Happy October!

01Oct

Monday morning for Carman, is a lot like Monday for working folk, after a good weekend...you know the pillow over the head at the sound of the alarm kind of morning. He sleeps more now than he did even a few weeks ago, so is no longer up between 9-9:30 (in spite of the 9:15 alarm). This could be for a number of reasons, but I suspect MI-5 is the key culprit - think we’re going to have to set a curfew on the iPad!  On the weekends he’ll sleep most of the morning, but during the week he stays in bed until 10ish - no later than 10:30 if it’s a physio day - it’s just too hard for him to have both a breakfast and a lunch before we go.

Today we are meeting our friends Jane and Al, for lunch in the TGH food court, before physio so will be leaving a bit earlier than usual. Jane is doing very well in her recovery post-transplant now and in fact, hosted 24 family members at their home on the weekend.

While we’re at lunch, Ruth and Don stop by for a quick catch up and then we all head upstairs, Jane & Al to clinic and Carman & I to The Treadmill Room. Today the room was packed, the bikes and treads were full; waiting chairs were all occupied and we support peeps felt very much in the way. No matter where we turned we ran into each other or patients moving from one piece of equipment to another.

02Oct

Another physio day today, and our friend Mark and Carman must manage the squats on their own. Jess isn’t scheduled on Tuesdays so they have to muddle thru without her. It’s very quiet in the room today, only 7 patients and support peeps so maneuvering around is much easier. The boys execute their squat routines very well and move on to complete the rest of the weight routine. But not before pointing out the gap, where Jess should have been! Before we know it, we’re on the tread finishing up the workout. Once Carman is set up with oxygen, a sat monitor, water, tissues, etc. I have 20 minutes to be out of the way so decide to take a little walk in the hall.

Carman & Hèléne

I met Peggyann as soon as I headed for the door so chatted with her for a few minutes (her husband Paul is post-transplant), and shortly after that I spotted Susan and Kristy coming around the corner. Hot on their heels was Shilpa, being propelled forward by our friend Hélène, back for a check up, with her Mom and sister Elizabeth. What a nice surprise! Hélène looks great and was as excited to see all of us as we were to have a visit from her - we had a little reunion right there in the hall!

While they chatted, I excused myself and headed inside to move Carman from the treadmill to chairs, but made him detour on the way so he could peek in the hall and see our surprise visitor. By the time we got caught up with one another, it was time to move inside so Kristy & Shilpa could start their program and time for us to go.

Me, Hèléne & Shilpa

On our way across Wellesley, we spotted a window washer...yikes! These guys are brave and they can have that job - sitting on a swing, dangling over the side of a building - thanks very much!

I had my yoga class at 4 and then we headed down to Dundas & Yonge. We were meeting up with Susan, Jim, Kristy, Shilpa, Kristy’s friend Carley and Marieve & her Mom, Gisele (our newest physio friends). The 9 of us saw Pitch Perfect (Jim & Carman threatened to excuse themselves and head to the Zanzibar right after the trailers, but were good sports and stayed til the bitter end of what they dubbed a chick flick). On the way home, Carman concluded that it was a 2 hour Glee-fest, but admitted that he had a few laughs from it just the same. As he said yesterday...anything for Kristy...