Attitude

READ THIS. LET IT REALLY SINK IN.
THEN CHOOSE.

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it!

You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"


He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood."

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

He continued, "..the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine.But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Emma's Last Treatment, Monday

Emma had her last treatment via IV yesterday.
She had a rough night with a major headache, chills then feeling very hot.
She now has a two week rest before starting home treatment which will need 3 injections a week which will be self administered.

Fall Colours

We went for a drive on Saturday and looked at all the fall colours.
While we were out for the drive, we allso did six site of geocaching.
(First time)
We had great time finding the caches and exchanging (treasures),
and forgot to take some photos .
I put the canoe away for the year, the water is to cold now and we
will still try to go camping for a while yet.
Removed one window in the trailer today and put new sealer around the frame
it was starting to leak a bit when it was raining while towing.

Who's Dog ?

Mistaken identity.
A dog was resting in a campground and an RVer was reading nearby on a lawn chair. "Excuse me, sir, but does your dog bite?" a recently arrived camper asked.
The RVer looked up over his newspaper and replied, "Nope."
Yet when the camper approached the animal, it began snarling and growling, and then attacked his legs. After pulling away from the crazed animal, he yelled, "I thought you said your dog didn't bite!"
The RVer muttered, "Ain't my dog."

A report by Emma

Well, I had blood work done today and my white blood counts are very low.This includes my "baby" white blood cells and means that my bone marrowcannot keep up with all the drugs.
My Dr's office called this afternoon and Iam to skip treatment tomorrow and go in on Monday for more blood work and possible treatment depending on the counts. It is mixed news - I am glad to have a day off but always find Monday's the hardest of the week. I also worry about how it will affect my outcome. But what can you do? Just enjoythe day off I guess.
Emma

Emma update, by John

Emma finished off last week in usual form. The weekend was good. Sunday afternoon friends called with an invite to go to Stage West for dinner theatre. Emma thought she might be up for it so we accepted the invite. Dinner was good and so was the play. Emma held up well and enjoyed herself.
Nausea is still and issue for Emma, but she may have found an aide. She was given a bottle of Mangosteen juice and a few table spoons of it seems to help calm the nausea

Map of our weekend trip

Camping in the Badlands

Badlands

Hi, to all of our readers!

The weatherman had promised that the weekend would be sunny and warm. We took him at his word and left Calgary on Friday around 3:30 pm and drove to one of our favorite campgrounds – Starland Campground located by the Red Deer river.
Friday evening was very nice – still and quite warm but when we woke up Saturday morning the fog was thick and did not burn off until noon. Saturday afternoon and evening were very pleasant.
Sunday morning we took photos of hot air balloons that were taking off by our campground.

The dogs had a great weekend and will take a few days to recuperate from their adventures.
Raymond and Cathy had a great time too!

The Dogs camping this weekend

Zack warming up his tummy or drying his feet?














Molly and Zack sleeping in the sun

Big Horn Sheep

Report on Emma, By John

Monday September 12, 2004
Emma really did not want to miss taking the dogs to a dog show just because of her cancer treatment so right after her treatment last Friday we headed
north to stay with friends for the weekend and show the dogs Saturday and Sunday.
Emma did not enjoy the drive Friday night but Saturday and Sunday were not too bad. Yes she was tired and nauseous, but she rested when not in the show ring.
Emma showed Jazmine to two best of breed placings and I got a Winners placing and 1 point with Piper on Saturday.
Today Emma was given anti nausea medicine via IV both before and after her cancer treatment. She had a not so nice evening, it looks like the first of treatment after a weekend is a bit rough.

Tuesday September 13, 2004
Just like yesterday they gave Emma a double dose of anti nausea medicine.She is not sure if it is helping yet. She ate a good supper after I got home for work and settled on the sofa for the evening.

Not Rocks but Salmon. Dead and Alive

On a back road south of Dawson City

Cabin 3 

Cabin 2 

Cabin 1 

Robert Service's Cabin in Dawson City 

No change in Emma's symptoms from her cancer treatment. Nausea and fatigueare with her every day. They have been giving her anti nausea medicine inher IV every day and an extra bag of IV fluids to keep her hydrated.

Thanks Wendy,Lloyd,Tanya and Brendon for the email on Emma, it so very good to hear
from Australia again.

Emma was back at the clinic today. They were unable to install a picc lineas they could not get it to go very far up her vein. Emma was verydisappointed by this as she had hope of not having to have any more IV linesinstalled this month. At least when they did put the IV line in today theyused it to draw blood which meant at least one less needle prick today.Nausea has hit Emma hard today, and she had no relief from it over theweekend.The long weekend was nice in that Emma had three days with no treatments,but nausea and fatigue were and issue for her all 3 days.

On Friday Emma went to the Lymphdemia clinic before her cancer treatment. They massaged her leg then wrapped it. They got the swelling down to where her leg was pretty much normal size when she took the bandages off in the evening.
Her IV went well as the IV line from Thursday was still in her arm. The Interferon symptoms leaving her with a pretty steady case of nausea and fatigue with fever being added to the mix after each treatment

You can click on photos to make them larger

Motel wall at Dawson City

No coffee for us thanks 

While we were on the road last month

Still sleeping in the AM while we are having our coffee

Two tired dogs 

Inside again 

In side 

About Officer's Quarters at Eagle AK  

At Eagle AK 

Skayway 

By John

Today was another full day for Emma and my mom. First a trip to thedermatologist where she got a clean bill of health, then to the cancer clinic for treatment, then to the retina clinc to have her eyes checked.It took two nurses three tries to get an IV into Emma. This did not make Emma a very happy camper. Talk of installing a picc came up again today and we got a voice mail from the cancer clinc that an appointment to install a picc next Tuesday morning has been arranged.
Since todays IV line was left in, the picc installation should be the last poke into Emma's viens for an IV she should need.
There will still be blood work required and I am not sure if they can draw blood from the picc so there will likely still be more needles this month.
The last stop for the day was the retina clinc to see the surgeon who fixed Emma's detached retina a few years back. Emma gets regular checkups at the retina clinc, but the interferon can create issues with the eye so she went for the checkup today to get a baseline of what her eye health is like so that her eyes can be monitored over the next year. If there are any issues with the cancer treatment and her eyes, future examinations hopefully with find any problems.

A report on Emma from John

John here with another Emma report.
First thanks for the emails of support etc. Emma enjoys them very much.
Emma had her third cancer treatment today plus a trip to the Lymphdemiaclinic as she has mild Lymphdemia in her lower left leg from her surgery to remove some of her lymph nodes. They massage her leg to promote Lymphatic Drainage then bandaged her leg to slow the drainage from reversing. Afterseveral of these treatments they will fit her with a special stocking to keep the swelling down.Emma felt good enough to have lunch after her Lymphdemia treatment which was before her cancer treatment.
The cancer treatment went well again and she felt pretty good for a few hours afterwards. They reused the IV line thatwas left in yesterday, and removed it after treatment was done. The nurse suggested that an option is to install a picc which is a long flexible line which goes in a vein in the arm and runs up the arm to the chest. The picc could be install by a nurse, vs a port would be minor surgery and is usually only done for patients with long term treatment requirements, and Emma's IV treatment is only 4 weeks long.
I barbequed chicken breasts, made up some rice and frozen peas for supper.Emma ate some but is still afraid to eat too much incase it makes her feel poorly. Not too long after supper chills set in and she got tired and laid down for the evening. A bit of tummy trouble through the evening made her feel more poorly.
We got a call from one of the ladies from the church we have been attending since July with an offer of help with meals. They have volunteers that will make up packages of meals for us to ease the work load around the house. We graciously accepted the offer.