're living somewhere hot), and don't forget to hug the ones you love....

And remember....life is short....handle with prayer!

Blessings to you all,

Wendy

Senior's Snow Plow ~ ha!

_______________________________________________

Sources:
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100930/FEATURES/9300311

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/what-not-to-say-to-someone-with-cancer.html#

- More Meanderings

2010-12-15T22:19:00.009-05:00

Hey there, fellow sojourners! What's new? I have been carefully walking around, recuperating from my Happy Hysterectomy.

This past Monday was treatment day. For those of you not quite up-to-speed on my fascinating cancer journey, I have finished my chemo & radiation but am still receiving an antibody called "Herceptin" until mid-February.

The nice thing about Herceptin is that there aren't many side effects, other than some joint swelling, a bit of fatigue, and the perpetual difficulty of losing weight. But we won't talk about THAT, now, will we!?!?!!?

Anyways, so George drove me to the hospital for noon this past Monday & schlepped around with me all afternoon. And I got to see my cutie-pie Oncologist, Dr. Victor Cohen...he's kinda shy, so he's not terribly fond of getting his picture taken.

This pic above is the only one I have of him in my files. I did find another one on the Jewish General Hospital website, although it's not a very good one....

He has a beard & looks a little fershivelled here - oops, my spellcheck is telling me that's not the right spelling....anybody know how to spell fershivelled? I've just gone on Google & dictionary.com but neither of them recognize this word....I know I've heard it used..... help???

Anyhoo, he doesn't have a beard now, and his hair looks very nice these days. Gosh, he'd just die if he knew I was talking about him here on my blog. Oh, well.

So he came into the examining room where we were waiting for him & he always looks stressed, because all he does all day is meet patient after patient after patient after patient with cancer...breast cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, throat cancer....patients who will get better and go on to lead healthy, long lives; patients who will get better from this round of chemo, only to get their cancer back again, and patients who will not recover from their cancer and will eventually die.

Dr. Cohen is a wonderful Oncologist & he really cares about his patients, so I always feel bad for him when he comes in looking so stressed, which is, like, pretty much all the time. I like making him laugh, so when he came in looking so dog-tired, I said, "Hey! What's different about me?!?!?"

He stopped in his tracks, looked at me carefully, and said, "You lost weight."

"Nope!" I said, wishing with all my might that this was true.

"Uh....your hair has grown back," he guessed again. "Yes," I said, "but that's not it." He just stared at me, trying to figure it out.

"Give up??" I said. He nodded.

"I don't have a uterus anymore!!!" Hahaha!! He'd forgotten I'd had my Happy Hysterectomy!

"And I don't have my ovaries or my tubes, either!"He smiled & shook his head. I like it when caring, stressed-out doctors get to have a little chuckle in the middle of their sad, cancer-filled day. It's the least I can do to pay them back for all the wonderful care they give to me.

Anyways, we chatted about the drugs I'll be on for the next 5 years to fight residual breast cancer cells that may still be floating around my body, my post-hysterectomy infection that's decided to hang out around the incision under my navel, and a few other fascinating details that I won't bore you with.

Yes, the incision under my navel (where they inserted the camera for my laparoscopic hysterectomy) was looking pretty angry & red, so after seeing Dr. Cohen, one of the Chemo nurses called a doc from Infectious Diseases to come look at it. Doesn't that sound exciting? Infectious Diseases! Like I'm a health risk or something!!

Actually, it's the best kind of doc to look at stuff like this, so he came to gaze at my navel (I thought we were supposed to gaze at our own navels???) and decided an abscess was forming, so he prescribed some antibiotics. Sure! The quickly-shrinking amount of cash in my anorexic bank account is just sitting there, so why not spend it on more drugs, for goodness sake!

Then, a half hour of Herceptin, some witty repartee with Dr. Brahms Silver, my favorite Colorectal Social Worker, a few jokes dispensed to busy, efficient nurses, and then my final quote for the day before leaving:

"Chaos, panic, pandemonium – my work here is done." Ha!!!

_____________________________________________________

Well, of course, things are never simple with me, and this week was no different. After starting my antibiotics for the incision infection, one of my teeth started hurting. I mean, I'd just finished up a third and what-I-thought-was-final appointment last week with my nice dentist, Dr. Evange Destounis. I think the chemo must've done a number on my teeth, cuz I had all sorts of fillings and cracked enamels that needed fixing.

Oh, well, so off I went to see Evange & his wacky sidekick, MJ. We had lots of fun together & I managed to do a photo shoot while they were working on me. It's easy - you just hold your cell phone on your lap, and while they're working on you, you take some pics. Fun, eh?

Yes, a good time was definitely had by all - that's for sure.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Tomorrow, I'm off to the hospital again to show my surgeon, Dr. Tulandi, my interesting-looking incision, to see what he says about that.

Ta ta for now!! xox

Love, Wendy

Oh, and here's a little video for ya, from a Girls' Night Out I did in Brockville, Ontario, Canada last month - hope you get a chuckle!!!

- My Happy Hysterectomy!

2010-12-03T06:53:00.011-05:00

Yes, it's all over with and I am minus my plumbing. I had my Happy Hysterectomy on November 30, 2010 at 9 am.

Just before we went into the Operating Room, I told my surgeon, cutie-pie Dr. Tulandi, that I was hoping I'd weigh less after the operation.

He just laughed (I think he thought I was serious - and I was, kinda) and said, "It only weighs a few ounces!! Ha ha ha!!" Yeah, I figured that. Oh, well, a girl can always dream....

Ya, so this is Dr. Togas Tulandi, my favorite gynecologist in the whole world. He's super-nice, always in a good mood, never snobby, and he has a great reputation.

He's the one who removed my left ovary (it was pretty beat up from too much endometriosis) around 10 years ago, so I figured he should be the one to finish the job & get the complete set.

I also like him because he laughs at my jokes, which is an important factor in choosing a doctor. For me, anyways. And would you believe, he CALLED ME AT HOME the night after the surgery to see how I was doing!!! How's THAT for a doctor, huh?!?? What a cutie-pie!!

Ya, so this was my FIFTH surgery since this whole breast cancer saga began in August 2009. And the weird thing is, every one of those five surgeries has been done in "ODS", or One Day Surgery, something I never would have imagined.

I mean, it's not like I was getting a wart removed or something. These are major surgeries they're doing! But at the end of the day, home we go! (Well, they did keep me overnight for the bilateral mastectomy, which was very kind of them).

So I've had, in order of appearance:

1) a bilateral mastectomy in September 2009

2) lymph node removals in October 2009

3) my Port-A-Cath installation in I-don't-remember-when

4) my Port-A-Cath removal & re-installation of another Port-A-Cath that actually worked properly in September 2010, and

5) a hysterectomy in November 2010.

I think that's enough, already!

Of course, I'm good buddies with the ODS - One Day Surgery - staff by now....I mean, we're practically family, don't you know! This is Elizabeth, the receptionist in ODS. She's SO much fun and we always have lots of laughs when I'm there.

So this surgery was what they call a prophylactic hysterectomy. That means I had it done for preventative purposes.

I figure if I can get every major organ removed from my body between now and, say, 2014, why, I'll be SO much more at peace because the cancer won't have anywhere to hang out if it did come back, right?

Except I draw the line at them removing my brain. I need my brain. And my heart. I need that, too.

But I figure everything else is expendable, so I'm getting it cut out. Ha!

The oral medication they put you on for five years, following an episode with breast cancer, actually stimulates the lining of the uterus, which can cause cancer! Sheesh!

So I figured it was safer to get a hysterectomy. If I don't have a uterus, I can't get cancer of the uterus. A no-brainer, right?

Dr. Cohen - my cutie-pie Oncologist - and Dr. Tulandi, my gynie, agreed with me. I like it when my doctors agree with me. See? I make their jobs so much easier for them! I tell them what I want, and they, like, do it! It's like I'm diagnosing myself - what fun!

So that's all....I'm still kinda tired from Monday's surgery so I should get back to bed, now. But I knew you'd want to be brought up-to-speed on my fascinating life, so I felt I had a moral duty to post this before completely relaxing & taking it easy.

Till next time! Bye bye!

Love, Meeee xoxo

- Still Here!

2010-11-17T04:35:00.008-05:00

Oh my, I'm so behind in my blogging, aren't I? It's been forever since we've visited each other here, isn't it?

Well, no worries, as they say - I'm doing just peachy, although I've been pretty pooped lately, waiting for my increased thyroid meds to kick in. Silly hypo-thyroid! Who needs it?

Last Friday night, I went to Brockville, Ontario to do a Girls' Night Out Concert Of Hope. It was fun!

Here's what the crowd looked like when I got up on stage:

Wow! Pretty big crowd, huh? Yup, yup - I'm one popular chick, I tell you. Okay, maybe this wasn't the exact crowd, but it was pretty similar.

Okay, so it was nothing like that. But 160 women came to see me, which was pretty darn cool, since they'd never heard of me & didn't really know what they were getting into.

They were one crazy bunch! I got to do my Depends gag with them! What's that, you ask? Well, you know when ladies get older, sometimes they can lose a bit of bladder control, right? That means when they laugh, things can happen. Like, you know, small little leaks. You know what I'm saying? So that's why some smart business people invented diapers for adults.

Well, when that many ladies get to laughing over my jokes, things can happen. So just for a laugh, I bring along a bag of Depends, and when the laughter gets to a certain pitch, I pull out my bag of Depends and show it to the crowd.

Which gets them laughing even harder! And then, of course, I pull out a few Depends & start throwing them into the crowd. I threw out one to the section on the left, one to the middle section, and one to the right. I told them to share. Which would be really difficult, when you think about it. Not that I want to. Think about it, that is.

Anyways, it got a good laugh. And because I told them how expensive those things are, they even brought them back to me at the end of the concert, which was very thoughtful of them, don't you think? I think so.

It was a wonderful concert. They didn't really want much singing, so I did mostly comedy! They gave me a standing ovation, and the organizer said I had to come back again & do another show sometime. "Oh, if you insist," I said. Then I went out into the foyer & sold some CDs, made some new friends, and apologized for any accidents they may have had while laughing.

I mean, it's not like I had enough Depends for everyone there. I'm not Celine, you know. I'm not made of money.

And even though Celine has lots of money, I'm sure she doesn't throw Depends into the crowd. That's more of a Wendy thing.

Well, what more can I say? I think I've said it all for tonight. You won't believe this (or maybe you will), but it's 4:30-ish am and I haven't gone to bed, yet. I got busy on my little computer here, blogging away amongst other things, and suddenly....poof! It's almost daybreak! I really must get my rest!

So ttfn - ta ta for now, dear friends, and see you again soon....in person, on Facebook, or right here in bloggy-land!

xoxox Love, Wendy

- No Longer Loopy

2010-10-22T09:21:00.005-04:00

Yep, so this past Wednesday, October 20/10, I got unlooped. I'm now unloopy. No Longer Loopy. Sounds like a brand-name shampoo, doesn't it?

Anyways, so if you don't understand this title, you should look on the right sidebar, scroll down, and find my previous posting entitled "I'm Loopy". Read that, then come back here and everything I'm saying today will suddenly make sense.

So I showed up at 7:30 am like they told me to and changed into my surgery costume, which they insist you wear when you get surgery. It's kinda like Hallowe'en, only it's, er, not.

The hat is completely superfluous, when you think about it. I mean, it just looks dopey & a nurse told me after an hour or so that I didn't need to wear it, even though the gown-hand-er-out-er told me I did. So I took it off cuz I don't like looking dopey...who does?

Anyways, so they took out my loopy Port-A-Cath & put in my new, unloopy Port-A-Cath. The surgeon was going to put in the new one on my right side instead of my left, to avoid the risk of possible infection, but as it turns out, one of her colleagues said there wasn't really a significant risk, so she put it in on the same side. Which is good! It means I don't have yet another scar.

Yep, so like I said, I was at the hospital at 7:30 am, and they finally took me around 1 pm. Sigh. Lots of ODS (One Day Surgery) patients ahead of me. Oh, well - no complaints...it's free! Thank you, Quebec Medicare! Thank you, socialized medicine! Thank you, Quebec taxpayers! Waiting around for a few hours is a small inconvenience so no worries.

Hey, check this out! One of my FB friends says she went to France for a Lance Armstrong-type event & ended up writing my name in the sand as a sign she was thinking of me. Sweet, eh? That's a yellow Lance Armstrong Livestrong bracelet sitting there on the sand in the middle.

I wonder if it's one of those photoshopped deals she did, and she just made up the story about her being in France? Oh, well, it doesn't matter...it's the thought that counts! I guess I'm a little cynical cuz I found this way cool website where you can do stuff like that.

You just choose a frame like this window box, then add your photo, et voila! It looks like Timmy-In-A-Windowbox. The website is www.imagechef.com - very cute.

See? I wrote "I like to blog" in this sandy pic. Kinda fun, right?

Anyways, in other news, Timmy the Cat got a manicure a few weeks ago. We have some leather furniture & he managed to put a few good gouges in it, so rather than declawing him, we opted for "Soft Paws".

It's these cute little caps you glue on their front claws so that they can't destroy your furniture, woodwork, etc. It's painless & they last about six weeks.

He's looking pretty mad in this pic - this is when we first put them on - and he acted really funny when he first started walking with them, but now he's used to it. He can't ruin our furniture, and when he scratches on the wooden door to come in from downstairs, it sounds kinda like chalk on a blackboard as the plastic squeaks against the wood.

They come in all kinds of fun colors like hot pink, green, blue, purple, etc., but to save his dignity, we decided on black. I think he would have felt ridiculous sporting hot pink claws.

He doesn't look too thrilled here, but he's totally used to them, now...he doesn't even notice it at all...just bites at them a bit once in awhile. As the claws grow longer, you just clip them off & apply a new set. We got 40 for around $11.95 from Hong Kong. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, that's my news! I've got another six gigs or so coming up....Montreal....Alexandria.... Brockville....Toronto.... So I'm resting up, doing lots of online marketing, for my music & comedy, and looking forward to treatment being over and done with in February 2011...only six Herceptin treatments to go! Once every three weeks isn't all that bad, right?

And then maybe I'll do a world tour, like Celine Dion! Or maybe I'll just take a nap. We'll see what I'm in the mood for by February 2011. So stay tuned! You never know just what's going to happen in my exciting, Adventures-With-Wendy-life, now, do you? :)

Blessings to all of you!

Wendy

- Battle Scars

2010-10-06T23:43:00.012-04:00

Well, let's see....what's new in my interesting & varied life these days? Oh, yes, last time here on The Young and The Breastless, I was telling you about my adventures of being loopy.

My Port-A-Cath line had mysteriously looped inside my vein, preventing my Herceptin treatment from being administered through it. Last time I went in for treatment, they had to use a vein in the back of my hand, which was, like, ouch!

Here, I'll show you what I mean. Ooh, talk about a personal picture of me!! Yes, this is me, faithful blogger friends!! Up close & personal!!

It's very sexy, if you ask me....I mean, you can see right through my hospital gown.

Anyways, now, look at the upper right hand corner of the x-ray where it says "JGH" & "Wendy". Now look at the date underneath that, "2010 Sep 20". Now look to the left of the date & down a bit, and you'll see my loop-de-loop just to the right of my spinal column. Isn't that cool? That's my loopy Port-A-Cath line!

So a couple of weeks ago, I went to see the lovely doctor who installed it (she really is lovely! Very pretty!) She looked at the x-ray and exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like this before!" She said she was fairly certain that if it had ever happened to any other patients of the hospital, their doctors would have mentioned it to her.

Isn't that fun?!? This means that once again, I've found a way to be special!! I love being special! Helps me stand out in the crowd, I say!! Why, it also helps my reputation as a Drama Queen!

Of course, it also means that they'll have to remove this Port-A-Cath, since it's now officially useless.

Sigh. Now, you see, I thought my treatment was going to be over in mid-November, so if that was the case, I'd grit my teeth & get the last two Herceptin treatments the regular, needle-in-the-vein way.

But last time I saw my cutie-pie Oncologist, Dr. Cohen, he looked at me like I was...well, loopy when I mentioned that I was looking forward to being finished in November. "No!" he exclaimed, "you'll be finished in February 2011!"

"What???" said I. Yep, turns out I'd misunderstood. I thought I'd be getting Herceptin for 9 months in total, but he'd meant 9 months after my chemo finished, plus 3 months of it at the same time as my chemo. So a year in total. Yay.

Oh, well....I'm tough; I can take it. It's only once every 3 weeks. Which means, I kinda still want & need a Port-A-Cath. So on October 20, I'm going in to get this one removed, and another one put in. On my right side this time, cuz if they put another one in on the same side, it can risk infection. Hmph.

A scar, scar here, and a scar, scar there....here a scar, there a scar; everywhere a scar, scar...little Miss Wendy had a farm...e-i-e-i-o.

So on my chest, I'll have:

(a) my bilateral mastectomy scars - two, to be exact

(b) the scar from my lymph node removals

(d) the scar from removing the first Port-A-Cath

(e) the scar from inserting the second Port-A-Cath

(f) the scar from removing the second Port-A-Cath - sometime in 2011.

(g) the scar I'll get when I have some corrective surgery on (a).

Oh. My. Word. How attractive is all THAT going to be!!! Should I win a special award or something? I'll look like a blinking road map!!!

Not to mention (further south of my chest) the scar from my umbilical hernia (when I was 3 years old), my appendix scar (when I was 7 years old), and the scar from when they removed a uterine cyst (when I was 40-ish years old).

Never mind. They're battle scars, dah-lings! Just think of the tale each one tells!!! It proves I've got loads of experience living life, doesn't it? Yes, it does.

Same applies to wrinkles. Your face might look like a road map, but it just shows that you've been around the block enough times to know a thing or two, right? They're beauty marks!

Well, here's to staying young at heart, even when life sneaks up on us & shouts, "BOO!!!"

Incidentally, I googled "battle scars" and up popped a very inspirational piece, which I've posted below. If you've got the time, read it.

Talk to you soon, and stay young!!

Love, Wendy

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Show Me Your Battle Scars

November 12th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina

Whenever you set an ambitious goal, it’s virtually guaranteed you’ll encounter some roadblocks.

There’s no reason to let that stop you though. A roadblock isn’t much of an obstacle for a human being. You can climb over it, walk around it, blow it up, get someone else to move it, or otherwise bypass it.

Roadblocks do an outstanding job of frightening away the timid. But to those with a modicum of courage, roadblocks have very little power. When a committed person tackles a roadblock, the roadblock stands very little chance. After a little time spent hacking away at the roadblock, the universe will tend to do the equivalent of saying, “Well, alright then… I was just checking to see if you were serious. I won’t stand in your way anymore. You’re free to proceed.”

Perhaps it’s a universal safety mechanism, something along the lines of survival of the fittest. Maybe the universe won’t allow weak-minded people to go too far down the path of goal achievement, since if they were to succeed in a big way, they’d just make a real mess of things. Strong-willed people are free to pass, while weak-minded ones get knocked back and have to train up a bit more.

Time for a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

So the question is… are you a timid adventurer? Has the world been scaring you away from setting and achieving some really big and meaningful goals? Is a scarecrow enough to derail you from getting what you really want? Have you been derailed so many times that you’ve stopped pursuing what you want and settled for what you think you can get?

Have you defined as “impossible” or “highly improbable” a whole host of possibilities that other human beings have already proven achievable?

Sure there are some goals that would be really tough for you to accomplish. Maybe you’re right about certain things being impossible for you. So let’s see your battle scars then. Show me the wounds you’ve endured as a result of pursuing goals you couldn’t achieve.

Let’s see that bankruptcy, that broken heart, the rejection letter, the lawsuit, the divorce, the public humiliation. Show me the total failures, the brutal disappointments, the smack-downs.

Let’s see them battle scars.

What’s that? Do my ears deceive me, or are those crickets I’m hearing? No scars, eh.

Alrighty, how about some cuts and bruises? … A skinned knee? … A boo boo? … Heck, I’ll settle for a henna tattoo at this point.

If you have no scars, then you’re a super-duper mega-achiever, right? You must either be a complete genius or incredibly lucky. Nothing but a huge string of successes one after the other.

That’s not it either?

But if you’re not experiencing unfathomable successes and you’re not taking heavy damage either, then what the heck have you been doing with yourself? Playing it safe, eh? Playing… Pretending…

Did you really come here to live a pretend life? Perhaps you should stop doing that. Think about living a real life for a change… the kind of life people write poetry about.

If this world were a role-playing game (RPG), would you be classified as an Avatar or an NPC (non-player character)? NPCs sit around and repeat the same actions day after day. Avatars go on quests, where every day is different.

Do you have a quest? Or just a queue? Those last couple letters make a big difference.

Is your life safe? The word safe is both an adjective and a noun. As an adjective it means “being free from danger.” As a noun it’s “an enclosed storage container with a lock on it.” If you’re living the adjective, you’re living the noun too.

The word brave is also an adjective and a noun, meaning “possessing courage” (adj) and “a warrior” (n). Same rules apply.

Put an ending to pretending. Design your character, train him up, buy him some cool weapons, and send him into battle. Leave the safe behind — it will only slow you down.

In other words, decide what you want, develop the required skills, acquire the necessary resources, and go after your goal with courage. Don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way. Be that resolute young fellow (regardless of your age) as opposed to the timid adventurer.

It really is true that you have nothing to fear but fear itself. If you get hurt along the way, then suck it up and keep going. Battle scars are a part of life. To deny yourself disappointment is to deny yourself victory. If you want to go on a meaningful quest, you’re going to have to risk losing some hit points now and then.

Imagine playing an RPG without losing any hit points. You’d be playing scared, and it would be mind-numbingly dull and plodding. Is that how you’re playing the game of life right now?

Is your life full of ghastly defeats and glorious triumphs? Or has getting the mail become the highlight of your day?

Do something today that causes you to risk outright failure. Polish that old armor, and clean up those rusty weapons. Put some of those hit points to good use for a change.

If you fail, then nurse your wounds and celebrate that you’re finally living as human beings were meant to live — impassioned, emboldened, and completely unafraid.

But if you succeed, go find yourself a damned good poet.

- I'm Loopy

2010-09-21T23:47:00.011-04:00

Yes, you read that right - I'm loopy. Loop de loop. Loopy-doopy. That's me. I went in to the Jewish General this past Monday to get my Herceptin treatment as I normally do every 3 weeks. It's a pleasant way to pass the time, and my calendar tells me it's what I'm supposed to do that day, so what the heck.

The nice thing about getting the Herceptin is that it only takes around half an hour of my time, as opposed to the three or four hours I was used to when I was on chemo. Herceptin is not a chemo; it's an antibody, and it is designed to fight the HER2 receptor that was found in one of my two breast tumours back in August 2009.

Even though I had a bilateral mastectomy and the tumours are long gone, all this treatment is still necessary just in case a wandering cancer cell or two has decided to take a trip around my body when nobody was looking.

So the drugs & radiation are kinda like Star Trek crew - they boldly go where no drug has gone before, seeking out cells to destroy. How very William Shatner, eh?

So where was I? Oh, yeah, so as I was saying, I'm loopy. That is, my Port-A-Cath is loopy. Or rather, it's looped. It's wacko. It's not doing its job. Ecchh.

See, the nurses tried to give me the Herceptin in my Port-A-Cath, as they usually do. Does everyone remember what a Port-A-Cath is? There's going to be a test on this, you know. Have you not been paying attention all these months?

Oh, if you're new to this blog, you won't have been in the loop - so you're not loopy like I am. Okay, for you, I'll explain it. Or better yet, I'll show it to you. Look carefully at the following picture. See if you notice anything protruding out of my skin:

Okay, so the druggy-drug is supposed to go in there, eh? I got it inserted under local anesthesia back in December, I think it was. Some other "breast friends" had suggested I get it because if you have small veins, like I do, which quickly shrink & harden with the first dose of chemo, it makes it really tough for the nurses to find veins the next time, and the next time, and you can end up really bruised & sore.

So I asked for the Port-A-Cath to be installed & it's just great. Everybody should get one. Great for getting chocolate milk intravenously. Just kidding.

Anyways, the nurse pops the needle into the center of this thing, and voila! The IV stuff flows freely. Well, that is, it's supposed to flow freely. Except the last 3 times I've gone in for my treatment, the Port-A-Cath wasn't behaving very well, and this past Monday, it simply refused to work at all. So they had to find a vein on the back of my hand, which was pretty painful, actually, and that's how I got my treatment this time. Eww.

I went for an x-ray when my treatment was finished and guess what?!? It turns out the line of the Port-A-Cath is looped inside! Now, how did THAT happen?!?!?! Have I been doing somersaults? Working with Cirque de Soleil? Secretly operating on myself at night & twisting my tubing?? Arrggghh!

So this Thursday (as if I didn't have enough doctors' appointments already!), off I go to see the surgeon who installed this thing, to find out what's up. How did it loop? Why did it loop? How much has it looped? How can she unloop it?

For the conclusion of this fascinating story, you'll just have to tune in again next time! Hope the suspense of it all doesn't give you heart palpitations!

Which reminds me...I've been getting heart palpitations lately. 10 episodes in the last 3 or 4 weeks. It's not so good. Chemotherapies are cardio-toxic & so is Herceptin, so I'll have to go get fitted with a Holter soon.

A Holter is a kind of portable recording device that they strap to you for a day or two. You walk around & it records your heart activity. Hopefully, an episode occurs while you're hooked up to the Holter & then they can analyze what's up with your heart. So that's another appointment on my To Do list.

Have you figured out yet that having cancer & treatment for cancer is a full-time job? It can be! Lots of things to follow up on & check out. But it keeps me out of trouble, at least.

Well, before I close, here's the latest picture of me with my ever-growing hair, which is now blonde so that I can have more fun. And I am! Having more fun, that is.

I'm SO BUSY with gigs these days! It's soooo cool! Singing & speaking in lots & lots of different places! This past weekend, I was in Champlain, NY on Saturday, speaking to a neat bunch of ladies.

Sunday morning, I was in Greenfield Park, a suburb of Montreal, singing, doing comedy & speaking for a fun bunch of Baptists.

And this weekend, I'm off to Sherbrooke, Quebec to do a workshop with some ladies Saturday on "Finding Your Place" in life - how to put your gifts to work & help others, etc. And in the evening...a Concert Of Hope, with some of the proceeds going towards a local center for women. So it should be fun!!

Anyways, ta ta for now, my Blogger Buddies, and may you have a wonderful rest-of-the-week...

Be blessed & be a blessing!

xoxox Wendy

Here I am, teaching some kids & grown-ups my Ten Lepers song. "There were 10 men who were very sick, but Jesus healed them all..." These people all pretended to be lepers. They were very convincing, I think, because everyone seemed to feel sorry for them (not sure if it was because they were acting as though they had leprosy, though, or because they were looking kinda silly...heheheh!!!)

- Mine Again!!

2010-08-31T08:29:00.140-04:00

Hello, all you wonderful blogger-followers, how are you all doing?? My blogs get fewer & farther between, but fear not . . . I am still a force to be reckoned with & I am still alive & kicking.

It's been so nice not having to go to the hospital every day, now that my radiation is over & done with. I feel as though my body is MINE AGAIN!!! Nobody poking or prodding it, or sticking needles in it, or chemo-ing it or radiating it, or examining it, or removing parts of it. Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, I did go for an ultrasound today - it lasted 5 minutes & cost $110!! That was the fastest $110 I ever spent, I think. The doctor who did it is one of the best in the city, so I guess it was worth it. I hope. If I'd waited for a freebie ultrasound with Medicare, it would've been a 4 - 6 month wait....so forget it!!

Anyways, my gynecologist had sent me for the ultrasound. He said he wanted to make sure there was no cancer in the ovary, as is sometimes the case when breast cancer has also been present. The ultrasound doctor saw a round thingy on the screen & so did I. "Is that a tumor?" I gasped. "No, I think it's an egg." An egg??? At my age??? Sheesh!!!

He couldn't be sure cuz it's so small. I'm thinking that when all this treatment is over, I'm going to get a hysterectomy. It'll just be one less place any more dastardly cancer cells can build their evil little nest.

Plus it will ensure I don't get pregnant when I'm, like, 70, right? Yep.

Nothing says "bad mood" like finding out you're pregnant when you're 70, I always say.
________________________________________

Well, this past weekend was a whirlwind of activity! To start it off, my Friday Morning Prayer gals threw me a gala lunch for my birthday (which was actually a month ago). We got together, prayed for awhile, and then sat down to eat lots of yummy stuff.

Here's Helen, one of my prayer partner gals, & me, wearing my birthday crown! I turned 51 on July 25. :)

She gave me CHOCOLATES!!! Mmmmm!!!

Did you know that chocolates make a great breakfast entree? Yes, they do.

Well, on to other adventures. On Saturday, George & I were off to Cornwall, Ontario. Some of the churches there organized a Family Gospel Concert, and I was on from 2-3 pm, doing an hour of singing & comedy. Then we were treated to dinner by Pastor Brad & his cutie-pie wife, Sharon! Cool!

It's quite scary but Sharon & I have somewhat the same wacky sense of humour and an identical flair for mischief. It's probably a good thing that we live in different cities...if we hung out together, we'd probably end up getting arrested or something. Which could be an adventure in itself, come to think of it. Oh, Sha-a-a-a-a-ronnnnn.....!!!

Sunday, we were off to Franklin Centre, Quebec (near Ormstown, Quebec) to spend some time at Franklin Centre Church of the Nazarene. It's a rural church around an hour's drive outside of Montreal & it's always fun going there because people in the country actually have time to hang out with each other!

I shared the message on Sunday morning; then George & I went back to hang out & eat lunch with our buddies Anna & Paul. I love them to bits! And Anna is a great cook!

It was so much fun sharing the message Sunday morning. It makes me feel like a preacher-girl! I spoke about having purpose in our lives & staying true to that purpose.

I always like to clarify that statement, though...I don't believe purpose in & of itself is enough of a goal for us...that purpose must be attached to a deeper meaning.

What do I mean by that? Well, purpose is great, but if you believe that this life is just temporal; just a "dress rehearsal" for what is yet to come, then citing some earthly achievement as your main goal in life is just too short-sighted, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

For example, if I say that my destiny, my purpose in life is to sing, let's break that down. What is accomplished when I sing for others? Well, it makes them feel happy, or sad, or melancholy, or encouraged...it challenges them, or relaxes them, or makes them think, or motivates them to change.

All of these results are good, but at the end of the day, those emotions or actions are mostly temporal at best. They probably have very little bearing on eternity.

One of the reasons I am so peaceful as I walk through this cancer experience is that I am not afraid of dying, nor am I afraid of future prognoses (that's not a spelling error: 'prognoses' is the plural form of 'prognosis').

As comedic actor Woody Allen said, "I'm not afraid to die; I just don't want to be there when it happens!"

Anyways, I believe our chief purpose in life is to have a relationship with God. The Westminister Catechism says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

I totally believe that. In everything I do, whether it's funny, or serious, or difficult, or easy, I try to make it my goal to glorify God. In doing so, I am enjoying Him, enjoying the people He created in His image, and enjoying my days here on earth.

Someone pointed this out recently from Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..."

It's "the shadow of death". Not "death", but "the shadow of death". A shadow is dark, but it's still just a shadow. It may look threatening, but it vanishes if we turn away from it...it's then behind us, out of sight.

That's how I see my current situation. I'm not afraid of shadows - never have been, never will. They're just shadows.

Of course, I don't have my head in the sand, so to speak. I realize that once cancer strikes, it has the potential to be fatal....I fully realize that. But I'm talking about all the worrying that can go on when actually, the cancer may be fully curable. In that case, all that worrying is for nothing, and its effects on my body could be even worse than the disease itself!

A shadow in your life means that the Light is just behind you. Turn around, and there's the Light! For me, my relationship with Jesus takes away my fears & provides me with Light. He even says in the New Testament that He's the Light of the world!

Psalm 36:9 "For with You is the fountain of life. In Thy light, we see light." (The Jewish Bible / "Old Testament")

Well, y'all, have a wonderful day, and may you walk in His Light. And remember, don't be afraid of the shadows like this little one is...poor cutie-pie! Somebody pick her up, pleassse!!

- Goodbye, Radiation Resort!!!

2010-08-12T19:39:00.008-04:00

Oh, Happy Dayyyy!!! As much as I've thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Radiation Resort, all good things must come to an end and this is no different. Today marked the 25th Suntanning Session on that lovely Suntanning Bed at the marvellous Radiation Resort, dah-ling!!! Can you believe it???

I tell you, the time has just flown by! Five and a half weeks, gone! Just like that! And here I am with the incomparable Radiation Resort staff, clutching my utterly charming fake flower they give to all guests on their last day. How sweet is that???

(Actually, the flower is presented by Hope & Cope, the Jewish General Hospital's group that supports cancer patients. They're awesome, dah-ling!)

Here I am on the Suntanning Bed, sneaking in a quick read before my last session begins. Why are these Resort staff people SO impatient?? I mean, sure, there are dozens of other guests booked for this very same bed today, but sheesh!! A girl has to have a bit of leisure in her life, doesn't she??? Sev & Joseph: take a pill, dah-lings!!

Relax, you two!!! Honestly!!! I guess no matter where you decide to take your vacation, there are always going to be people who don't understand us. Oh, well!!!

So, let's celebrate!! Well, maybe in a few days. I'm still a bit tired, not only from all that suntanning, but also from schlepping back & forth to the Resort every day. As I explained earlier, it's not equipped for overnight guests, which is a bit unusual for a Resort, if you ask me....but oddly enough, no-one did. Ask me, I mean.

Anyways, on another note, for the first time in 32 years of singing, I have EIGHT bookings this month!! I mean, it's crazy!! This Sunday morning, I'll be singing & doing the sermon (yup, I'm a preacher-girl!!) at Three Steeples United Methodist Church in Champlain, New York. If you live in the area, you must stop by to say hi!! It would be such fun to meet some of you face to face!

There's a mini-concert for some seniors the following Thursday, and then next Sunday, I'll be at another church in the Montreal area. There's the outdoor gospel festival the Saturday following that in Cornwall, Ontario. And then the following Sunday morning, I'm singing & doing the sermon at Franklin Centre Church of the Nazarene and a concert Sunday evening at that same church. What funnnnn!!!

Seriously, if we've never met (and even if we have!), it would be great to see you at any of these events! Be sure to come up & say hi, okay? :)

To see my singing & speaking schedule, click here:
http://www.wendy.ca/content/view/30/34/

Well, that just about all my news....I've got another three & a half months of Herceptin treatments at the Jewish General, but they're only every 3 weeks, so that's not too bad.

Thanks to each one of you who have added comments & encouraging notes here on my bloggy-blog, and for your marvellous support throughout all of this cancer journey! It's not over yet, but we're hopefully coming down the home stretch.

By the way, the results from the most recent CT scan came back last week, and the spot on my lung & my spine are unchanged. This either means (a) they are both shadows, or (b) they are cancerous but have been kept in check thus far by the months of chemo I went through.

So it's inconclusive at this point, and we'll just have to wait until early 2011 when all treatments are finished. But honestly, I'm not all that concerned, nor am I afraid. Que sera, sera - what will be, will be!

Can you believe it's almost been a year since I was diagnosed? It was August 19, 2009 at 8:30 am when that cancer diagnosis came down, and it's been quite a trip!! But I'm still here, and I'm still joyful!!!

I have to say that without the wonderful security of knowing my Heavenly Father loves me so much & is looking out for me, I don't know what of state I would have been in throughout all of this. He gives peace in the midst of the storm, and He gives joy in place of sorrow. What a privilege it is to know Him and to trust Him. I am truly grateful for His mercy to me!!

Well, here's a promotional video of the Jewish General Hospital. What fun! I was asked to participate in the filming, so you'll see me first with the Rasta wiggie, and then with the green wiggie! And my fave puppet, Oswald the Knuffle Bird, also made a guest appearance! Yay! :)

Until next time, fellow-travellers . . . may God bless you,

Love, Wendy

(If you watch the counter, you'll see me & Oswald at 0.44 & 1:55!)

- The Radiation Resort

2010-08-03T23:18:00.009-04:00

Well, dah-lings, life continues to be simply grand, here at the Radiation Resort. I feel like sending all of you a postcard saying "Wish You Were Here!!!" but there are simply not enough hours in the day for me to do that. So you'll just have to keep reading my bloggy-blog here!

Here I am, dah-lings! I'm enjoying the "suntanning bed", and as you can all see, I haven't forgotten my suntan lotion and my sunglasses. Why, who would ever visit a Radiation Resort without them?!?!?

As you can see, the staff is SO attentive! Aren't you jealous? I'm not sure how much I should be tipping them, so if you've got any idea, please email me to let me know, won't you?

____________________________________________________

In other news, Timmy the Cat is still being his usual adorable self. But just in case you think he's...well, absolutely perfect, I thought I would show you pictures of one of his little snits he gets into every once in awhile.

It comes on rather suddenly, I'm afraid. One minute, he can be calm as can be, and then something rubs him the wrong way (usually, it's "yours truly" who rubs him the wrong way), and then he's in a snit.

Here's how this one happened: he was perched on the ladder, being his happy little self....

And then I probably tried to rub his little tummy, which was hanging down between where his front paws and his back paws were perched:

Oh, oh - I recognize that expression!

It's all downhill from here!!

And when he begins turning his head sideways, he's REALLY annoyed!!! Ooh, watch out!!! Timmy on the warpath!!!

What a little monster!!! But then, there are all his other moments when he's just his little adorable self...

Guess I'll keep him!! Heheheh....

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Well, I'm off to bed. Another busy day tomorrow at the Resort, so I must get my beauty sleep....

By the way, if you haven't signed up here to be one of my Blog followers, please do! I hear it can be a bit complicated, and unfortunately, I have no idea how it's done, so I can't help you out . . . but "give it a go", as they say in England!!

Night all,

Love, Wendy xoxo

- How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2010-07-28T21:19:00.019-04:00

Ooh, do you remember those essays in elementary school? I don't recall too much from my early years as a student, but that classic essay "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" was pretty much standard fare for students in North American schools, right?

Well, I'm having a fabulous time at the Jewish General Hospital Radiation Resort. Such fun! The staff is very attentive and friendly . . .

. . . and very multi-cultural! Left to right: Lisa is Italian, Dennis is Mauritian, Joseph is Greek and Miller is Haitian. What a crew! There are usually two of them helping me get set up on the "suntanning bed". Ahhh, what a life!

And here are some of the guests . . .

Claire, Ross, me, and Yvano! As you'll see, Ross & I are modeling the Radiation Resort's custom gowns. Ross is wearing a very nice blue number with small, dark blue dots, while I'm sporting a rather gray gown with dark spots.

Both models of gowns, as well as many other styles, are available in the changing rooms and we are free to choose a different one every day, if we like. Why, it's fabulous, darling!

Here's a close-up of Miller & I. He's one cool dude, I tell you! I posted this pic on my Facebook page and a couple of girls went wild! They told me they wished they were at the Radiation Resort so they could get a little closer to Miller. Eat your hearts out, ladies!!!

And finally, here's my faithful husband, George, who often chauffeurs me to the Radiation Resort (as guests, we visit every day but we don't actually sleep there). Although George enjoys the Resort and chats with the other guests, he chooses not to use the suntanning beds. I guess he wants me to have that privilege all to myself! (Ah, but he doesn't know what he's missing . . .)

Well, as you can see, my hair is really growing in! Now, don't start any false rumours that I used to be brunette before I went bald, but now I'm a blonde...it's all from a bottle! Yep, I bleached it as it was growing back, because it was coming in rather, er, white!

I mean, before I went bald, it was white, but it was always dyed. But it was weird to see it growing in completely white! So for now I'm a blonde.

_____________________________________________________

Well, keep a song in your heart . . .

Stay young . . .

And keep close to those who love you!

Until next time!

Love, Wendy

- I Am A Chia Pet

2010-07-07T22:05:00.013-04:00

Yes sirree, here I am at last! Just when you thought I'd permanently flown the coop & forgotten you all, I'm back on my blog, talking to you. Whaddya know!

I guess it's always a good sign - when I'm feeling better, I'm out & about instead of sitting on the couch blogging & Facebooking & journalling & eating chocolate. So I guess no news is good news, right? It means I'm too busy to blog about myself!

Well, on to other things. Have you ever heard of Chia pets? They were all the rage in the 80s here in North America:

Here's the Wikipedia definition of a Chia Pet:
"Chia Pets are Mexican styled animal-shaped terracotta figurines used to sprout chia, where the chia sprouts resemble the animal's fur.

"Chia Pets achieved popularity in the 1980s following the 1982 release of a ram, the first Chia Pet. Moistened seeds of chia (Salvia hispanica) are applied to the grooved terra cotta figurine body."

Okay, I know now you'll want to see the commercial:

So why, oh, why am I telling you about the Chia Pet?!?!?!??? BECAUSE *I* AM THE NEWEST CHIA PET!!

Yes, indeed, my hair has been growing back & I think it's making me look like a Chia Pet. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Except that Chia Pets have green sprouts, whereas my sprouts came out white.

I decided I didn't want white sprouts, so I dyed 'em blonde. Yup, I'm back into the hair dye, except in this case, it was bleach. Blondissima, to be precise.

Gotta love this stuff. Do blondes have more fun? I'll let you know soon enough!

So what else is new with me? Well, I finished chemo May 10th and have had a nice little vacation from those yukky chemicals in my system.

Well, almost a vacation. I've still been going for Herceptin treatments every 3 weeks, but Herceptin isn't as bad as chemo. It's an antibody, not a chemo, so it's got fewer side effects.

One of its side effects, though, is swelling, so my hands, wrists, ankles & feet are swollen. And my knee joints are painful. Other than that, it ain't too bad. So no complaints!

Yesterday, Tuesday, July 6, I went for my radiation markings. That's the bull's eye they draw on me so they'll know where to microwave me, so to speak. Pardon the analogy.

So they've drawn the "bull's eye" around the mastectomy scar on my right side, and that's where they'll be "nuking me" for the next 28 weekdays (yee haw! I get weekends off!) They tell me I shouldn't be too tired from the radiation - we'll see.

I'm not over the chemo side effects, yet - not as exhausted as I was during the three months of chemo, but not back to my normal self yet, either. It takes quite awhile for all those nasty chemicals to get out of the system, I guess.

But it sure is nice to be able to get out, again. I can do one activity a day without getting too wiped, but if I do two things, eg something in the morning & something else in the afternoon or evening, I get really tired. So it makes me behave, right? ;)

Well, here's a lovely song from the hit TV show Glee. This is Lea Michele who's singing - she plays Rachel.

Till next time!

Love, Wendy

Defying Gravity

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap!

Chorus:

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I am defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!

I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!

Chorus:

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!
Bring me down!

- What's New With Me?

2010-06-14T09:32:00.017-04:00

Hiya, everyone! Well, life has been so busy, busy, busy lately, especially now that I'm feeling better & am able to get around a little bit more. I went to church yesterday morning for the first time in about 3 months!

Wow, I missed those peeps so much! Had a great time reconnecting with everyone and catching up on everybody's news.

Also had another concert Saturday night at Cote des Neiges Presbyterian church, just near the Jewish General Hospital. Such fun! Met tons of new friends & got my picture taken by sweetie-pie Rolanda.

I am not making a fashion statement by appearing bald in public - it's just that I'm so HOT from all my chemo-induced menopausal hot flashes that I can't *stand* wearing the wig in this warmer weather! So I'm going bald all the time now, and boy, do I get looks when I'm in public.

Some people have suggested I wear those turban thingies, or a scarf, but I just don't want to wear them & I don't think they'd look good on me. Besides, I'm getting a lot of compliments on my new look! Geez, maybe I should just keep shaving my head! My hair is growing back like crazy . . . a nice WHITE color . . . oh, goody.

Some friends asked why my hair is growing back white. To them I say, "Hel-l-l-l-looo! It's been white for years!!! Have you ever heard of hair dye???!!?" Apparently, they didn't know I've been dying my hair since I was, like, seven?

No, just kidding - I started dying my hair around 12 years ago when the white started overtaking the brown.

Oh, yeah - I never told you about my *other* concert on June 5th - that was a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay For Life. That was a fun one, too! Had the whole band with me & it's so cool to perform with other musicians:

Pals Andrew & Marjorie came to the concert & took some lovely pix that night . . .

And here we are at the end of the concert . . . the Relay For Life team gave me some neato pink roses as a thank you from them. Pink, of course, is for Breast Cancer.

What a good lookin' bunch, eh? ;) From left to right, Stephen Mullin, piano & guitar & also arranger/producer of my CD "You Say", Sally Richmond, whistle & recorder; me & my roses; Gerry Morin, cellist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; and Rob Adams, percussionist & good pal for many years.

These folks all played on my CD, and I SO appreciated them volunteering their time & talents for that concert - thanks, guys!

Well, have a very blessed week & don't get into too much trouble . . . xoxox

- I'm Going Batty

2010-06-02T09:36:00.039-04:00

Wow, it's like you and I are long-lost friends! It's been more than two weeks since my last posting here on Adventures With Wendy because my Drama Queen life has been so terribly busy. I have had so many Very Important Things To Do, which has kept me away from chatting here with all of you.

Well, my first piece of news is that Timmy the Cat had a marvellous time two or three weeks ago. We live fairly close to the water (we're near the St. Lawrence River) and there are always bats hanging out down by the water.

Occasionally, the odd one will meander up the street and hang around the homes of unsuspecting residents. How exciting is THAT?!?!?

At night, when they see an open door to a residence, they can fly in quietly so that you don't know they've followed you indoors, and then - SURPRISE!! You're sitting on your couch, minding your own business, and suddenly you see a black blur swooping around your ceiling. It's just positively gross, I tell you...in my books, anyways, bats are disgusting.

So imagine our delight when we discovered one flying around our living room late one night! But what makes this story truly compelling was Timmy's reaction to the whole thing. He was fascinated! He was intrigued! He had never seen a bat before in all of his young life. And he decided that just because the bat was flying high up near the ceiling was no reason not to go after it.

So, he went into pounce / attack mode, and sure enough, when the unsuspecting bat swooped down, Timmy was able to meet him halfway by leaping into the air and actually bringing him down to the ground with his furry little paws.

The bat started squealing, which sounded pretty pathetic, but we didn't feel much sympathy because after all, it's a bat, right? They're creepy & scary & ugly & I don't want one for a pet. Ewww!!!

When we came into the den where Timmy the Cat had cornered Bobby the Bat, Timmy got distracted & loosened his grip, and off flew Bobby again. He was eventually cornered & captured (Bobby the Bat was captured, not Timmy the Cat), and life returned to normal.

Until 4 am. when I awoke to that same desperate squeal of protest, but this time it was on the floor beside the bed, inches away from where I was sleeping. Double ewww!! Timmy the Cat had captured Bobby the Bat's brother, Billy the Bat, who was trapped under Timmy the Cat's furry little paws.

What are the odds?!? TWO bats in one night had flown into our home! A virtual bat hotel! We should charge rent! So Billy the Bat was promptly captured & expelled into the night & Timmy the Cat won his well deserved title of Bat Catcher. He's so awesome.

Here's Timmy the Bat Catcher replaying the scenes in his head & feeling a little sad that he has no bats to play with or catch, now.

Well done, Timmy! You keep on catching those rodents for Mommy. Good boy! xox

__________________________________________________

In other news, Dr. Cohen, my sweetie-pie Oncologist, decided a couple of weeks ago that we definitely won't be adding on the last two rounds of AC chemo that I missed back in January. Due to the severe reaction of vasculitis on my legs I experienced with the first two rounds, he just doesn't want to risk doing any other unseen damage to my body.

That was my decision way back in February, so I'm just as happy to say goodbye to that phase of my life. All of which means . . . I'm DONE with chemo! Yay! I did my last Taxol/Herceptin treatment on May 10, 2010. Now all that's left is 6 more months of Herceptin by itself (administered by IV) every 3 weeks for around 1 hour. There will be no noticeable side effects from Herceptin, plus my hair has already started to grow again & Herceptin doesn't mess with that.

And radiation. Radiation will start sometime in July, every weekday for 28 sessions - 5 1/2 weeks. Other than some burning of the skin where they'll radiate, there are no serious side effects. Some people feel fatigue & some don't. So hopefully I'll be one of the ones who has no fatigue . . . 'cause I'm tired of being tired!

I saw a plastic surgeon last month & he'll do some surgery on my mastectomy scar to make the whole thing a bit neater. Without going into *too* much detail, he'll take away some of the saggy skin so that it's a bit more esthetic. So that surgery will happen when the Herceptin treatments are over - probably around December 2010 or January 2011.

_________________________________________________________

And in other news . . .

My Concert Of Hope is this weekend! It'll be so fun! We've had lots of publicity, which is great! Last Friday afternoon, I was on CJAD 800 AM, our local English-language radio station - Dan Laxer invited me to be a guest on his show, Laxer Live.

Dan is a real kick! He & I had a great time together & the time just zipped by so fast! We laughed & joked, and I plugged our fund raising concert. I played a verse & chorus from my new song "Love Laid Ahold Upon Me".

It's always fun to play live! You never know what will happen. But my voice didn't crack & I didn't burp or anything, so I guess I did okay. Then the next morning, I was a guest on another radio show, CJLO AM 1690, with Orlando Newton. I sang live there, too! So it's been a very busy week indeed!

So if you're in the Montreal area, please come on out to the concert & support the West Island Relay For Life! I'll have 4 other musicians with me . . . we were rehearsing Monday night & if I may say so myself, we sound pretty awesome together! Cello, percussion, whistle, recorder, guitars . . . whoo hoo!

If you'd like to order tickets to Concert Of Hope in advance, by PayPal or by credit card, you can always go to my website here: www.wendy.ca

Well, that's all from me! Have a wonderful rest-of-the-week!

Oh, and speaking of bats . . .

- Health Tip! Very Important!

2010-05-16T21:17:00.023-04:00

Okay, so tonight I was thinking that I should really spread the news whenever I think of a health tip or whatever, because knowledge is power and knowledge can save lives, right?

So for the fourth time this past week, I heard yet another story about someone who eventually found out she had cancer long after she'd actually had her test. Why did it take so long for her to find out?

The answer is quite simple: oversight. Yep, medical error. We know it happens.

Here's what happened with two of the four people I've heard about over the past few years:

A man we know worked at a company & had his medical exam every year through them. The company doctor received results of all his tests & was responsible for relaying those results to our friend.

What nobody realized, though, was that the doctor had begun to develop Alzheimers and was not thinking clearly; therefore, every year the doctor took the results of our friend's prostate exam and stuck them in his filing cabinet.

FIVE YEARS LATER, the company realized their doctor was not well & replaced him with another doctor. When the new doctor saw our friend's latest prostate results, he flipped!

Summoning him to the office, he asked him why he had never been treated for his prostate cancer, which was by now at STAGE FOUR!! (the worst & often final stage of cancer).

Can you believe it? The company acted quickly & sent our friend to one of the best facilities for cancer treatment in New York City. Amazingly, he completely recovered. I'm not kidding about this story - it really happened. It's bizarre, but true.

And if our friend had insisted on receiving copies of all his test results, it would have never happened.

_________________________________________________

Another friend of ours, a man we'll call Bill, went for a routine colonoscopy and was told, as is often the case, that he would be contacted if anything was abnormal. He never heard back from his doctor & assumed all was well.

Three years later, he went again for an appointment with another doctor who happened to have copies of all his files. Once again, this doctor inquired why there was no record of our friend's treatment for his colon cancer! "What colon cancer??" our puzzled friend asked.

Further tests showed Bill had a growth that was by now the size of a grapefruit in his colon! Sheesh! He'd amazingly had no symptoms to warn him, and when he went back to ask his doctor of three years previous, she insisted she'd never received the results of that initial test.

Another happy ending, fortunately, as the tumor was removed soon afterwards and had not spread. Today, our friend is healthy & much wiser as to how to deal with the medical system.

_________________________________________________

And the moral of these stories is to never assume that because the doctor's office doesn't call you, it means all is well. Always call to ask specifically about your exam results.

To be doubly sure, ask the secretary to make you a copy of the test results, and then go pick them up so you can see for yourself! If they tell you over the phone that all is well, how do you know it's your test results they're reading to you? Mistakes happen!

Ah, in a perfect world, doctors, nurses and lab techs would be rested, alert, and have plenty of time to liason with patients every step of the way. But in the real world . . . !!!

_________________________________________________

Well, in other news, I'll be seeing my Oncologist, the one & only Dr. Victor Cohen, tomorrow. He's the one who told me he gets a headache whenever he thinks about me. I'm sure he's not the only one. Ha!

Anyways, my Taxol / Herceptin chemo is finished as of last Monday, and now we just have to decide if we're going to do those two rounds of AC chemo that I never finished back in January due to the vasculitis I developed - remember, those big red splotches on my legs that came out exactly 3 weeks after each AC chemo?

Well, Dr. Cohen is nervous about not having me do them, so I'll probably go for it. Then, after those two rounds are finished, I'll get a month off, and then I'll start 28 sessions of daily radiation (every weekday). Sounds like a lot, eh? But actually, just about everybody I've spoken to who gets radiation has around 28 sessions - so it's a pretty standard treatment.

I've heard varying reports on whether or not radiation makes you tired - some say yes, it did; others say they felt fine. Whatever! It's gonna be during the summer, so if I'm tired, I'll lie in the sun. Or the shade.

And that's about all from me! I'm not quite as perky these past few weeks - the fatigue & isolation from being home so much have really done a number on me, so I'm glad I'm about to be leaving chemo-land.

Blessings to you, and have a great week! Don't forget about my Concert Of Hope, coming up Saturday evening, June 5th, 2010 in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada. It's gonna be funnnnn!!!

Plus I'll have a band with me! The producer of my CD "You Say", Stephen Mullin, will be playing along on keyboards & guitar, Gerry Morin of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra will be playing cello, Rob Adams is doing percussion, and Sally Richmond will be on flute & recorder.

And the best part is . . . this concert is helping raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society's West Island Relay For Life! So it's for a great cause!

To get details for the Concert Of Hope and order your tickets in advance online, click here: www.wendy.ca

See yaaaa!!!

- On Being Bald (and Other Things)

2010-05-10T21:11:00.059-04:00

Well, here I am again - did you think I had disappeared forever? Nope, just tired and doing a lot of couch time, so I haven't been blogging as much. But...this is your lucky day! I'm awake enough to say something! Not something profound, necessarily, but something.

Oops! Wait a minute . . . it's 8 pm! Time for House MD! I've seen every episode and I don't want to miss this one. Back in an hour!

(One hour later) Okay, I'm back. That was a good episode! House is such a troubled dude. He was in therapy for the whole episode tonight & ended up getting mad & walking out on his therapist.

And next week is the season finale. What's up with that??? It's only May!! Now there'll be repeats until September??? Phhttt!!!

__________________________________________________

Well, what else is exciting in my dreary, couch potato, chocolate-guzzling, smoothie-drinking life? Oh, I know!!! I got a new wiggie!! My friend Suzanne has great connections - she goes to this way-cool $1 store in Toronto when she's there and buys me these fun wiggies for $2.

Which means that the $1 store isn't really a $1 store in the strictest sense. But anyways, here I am:

It's kinda like a Doodlebop wig, don't you think? The Doodlebops is a Canadian television show for children that's topping the charts. They tour and everything! Their wigs are very fun, just like my new wiggie, which, if you hadn't noticed, is nice and PINK, just like the color of the breast cancer ribbon! So it's very appropro for me.

Of course, my bald look is equally lovely & I've received so many compliments from so many of you - thank you! It's very encouraging to know that you think I look cool & hip as a baldie - I kinda like it, too!

Since chemo brings on menopause, I'm getting a lot of - how shall we say - temperature fluctuations?!? So these days, with winter out of the way (almost - it snowed here Sunday!), I'm more prone to go bald simply because of my frequent hot flushes! Who wants to wear a wig on a sweaty head?!?? Not me!!!

I get a variety of reactions to being bald. Many seem uncomfortable with it. I went to a shopping mall on Friday night & found the reaction from other shoppers is that they feel badly & awkward. But many of the salespeople were totally fine with it & I didn't sense any discomfort. So I guess it depends.

Funny, though - I find that when *I* see someone bald, my immediate reaction is a type of sympathy. But many of them who are bald don't look well, and don't have much makeup on, so they look rather ill, and I feel badly for their suffering.

Most of the women I see at the hospital wear wigs, hats or turbans. A couple of them told me they never let anyone see them bald. I'm fortunate that I have a nicely shaped head so baldness seems to suit me . . . and who knew? How would you ever know you'd look bald unless you shaved your head? And why would you shave your head unless you were in a situation like I am (or fundraising for someone like me!)

But I have to say that the few women I have seen so far didn't seem to have much makeup on or be kinda "working" their baldness. I feel usually very joyful when I'm out in public because I love being with people, and I usually have on a full face of makeup - foundation, blush, and lipstick - so I look healthy.

Because I don't look ill, I think that helps "sell" the baldness more as a fashion statement than an occurrence that has made me a victim. I don't call myself a victim because with all the inconvenience cancer can bring, I don't want to look at myself at being "picked on" by cancer because that's such a negative way of looking at things.

That said, I still feel a general discomfort from many. Let's face it - a bald woman in public is unusual. Most female cancer patients don't seem to ever go out in public without some sort of head covering, so the public simply isn't used to it. If they saw it all the time, it would be different, I'm sure. People always need to feel acclimatized to something before they can begin to feel relaxed about it.

I also strongly feel that by putting on makeup & looking joyful (I enjoy doing both), I am being a role model. SO many people are fearful of receiving a cancer diagnosis & can't imagine how they would remain sane if their doctor broke that news to them. They are terrified that life will end & a death sentence will take over anything & everything in their lives.

I am here to say that it doesn't have to be horrible. Yes, I know, being diagnosed with any type of serious illness is not always a walk in the park, but it doesn't mean we have to yield to it & suddenly stop living, or being joyful & telling jokes, or smelling the wonderful fragrances of outdoors in spring, or appreciating all the good & noble things in our world.

By putting color on my face & making an effort not to appear sickly when I'm out in public, I feel I am giving hope to others. Even if I feel like going outdoors looking like I just woke up, I feel responsible for doing the opposite: putting in the effort to look great. Wearing bright colors . . . today I wore a yellow top, a lime green jacket, and two strings of beads with every color in the rainbow, plus a new reddish lipstick, eyeshadow, and nice blush! And I got several compliments, I might add! :)

I'm not trying to blow my own horn here, but I want to point out that I have a desire to bring hope to others by showing them that I have a vibrant life & I can look vibrant, even under less-than-perfect circumstances. I want them to see that having cancer does NOT have to be the end of the world & it doesn't have to dictate or become my entire identity . . .

I also MUST add that in no way do I want to judge others who may be feeling sick & weak & tired from their ordeal. It's very easy for me to talk about trying to look great but I have to remind myself that I am VERY fortunate that I'm not feeling too sick from the chemo or cancer.

The worst symptom I have is fatigue, which is pretty easy to deal with. Some don't have it that easy & are desperately ill. It's a completely different ballgame when there's nausea, vomiting and weight loss, not to mention family breakups (some husbands leave their wives where there is extensive breast surgery), financial challenges, children acting out, and so on. I can totally understand in those cases that the last thing a woman might have energy for is sprucing herself up.

I'm just saying that because I am so blessed to have many things in my favor, I feel I have a responsibility to look good & be an encouragement to others. That's my role in this whole thing, I think. I'm happy to do it. Plus of course, you know me - I like to have fun!!

__________________________________________________

Well, here's a wonderful tune I came across last week by Leann Albrecht, a very successful artist based in Nashville, Tennessee & a woman of deep faith.

I draw strength continually from my relationship with the Lord . . . He is the reason I can sing and be joyful in the midst of all of this.

I relate to this song because He gives me hope & courage, and He is the reason I can look to the future without fear.

Have a blessed week, and seek to be a blessing to others!

- My Life With Mom, by Timmy

2010-05-03T07:23:00.056-04:00

Ya, so Mom lets me eat all the same stuff she does - she says it makes her feel less guilty if I'm eating it, too. Here I am helping her eat ice cream.

The lid has some really good leftovers . . .

And here we are, sharing a Smoothie.
Strawberry with vanilla yogourt! Mmmm!!

Here I am, checking to see how I look.

Mom says I'm cute. I agree.

Helping Mom write songs. She can't do it without me. Okay, what rhymes with "Timmy"?

Okay, everybody guess what's under here?

Surprise!!! Bet you didn't guess it was ME! Ha ha!
Now go away and let me SLEEP!

They think it's easy for me to be around food when I'm not allowed to jump on the kitchen table. (I do it anyways when they're not looking, like at night when they're asleep. . .)

Yup, very funny. Tempting me like this is very funny. . .

Okay, one more - here I am with Mom outside, enjoying the sun. She's sound asleep and I'm pretending I'm a guard dog . . . GRRRRR!!! If you touch my mom, I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll do something REALLY SCARY!!! Like hiss at you!!! So there.

Anyways, that's my life with Mom. I guess it's not so bad. She's pretty cool . . . when she's awake. High Five, Mom!

Love, Timmy

_________________________________________________________

Hey Everyone,

If you would like to be notified whenever I post something new on my Blog here, just email me at my address shown below and ask to be added to my Blog Notification List.

I'll send an email to your personal email address about once a week (or more, when I'm feeling well!) with a direct link to the latest Blog posting.

You're also welcome to become a member of this Blog. I've heard it can be a bit complicated to join, but I hope you'll find it easy! Go to the top right of this page just under my picture and click on the "Followers" button.

Blessings to you!

Timmy's Mom xoxo

- Wholeness In An Age of Brokenness

2010-04-25T08:24:00.058-04:00

I've been contemplating the notion of "wholeness" lately in terms of who we are as people. When I think of someone who's 'whole', I think of someone who doesn't feel fragmented or dysfunctional; someone who feels their basic needs have been met or are being met.

I think of someone who feels "rounded out" as a human being - someone who feels loved; emotionally secure and stable. Someone who does not need to obsess over whether or not he (I'm using 'he' here to represent he/she) is socially acceptable or not. . . that person has arrived at a place of being content with himself. He is set free from worrying over what other people think of him - it is no longer of crucial importance.

Some of the terms used by dictionary.com to describe wholeness:

- not broken, damaged, or impaired

- intact: containing all the elements properly belonging;

- complete: uninjured or unharmed; sound;

- pertaining to all aspects of human nature, esp. one's physical, intellectual, and spiritual development: education for the whole person.

But is it possible to be emotionally whole in a culture that is so broken?

Depending on your age, you may remember a time in our society that was very different. In the late 60s, the parents of a girl in my elementary school were getting divorced.

I was stunned. Nobody I knew in our small town had ever been divorced or had parents who were divorced.

I remember avoiding this poor girl, and some of the other kids teased her because of her parents' divorce - how cruel! But it was somewhat of a scandal in our community, in my mind, anyways. Parents just didn't do that in those days.

By the 80s, however, it was another story, and divorce had gone mainstream. It had begun filtering down into home after home.

In the 90s, I found myself volunteering as a Pastoral Animator in the same high school I had attended as a teen. I began teaching Moral & Religious Education classes to Grades 7 through 11. As part of my course content, I talked with the students about issues pertinent to morality, self-esteem, and so on.

We discussed what they thought made up the foundation of good self-esteem & a sense of emotional stability, including family. And in the classes where I asked kids to indicate which ones still had their "original parents", only half put up their hands. This a mere 20+ years after I had encountered divorce for the very first time.

That's not to say that those of us (and I am one) from broken homes cannot achieve emotional wholeness or enjoy a sense of good self-esteem. But from my experience, a broken home has made these ideals more difficult to achieve. For much of my adult life, I have felt broken in various ways, as I'm sure many of you do, too.

Sometimes dysfunction seems to be a regular part of who we are as human beings. And it's an ongoing process to embrace emotional wholeness and to maintain it.

Do you feel whole? Or fragmented? Do you feel as though your emotions were being churned up by a backhoe as you were growing up? Are you from a family that could not offer you the foundation of serenity you craved?

Or are you one of those fortunate ones who came from a stable home environment, full of love, acceptance and encouragement?

IMHO (for those of you not completely familiar with email jargon, that's an acrostic for "In My Humble Opinion"), one of the keys to our emotional wholeness is a sense of community. Hunh. Good luck with that if you are a North American and your ethnic background is WASP (another acrostic! White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) - or I guess we could also say WASC - White Anglo-Saxon Catholic (I made that last one up!)

We haven't been doing community for a very long time in our society.

Conversely, I find that many of the sub-cultures have wonderful, vibrant communities, chock-full of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces & nephews. The Italian & Greek friends I know - from what I can see - rarely experience lonliness, along with many of my Jewish, Asian & Middle Eastern friends, who seem to be very strongly connected to their relatives.

But it seems to me that the "less ethnic" and "more white" a North American is, the more polarized he is likely to be. It's very sad to say that for many of us, we do not possess a sense of family nor of community.

Increasingly, North Americans are feeling isolated and alone, with no strong sense of family ties. And yet living in & feeling part of a community is one of the key ingredients that makes for emotional wholeness. Remove that, and a lot of us feel disconnected, vague and just not good inside ourselves.

What I've also noticed is that every time a new piece of technology is created and becomes a mainstay in the North American home, more of our quality time with others goes out the window.

We brought TVs into our homes and people stopped talking to each other, sitting side by side, staring at the box.

We introduced computers to our homes, and people now stare at the screen for hours at a time (another box), often communicating with others by keystroke rather than face-to-face.

Introduce an ipod, an iphone, or a what-have-you into the mix and watch people vanish into their own virtual worlds, oblivious to their surroundings or to people seated inches away from them - on a bus, for example. A total bubble effect for everyone with one of these techno-toys (I am one, unfortunately, addicted to my Palm Pilot).

And so I ask myself:

- How on earth are we going to ever be whole if we continue to remove ourselves from meaningful human contact?

- How can we experience emotional wellness if we cannot afford the time to sit, relax and interact with each other?

- How can we continue to foster empathy towards one another if we do not feel a connection to them? Do we honestly think road rage would occur if we all knew each other well? It is much easier to be cruel to a stranger than to someone we know we'll have to face again the next day . . .

Anyways, these are some of the things I've been pondering . . . being swept "forward" by the "advances" of our culture.

Today, I'm thinking that some of those advances are bringing us back into the Dark Ages.

- The Power To Choose

2010-04-09T22:17:00.160-04:00

I was listening to a show the other day on CBC radio and the subject was "choices." It got me thinking about life and about the incredible power & privilege we have to make choices.

When you think about it, life is just one long string of choices, from the moment we learn to walk until the day we die. Is there any other single element in life which can affect our future more than choices?

From the moment we wake up, there are choices to be made. We choose what time to get up, what to eat for breakfast, which radio station to listen to, what to wear that day, which mode of transportation to take, whether or not to stay at the job we have or quit, whether or not to go back to school, whom to marry, who our friends are, where to live, whether to live selfishly or unselfishly....

One of the points brought out in the radio show was how too many choices can be simply paralyzing. For example, have you ever stood in front of a cereal display in a supermarket and tried to choose a box to bring home?

I mean, it's staggering! Good grief, how many different types of cereal does any one store need!?!?!? It's overwhelming!! Can't we just have 5 or 10 basic ones to choose from and leave it at that??? Not that I should complain, but really!!!

Not only that, we then have to move on to the dairy aisle and choose the type of milk we want - skim, 1%, 2%, Homogenized . . . auggghhhh!

Anyways, that's the Power To Choose. It's the privilege that comes with living in a free society where, for most situations, we are not told what to do. There is no dictator forcing us to submit our wills to his choices; no army watching over what we do or severely limiting our options.

The Power To Choose comes with the power of economic prosperity. People in poverty have very few choices; poverty does not allow for that luxury. And those born into squalor often have zero choices; in fact, they may not even live long enough to ever make a single, independent choice of their own.

The Power To Choose brings responsibility. Do you have The Power To Choose? Then what are you doing with it? What choices are you making? Are they pointing in any specific direction, or are they random choices, made on a whim?

If you look back over the past year, what are some of the significant choices you made? Are you happy with those choices? Knowing what you know now, do you wish you could have chosen differently? Or would you have made the same choices?

If you look at your choices these days, are they in line with where you want to be a year from now? Are they well thought out choices, or scattered and hasty ones? Are they common sense choices, or are they based on the emotional need of the moment?

You know what I find fascinating? The idea of looking at someone's life and imagining how it would have or could have been so very different if that person had made different choices. I find it so intriguing that an entire human life can be propelled into a vastly different direction because of one small (or not so small) choice.

A pregnancy. A marriage. A job acceptance. A job refusal. The decision to get behind the wheel drunk. The decision to steal something.

I find it mind-boggling that something as small as a choice can alter the course of human history. Or of one person's history. And it makes me want to think very carefully about my choices.

In fact, I think as young people, we should all be given a mini-manual to read, or a course, or a class on the subject of "CHOICES". I wonder how many lives would be different if we did that. I wonder how many of us know when we start out that we can have an incredibly easier life if we'd only make the right choices.

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Well, I dunno where all that came from! I just felt like writing about choices, so I did! :) And I'm very happy with the choices I've been making lately - choices to try and do more with my music (not one but two concerts in the planning! One for late May & one for early June), choosing to take it easy at home and not push myself too hard during chemo, the choice to eat lots of chocolate.... (oh, but that last one has SUCH consequences!)

I also have a passion (I know, it's an overused word but I like it!) to see people living intentionally, not squandering their lives, abilities or resources. I've said here on this blog at different times that I think one of the greatest tragedies is to waste our time and resources, and I've suffered far more in the periods of my life where I've felt I've done that than in the period I'm in now, going through chemo.

Speaking personally, I don't think illness is the worst possible thing that could happen to me. It would be far worse for me to feel I was going through life aimlessly, not knowing why I'm here, searching for a purpose and feeling like I'm not finding it.

I hate that feeling! I hate the frustration of wanting to make a difference but not having a single clue how to do so. The internal churning of knowing there are gifts & abilities within me, yet not seeing any avenues of expression for those talents. I lived like that for many years, feeling trapped & useless.

And now? It's just a delight to wake up every day and feel like I have a reason to get up; that I have found some constructive ways of contributing and giving and helping others. Avenues of expressing the gifts that God has given me, in a healthy and productive manner.

My health, to be honest, feels very much like a side issue, a necessary reality that needs to be taken care of, much like going to the store to buy needed groceries. I go to the hospital, I get my chemo because it's what I have to do (or, in the context of today's subject, what I've chosen to do); I come home, get some rest, and then jump into one project or another, expressing my gift of writing or planning an event or whatever. How cool is that?

I'm not being Ollie Optimist here (I just made that up!); it's how I really feel! I get to write this Blog, and the Christian Devotional I've been sending out for 4 months now, and I've started writing some new songs again . . . I'm planning those concerts . . . I'm resting (well, not as much as I should) and y'know, life is good!

I'm not in pain, I'm not in discomfort, and there's no nausea. I have a roof over my head, I have enough food to eat, and I'm being treated for cancer at the best hospital in the city (and for free, thanks to socialized medicine). I have plenty of clothes to wear, friends who care about my well being, and Timmy the Cat who keeps an eye on me.

So from where I'm sitting, life just isn't all that bad right now. And I'm profoundly grateful. Who'd a thunk it, eh? But it's true.

Well, that's about it from me. Have an awesome weekend, and don't forget: think carefully about those choices! The ones you make will determine your tomorrows and carry you into the future . . .

Love, Wendy

- Here I Am! (Your Love Is Extravagant)

2010-04-02T17:50:00.013-04:00

Yep, here I am! You may not be hearing from me very often, but I'm still here, hanging out on the couch in my living room, drinking tea, watching TV, and getting more and more addicted to Facebook.

My energy levels are about on par with a turtle who has been drugged, and my mojo has left the building.

But I'm here! I'm still here!

Well, last Saturday was my concert and boy, was it fun! George and my friend Darlene helped me out a lot, along with Jennifer, Tabitha and Nicole.

We had a full house! 110 tickets were sold but there were probably 120 people at the concert if you include the Canadian Cancer Society gals who were there to share about the Relay For Life that's coming up, Jill from the West Island Cancer Wellness Center, and of course, my trusty friends who helped out in all sorts of ways.

Does anybody out there have any photos they took of the concert? If so, can you send them to me? I didn't take any because I was playing the guitar & singing, and I find it really difficult to do both. I'm just not all that good at multi-tasking, I guess. This is the only photo of the concert I've got! A big thank you to Seta, who took it for me.

Anyways, it was bunches of fun, this concert! I was, like, super exhausted & had to sit down a lot, but thankfully, I can still sing even when I'm sitting down. The audience was super duper & laughed at all my jokes, which makes them all automatically my best friends in the whole wide world.

Abi & her daughter Lieska helped me sing the Menopause song, which was also a riot. Gosh, I wish I had a pic of that! Lieska is a teenager, so we had to make her an honorary menopausal woman, since she isn't really menopausal.

Lieska shaved all her hair off awhile ago so she could give her hair to charity to make wigs with. Isn't that neat? So great when people do things for others like that.

And the film crew was there as well to film the entire event, although Lovely Liliana couldn't be there that night. Maybe I'll be able to get some film clips of the concert from her, and maybe I can figure out how to upload them onto my bloggy-blog here.

I thought I'd be SO--O-O-OO exhausted after the concert, since I was already exhausted *before* the concert started! Guess I underestimated adrenaline - I got to bed at 2 am that morning & was up at 6:30 am until midnight that night, with no nap! Hmm! I'm a tough cookie, eh?!?!? Heh heh heh.

Other than the concert, not much news at all. I go every Monday for my chemo and that is progressing nicely. 6 down, 6 to go! I'm going to be finished in May, and then I get a month off.

Or I might do those two remaining cycles of AC chemo that I never did . . . Dr. Cohen is nervous about skipping them, in case there are any maverick cancer cells that don't get a sufficient wallop. So we'll see.

And then I'd get a month off. That's when I might get some additional surgery to fix up the mastectomy scar - it could use a little tweaking here & there; I'm not happy with how it looks.

Then, in July, radiation starts every weekday, 15 minutes a day for five and a half weeks, for a total of 28 sessions. That will bring me into August.

After that . . . another 3 months of Herceptin by itself, which fights one of the hormone receptors found in my tumor, HER2.

So by November 2010 - I'll be done! Or should be. What will I do with myself then? No chemo appointments, no doctors to see, no schlepping back and forth to the hospital . . . good grief, I'll have to get a life again! What will that be like? Guess I'll find out!

By the way, the chemo has kicked me into menopause . . . it's my third month of it! Lots of hot flashes, I can tell you! Someone said I should think of it as my inner child playing with matches. I liken it more to my inner child playing with an oil furnace & matches, but that's just me.

Well, have a blessed long weekend, enjoy your chocolate Easter bunnies, if that's what you do to celebrate Easter, and behave yourselves.

Here's a really sweet song by the group "Casting Crowns" ~ a nice, easy-listening tune for you . . .

See you back here real soon,

Love, Wendy

- Ever Had A Dream? (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

2010-03-25T19:44:00.007-04:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968):

American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement.

His main legacy: to secure progress on civil rights in the USA.

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott & his efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech.

There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

Can you imagine standing there in the crowd that day in 1963 in Washington, listening to that speech, and thinking about the possibility of having a black president?

Wouldn't it have appeared as sheer madness to even suggest that this would be even a remote possibility on American soil, given the racism of that day and the attitude at that time towards people of color?

And yet, Martin Luther King Jr. looked beyond the situation at hand; beyond his cultural surroundings, beyond the mindset of so many whites of his day, and he based his speech on what should be, not on what was.

All I can say is, thank God for visionaries. Thank God there are people who look over the tops of our heads and into the future to tell us what they see coming.

At least every generation has a group of people, whether small or large, who do not and will not march to the beat of their peers, but march to an entirely different drummer . . . march to music perhaps only they themselves can hear.

Do you have a dream? Does it seem foolish? Out-of-context for the generation you're in at present? Does your dream seem impossible? Unimaginable? Ridiculous?

Maybe your dream is the next step towards progress for an entire group of people! Maybe your dream will rescue one person, or rescue an army! Maybe your dream is just a quiet whisper right now, but with faith, patience and persistence, it can grow into a mighty roar.

Maybe your dream will one day turn into a reality, and you won't even be there to witness its final outcome.

But you will have had the immeasurable joy of knowing that your dream helped bring freedom to others; helped usher in a new way of thinking; helped re-establish what was once considered the norm, and helped break prejudices that were toxic and narrow and in desperate need of change.

Who knows? Maybe your dream needs to find wings, and that dream is waiting for you to let it fly!

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Well, the fatigue I'm feeling with this chemo (Taxol) is pretty pervasive, so I'm doing a lot of couch time, but that's okay. I mean, lying around all day is a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it, right?

My concert is this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it! Looks like it's going to be a full house. Mind you, when I decided to do this concert, I was feeling pretty normal, and now I'm, like, SO not!

But come Saturday night, I'll be going on adrenaline & I'm sure everything will be just fine. The Chronicle, a local newspaper in the West Island area of Montreal, did a really nice article on the show, and you can view it here if you like:

http://westislandchronicle.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

The Film Crew will be there also, filming the entire concert for the documentary. For those of you who are new to my bloggy-blog here, Director Liliana Komorowska has been shooting a documentary film for the past year or more, focusing on Breast Cancer in Quebec.

She & I were introduced in the Fall of 2009 & we've been great buddies ever since. Since October, she & her crew have accompanied me to my breast cancer support group, a couple of my chemo sessions, and so on.

This concert will be the last event they're filming with me - sniff, sniff! I'm gonna miss you guys!!!

Anyways, if you can, please try to make it out to the concert! It's going to be lots of fun!

There'll be songs from my CD, some stories & impersonations by yours truly, a wig fashion show, and even one or two new songs especially for you! (one song I wrote just yesterday when I went for a walk - how cool is that?!)

Well, blessings to each one of you, and see you soon,

Love, Wendy

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~ In Concert ~ Wendy Farha ~

Saturday evening, March 27, 2010 at 7:30 pm

Christian Reformed Church
52 Joseph Paiement (corner Alie)

Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec

A delightful evening of music and comedy!
$10 at the door ~ Free parking ~ Refreshments available

A portion of the proceeds will be given to the

West Island Cancer Wellness Center

To view Concert poster: http://wendy.ca/

I'd love to see you there! Email for more details:

- Talking Cats

2010-03-21T13:16:00.012-04:00

Well, since I don't have anything profound to say today, I thought I'd give you a bit of "catnip" . . .

Watch this one first . . .

And then this one . . .

Don't forget about my concert this upcoming Saturday! I'd love to see you there!

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~ In Concert ~ Wendy Farha ~

Saturday evening, March 27, 2010 at 7:30 pm

Christian Reformed Church
52 Joseph Paiement (corner Alie)

Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec

A delightful evening of music and comedy!
$10 at the door ~ Free parking ~
Refreshments available

A portion of the proceeds will be given to the

West Island Cancer Wellness Center

To view Concert poster: http://wendy.ca/

I'd love to see you there! Email for more details:

Have a wonderful week,

Love, Wendy xoxoxox