Hanging out in Whitehorse

Usually when I make these medical trips to Whitehorse, everything falls neatly into place. But it didn’t this time.

Somehow due to last minute appointment changes, scheduling at the hospital, and sold out flights on Sunday, I ended up in Whitehorse in a hotel on Saturday with all of my scheduled procedures not until Tuesday and Wednesday.

It isn’t the end of the world though. I’m in a decent hotel room in the downtown. I can see the hospital from here. And the tv channel selection is excellent. I’ve got wifi, albeit sporadic at times. I don’t like the extra expense for the hotel room, but it is what it is.

It was -40 when I left home, and only a bit warmer here.

Not too much to do in the cold at home, except feed the fire, keep the water flowing, and cuddle up, so it doesn’t really change my daily activities.

Can you believe we went to all that time and expense to move our water pipes all inside and the cold water supply line to the kitchen has frozen twice already this winter? We think it is happening in the short run behind the kitchen cupboards so Jeff has drilled a few extra holes in the back of the cupboard for warm air to get in there and we open the cupboard doors at night. Still froze last night again! Luckily it thaws just by running the hot water for awhile. The heat from the pipe beside it must do the trick.

Jeff drove me out to the airport on Saturday. My car had been in the garage but it wasn’t too long before my subpar heating fan couldn’t keep up to the frost forming across the windshield. Glad I wasn’t driving all the way to Whitehorse!

The flight wasn’t too busy, and we got to Whitehorse in record time. I absolutely adore travel with no security check points, no xrays, and I can carry my fluids in my suitcase, or carry on! There was even a free sandwich on board for me, a plate of grapes, and entire can of coke!

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Being in the city, I did something I haven’t done in probably 10 years. I ordered a pizza delivery!

The view from my hotel room:

It is warmer today when I went out for a short walk for food. Yesterday it was downright frigid and I walked 20 minutes to a “grocery” store just to find out it was all gluten free health food. The horror! haha

Tomorrow I need to get my carcass out of bed early and wander to the hospital by 8am so I can drink two big glasses of that terrible contrast fluid. I have a cat scan a couple of hours later to monitor my organs and so they can keep checking the abnormalities in/on my liver to make sure they are not concerns. As my doctor tells me, these are likely things that you’d never know you had but now that we’re looking at it, we’re going to be extra sure it isn’t cancer spreading, but if it is, we’ll catch it early. One spot has been ruled to be a liver cyst I’ve likely always had and the other thing they noticed they aren’t sure about. Apparently I also have a fatty liver, I’m assuming this is because the rest of me is fat. Oh the more you know….

I also will catch up with my chemo doctor in the morning, and get a check up to be sure I’m good to restart chemo on Wednesday, and to get some prescriptions renewed for the next chemo cycle.

In the afternoon, I’m getting the PICC line placed in my arm. This was delayed a day due to limited availability of the anesthesiologist so I guess that means I’m getting sedated? That’ll be fun. I guess I’ll hang around a bit after until so I’m safe to wander back to the hotel on my own! Maybe he could give me another dose for bedtime? haha

If all goes well, I’ll be back at the hospital on Wednesday for chemo dose #4 and will use the new port in my arm. Then home on Thursday before the chemo side effects kick in!