Holiday Greetings!!!

December 2008

Hello All;

The best laid plans of mice and men……as the saying goes. My plans of getting my cards done and out early went by the wayside with a surprise 20 day stay in the hospital. I know it has been 2 years since I last sent out a letter to you all, but this last year has been a real write off in a lot of ways for me and the family.

Our happy news of the year was the arrival of my first grandchild on February 5th, 2008. Our little Sadie Hali’a Pidcock was born to Jill and Ryan on Auntie Jen’s birthday. She has been the sunshine in my life this year. I can’t get enough of her and I think she kind of likes her Grandma too! She is growing so fast. She’s already wearing 18 to 24 month clothes and is eating all sorts of solids.

In March, after a 13 year remission, I was diagnosed with a relapse of Hodgkin’s Disease. My best chance of another remission was to have a ‘Stem Cell Transplant’. I had 2 short cycles of chemotherapy and then was in the hospital for a week while they did ‘mobilization chemo’ getting my system ready to collect my stem cells for the transplant. Most of this went quite well although, it took 3 days to collect enough stem cells for the transplant! On July 23rd I entered the hospital in preparation of the transplant. I underwent 6 days of heavy chemotherapy to kill off my immune system. On July 31st and August 1st I had my stem cell transplant. All 3 girls were there, even though it was rather anticlimactic compared to everything else. It took less than 1 hour each day to return all those stem cells back to me. As of last month, when I saw the doctor, all is going well. My bone marrow is working and my blood counts are normal or near normal. After the transplant I did get an infection and was rather sick for about 2 ½ weeks. I was under precautions in my room, where all visitors had to gown and glove, and I couldn’t see Sadie for 3 weeks!! That has been the longest time I have gone without seeing my ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. The day I got to finally see her, I was still under precautions and we had to leave my room and I had to gown and glove. Sadie didn’t seem to mind Grandma’s blue hands. She seems to take everything in stride as far as Grandma goes. Grandma’s new hair or no hair, depending on the day or when she’s just wearing a hat. My mobility is terrible, so when we go out shopping I have a wheelchair. Sadie loves to go for wheelchair rides. I think she savours the attention we get when she’s on ‘Grandma’s’ knee!!!

Bruce has had a very busy year at Gateway. For most of the time I was in the hospital, he was supervising the lane re-surfacing and then they had a new scoring system installed. He certainly was under quite a lot of stress then. He did manage to get to the hospital everyday, at least for a little while. Things are finally settling down now and he actually took a day off recently. He is not bowling this year. His back has been bothering him too much so he decided to take the year off! Seems so strange.

The girls and their families are doing well. Jen is still working as a nurse educator and now works straight days, Monday to Friday. Trevor just finished his training on the LRT and is now driving that. I think that he likes it as he doesn’t have to deal with the public or the traffic. Jill and Ryan have had an eventful year with the arrival of Sadie. Jill has been on maternity leave since the end of January and enjoying her time with the little munchkin. Recently, Ryan received this electrician journeyman ticket. Joanne is still working in childcare but made a change in the age group of babies she teaches. Eric is working teaching music. They will be home here for Christmas tomorrow (December 20th). I am so excited. This will be the first time we have all been together for Christmas in years and years. It was my one wish when my relapse was diagnosed.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my letter I was just in the hospital again. I was having some breathing problems and ended up in ICU for a week and then almost 2 more weeks on the pulmonary unit. They couldn’t pinpoint what caused the problems but think it could be related to my chemotherapy. I am so happy to be home again.

Wishing you all a Very Happy and Wonderful holiday.

Love from
Chris and Bruce

Sadie and Grandma November 23rd, 2008