BC Generations Project

please check out www.bcgenerationsproject.ca to learn about a study that is being done to help learn why how and why people develop cancer over time.

They are looking for people 35-69 to participate. They need 40,000 people and they aren't getting as many men as women so it would be great if you could encourage the men in your life to have a look at this important study.

They will be tracking 40,000 over 25 years to see if they can see any patterns or contributing factors for cancer. So they ask your eating habits, environment, physical fitness levels etc. In some cases, they will get blood samples etc.

I feel this is VERY important research that may help generations to come. The information they learn with my help won't be useful for another 20 or so years, but I will be happy to know that I helped them identify some factors down the road for our young people being born today!

I urge you to consider participating if you are between 35-69 & live in BC.

Thank you!

Officially full time back to work.

As of Monday July 4. 7-hour days (yup - government) and now I can accrue vacation..... once I got over the shock of the inevitable I just wanted to get back to the grind so I can save up my vacation days and head to Desert Hot Springs! Right now I'm doing basic 7-hour days but on July 18, I'll work a longer day so I can take my flextime. My first flex day will be Tuesday August 2 (tagged onto the long weekend - woo hoo!)

Also, I learned that even though I've been away, my vacation bank still grows because they base your allotment on years of service. So I earned 2 more days while I was away! Of course, I will only get to take one of them since I have to be working to earn vacation and this year I will only be working half..... but 84 hours is better than nothing!

Returning to work has been harder than I thought it would be. At least I think it has..... I'm not really sure how hard I thought it would be but I certainly was NOT looking forward to it. I'm finding it harder to manage the stress of it than I thought. And I also found that I took on some projects during my leave because I had time - but now I don't have that time and so the projects will have to be pared back....

It's a lot harder to fit all the napping in when 7 hours of the day is filled with working. It's rather inconvenient.

Anyway, I'm happy to see the good weather arrive - reminds me of California - and today I got to ride in a 2-seater convertible Audi and it was SWEET! Gotta love a convertible on a beautiful summer's evening.

I've had a couple (few?) meltdowns the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping I can find my centered and happy place and not forget what is important. I guess I didn't learn as much as I had hoped to - but at least I've learned that! (meaning I recognize this and will attempt to improve)

I better sign off before I confuse the hell out of everyone. I'm already there.....

Tick Tick Ticking Along

So I've been gradually returning to work - adding a bit more time week to week to get myself back up to full speed.

I'm not sure what happened yesterday - maybe a little brain overload - but I was SO tired I couldn't stay awake at work so I left early & came home to sleep. I probably hit the pillow at 12:30 and didn't wake up until 4:45! Just in time for the game - not that it was much to stay awake for....

Wasn't able to sleep until midnight but still got a solid 7 hours of overnight sleep even still. So I guess my body just needed the extra and thankfully it is no issue for me to do so at this time.

Otherwise, work is improving as I am remembering more of my job & getting more and more comfortable.

I've been trying to get more fit but seem to be at a plateau weight-wise. I guess I have to change something up to get that last 10 pounds off.

Don't really have much more to report.

My new nephew

Jennifer had Baby Iain on Sunday May 15 at 12:46pm. He was born at home with midwives present at a weight of 9 lbs 1 oz (4.15kg).

Chatted with Jenn today - she said the baby was 'brilliant' but the labour was the worst pain she's ever felt in her life. So everything was normal from what I've heard.... LOL

Here are some pics! https://picasaweb.google.com/jennsbow/IainBornMay15th2011#

Improving my Attitude

OK, I have to admit that I have been less that enthusiastic about my return to work. I have been bitching & moaning & pissing to anyone who asked me. (not about the work itself, just having to be there instead of in California playing waterball....)

I then started wondering why I would have that crappy attitude about something as simple as going to work when I had a great attitude all through my cancer treatment. And as I said to a friend on the weekend, 'going to work HAS to be better than cancer, right?'. So I've decided to put a positive spin and attitude on my return to work as well.

And this morning I was cleaning out some old emails and came across some that will help me do this. The following story is one my mom sent me because she said 'it fit me to a T'. It made me cry and was one of the nicest things she has ever said to me (and naturally there have been many... )

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. 'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.' So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. 'H-M-M,' she said, 'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today.' So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. 'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail.' So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. 'YAY!' she exclaimed. 'I don't have to fix my hair today!'

So I am going to use this example to make the best out of returning to work - like the good things of seeing my awesome colleagues who are all great people, and also the bigger paycheque! And the fact that being at work means I don't have cancer! So I have now given myself an attitude adjustment - my own 'kick in the ass'

I have another great email to share but I'll save it for next time.....

Officially back to work.

Yesterday was my first day back at work. Well... half-day anyway. I'm on a 'graduated return to work' for a couple of months where I add more time over the weeks until I'm up to fulltime.

It is strange being back at work - and I have to admit I did start to feel somewhat overwhelmed during a meeting today, however, I added my 'new perspective' to it to make myself feel better.

Basically, I'm thinking - hell, if I can get through cancer treatment, that I can definitely get through this process of getting back to work. This is nothing compared with what I've already gone through - and of course is necessary for me to put the cancer experience behind me.

Am I happy to be at work? No. But honestly - who is, other than dolphin trainers?

I consider myself very very lucky to have had the benefits & support from my employer that I have had and so feel that it is only fair to do my best to return to work in an efficient (yet healthy for me) manner. I don't plan on dragging it out.

The 11th hour.....

Meaning, tomorrow is the big day of my 'Return to Work'..... ACK!

I haven't even told you all the story of my 'Return to Canada' from Scotland and here I am already 'Returning to Work'. ACK!

So, my trip to Scotland was fabulous - most notably for the fact of seeing my ever-so-pregnant but not for long sister-in-law Jennifer (who actually is due today however there is so far no sign of said baby arriving as yet). We had lots of quality time together and I really enjoyed getting to know her other half & his mother. I had already done most of the 'tourist' type things when I was in Scotland in 1996 (my first honeymoon - but that's a whole other story). So this was 'family time'. Although that didn't stop us from going up Arthur's seat. I know - that sounds so weird, doesn't it? But what it means is that 'Arthur's Seat' is the name of this sort-of mountain near Holyrood Palace and the top of it offers a fabulous view of the city. So it was a beautiful spring day and Jennifer was feeling up for it so we actually hiked up this hill. Me and my 8 3/4 months pregnant companion..... sadly, she was faring much better than me - But despite that - and many of my other best efforts - no baby arrived on my watch.....

Anyway, my out to Scotland, I had window seats all the way. The ride home was aisle seats for me. So my row had a largish teenager at the window, a little old lady in the middle seat and then me on the aisle. About 2 hours into the flight, the lady got up for the restroom and then, in broken English, asked me to move to the middle seat. See, I am the kind of person who would give up my seat on a bus for someone who is old, or pregnant or disabled.... but I learned I am NOT the kind of person who will give up my aisle seat on a 9 hour plane ride for someone old - especially when there are 7 hours left in the flight. She was trying to wangle her way into a seat in the row behind me because her daughter & granddaughter were there. But there was a man in the aisle seat there and I guess he probably didn't want to move to a middle seat either - so she figured he would be willing to move to another aisle seat one row up and if only I would move to the middle, she could sit on the aisle with her family.

Admittedly, there was some guilt attached to my decision - but who wants to sit in a middle seat for 7 hours? She certainly didn't so why would I??? Then she asked the flight attendant about changing seats and was told there were extras so if she found one she liked she could move there. So she scoped the plane, and obviously found an empty seat because she came back to me and asked ME to move to the other seat she found! I refused again. Guilt factor ramping up but I stuck to my guns, thinking that my 5'7" frame more needed an aisle seat than hers did....

So in the end, she moved to the other empty seat which was a bonus for me and my other row-mate as we had no one between us anymore. And the EXTRA bonus is that at the end of the flight during the descent, the guy who was sitting in the row behind (the one she tried to convince to move to my row with me) got air sick and puked 3 times into the bags provided. So I was really glad I hadn't crammed myself into a middle seat in order to sit next to a guy who would be puking......

So I arrived around 2pm on Wednesday (which was 10pm Scotland time) - and the trick to beating the jetlag is to stay up & go to bed at a normal time. So Cam took me to flyball practice where I was dead on my feet but knew it was for a good cause - especially because I had stupidly committed to running Cooper at the flyball tournament on the weekend. But it did help me with the jetlag as I had no problem sleeping through the night & was pretty much ok after that.

Thursday night I went to my TOPS meeting, Friday night I had a double-header of slo-pitch then Saturday I ran flyball all day (for the 2nd time in my life - the first with one of my own dogs). I was not only exhausted from all this - but also sore and injured. My muscles were MAD. There was no thought of me doing the same on Sunday as per the original plan. I was pretty much useless all day on Sunday. I was so tired Saturday night that I woke up in overtime and had no idea the predators had tied the game up with less than a minute to go.

So today was my last day of freedom - but I got an interesting phone call from my 'return to work' guy. My doctor had told me to go back to work half time for 2 months when I finally do go. So I planned for that. But then THIS guy called me today to explain that Return to Work schedules are usually more graduated - which actually makes a lot more sense than what I had scheduled based on the doctor's recommendation.

So instead of starting half-time tomorrow, I am doing more like 1/3 time for a couple of weeks, then moving up to almost half-time, then 2/3 then 3/4 etc. until I am accustomed to working closer to full-time hours. So that is actually a much smarter plan - I hadn't realized that there was an option for this. I just assumed that since the doc said 1/2 time, that's what I had to do. This guy explained that doctors are not usually extremely specific - they will often just say 'graduated return to work' with no specific hours identified. So they go with their own info as long as it doesn't contradict the doctor's (like trying to make me work MORE hours than the doctor recommended). I'm happy about this - it seems more logical. And less stressful. And I'm not talking about the stress of actually working - I'm talking about the stress of realizing that I have to 'get back to normal'. That my 'life of leisure' is over..... my trial retirement has drawn to a close. But now it is closing JUST a little more gradually to make it that much more palatable.

But now it is 11:15 - and I have to go to bed - because I have to work in the morning!!! This is still blowing my mind and freaking me out a little.

But, that's life! Here I go - getting busy living!!!