Ring the bell! Amanda is finished chemo!

Amanda Simpson rings the bell at the 11VIC Long Chemo nursing desk, signaling the end of her chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer. Yay, Amanda!

Done!

The third treatment in the seventh round of chemotherapy is OVER and that means Amanda is done her chemo treatment. Yay! She shook off the benadryl sleepiness and got up to ring the bell at the nurses' station, bringing on a round of applause from the nurses and patients in the Long Room.

Now she's in for a final round of side-effects: we're not expecting to see much of her on Friday and Saturday as she'll probably be stuck in bed with no energy and general misery.

Her hair's already starting to come back. She's lost a lot of weight from not eating. (Yes to Boost juice-boxes, no to the chalky creamy Boost and Ensure in bottles.) Her mood seems to be improving.

A few weeks from now she'll return to hospital for one more surgery, this time to remove the implanted port that was supposed to be used for intraperitoneal chemotherapy before something was botched, sending poison into her surrounding tissues.

Then it's on to recovery and learning to live as a cancer survivor instead of a cancer patient.

Not sure how we're going to do that, but this was supposed to be the hard part.

For now, it's a big milestone toward having this thing beaten. We hope it's gone forever.

Baby Gordon dances to Niki Minaj "Pound The Alarm"

Gordon is really taking to the Jolly Jumper. He seems to enjoy dance music. That's fine. He'll grow out of it.

Big week around the house

Gordon is six months old and now we can try feeding him with a spoon. First up: rice pablum mixed with some formula. Our first attempt was a complete success!

I had nothing to do with the Leafs bib, by the way. But hey, doesn't he look good in it? And check out that teal-coloured spoon!

Today is Amanda's 35th birthday. What a year we've had, and there's such a challenging year ahead. Her blood results were solid enough to begin a seventh and final round of chemotherapy. Still, she's feeling ground down and crappy in every regard. Hard to enjoy your birthday when your bones feel like they're melting from the inside out and you hardly have the energy to lift a spoon to your baby's mouth. I love her and it hurts to see in such a state.

Yesterday was also my parents' 42nd wedding anniversary. Well done!

Amanda and I will mark our fourth anniversary in just over a week. Seems so long ago now.



And our full house is even fuller now. Amanda's sister Amy is visiting from London, Ontario for a while. She's a smartass, so it's good to have the extra level of hilarity under our roof during these difficult times.