News Update

Another week has passed and we have returned to the shore of Lake Superior and my hometown! We took our farewells in Regina over the weekend, and on Monday. Then, we drove to Winnipeg on Tuesday where we luxuriated under the care of Tom & Mariette. Supper, pleasant visitation, a good sleep and oatmeal for breakfast set us up for a good drive on to Thunder Bay on Wednesday! We fought the wind on Tuesday, but conditions were ideal on Wednesday and we're glad to be home again. The weather has clearly been great here and the snow was gone. The fairways were pretty clear, but covered in water. It'll be a while. Then, we got a slushy dump last night just to remind us that we still live in Canada. I caught up with my barber on Thursday. I tried to get in to the walk-in clinic to check on the progress of my leg, however, it was too busy, and I decided not to wait. I tried again this morning, but once again, it was busy and I was impatient! They could not find any notice of my records being transferred from Regina, so I will go again on Monday and make sure I get in. My leg has seemed to improve with the trip, and, at least in the morning, looks better than it has since all this DVT business started. However, my attempt to get in a good walk failed on Thursday, and I could only manage a few hundred metres. Otherwise, we've been taking it easy, and catching up on our accumulation of mail. That mostly falls to Wendy—we both enjoy that fact! The markets were difficult once again, and I was penalized with a red week. This put me behind quota for this month, so I'll need more success the rest of the way. Sports have continued to occupy a lot of attention here. The week opened as the Brier ended; Jacobs fell to McEwen in the battle for the bronze, while Gushue beat Koe for gold. It was a great week of curling, and St Johns did itself proud in hosting it. This week the curling world is divided between the Grand Slam event for the men, and now the World Championship has begun for the women. Rachel Homan started off with a win over China. Then, there are the playoff races heating up in the NHL, and also that little thing called March Madness in basketball. Kansas won their first game easily, but face a tough Michigan State team tomorrow—Rock Chalk boys! 

Eric's dad is in the hospital. The doctors have concluded that he had a heart attack. Complicating matters is he also has some sort of infection, and there is fluid in his chest. Along with his other conditions, that makes it difficult for the doctors to treat any one thing. If they fight the infection, it is bad for his heart. If they treat his heart too aggressively, something else will go wrong. So they are slowly trying to treat everything a little bit. Eric and his brother Neil flew out to Victoria early Thursday morning to be with the family and visit with his dad. Erica has a potential surgery date in July in Germany for her Lipedema. This would be the first surgery of, likely, four. The CDT is helping; her legs are smaller and the fluid is being released. There is nothing they can do for the diseased fat cells that remain, and with menopause coming (another hormonal change), there is a chance that she will go through another bout of fat cell duplication and growth. She recommends changing the name of this disease from Lipedema to Fat Cancer or at least Fat Tumours, because really, that's what it is. Anyway, the purpose of the surgery is to remove as many of the diseased fat cells as possible through lymphatic-sparing liposuction. They can't get them all, and it doesn't stop the ones that remain from replicating, but with less to work with, the surgery may be successful in slowing down the progression significantly. They've been treating Lipedema in Germany for decades. We don't seem to even know about it in Canada. Erica has been digging and following up on leads from people on message boards and Facebook groups but has not found a surgeon in Canada who does Lipedema surgery. There are doctors in the US who do, but they are much more expensive. She is very seriously considering taking this next step. She needs to consult further with her doctor first—who had at least heard of Lipedema before, and thought there was a surgical option. Haaken had another meeting with his support group looking for work. We continue to hope that he will find something suitable. He is also working on his animation and has submitted some projects. No one has been allowed to see them—very secretive. Liam continues to do well in school. He still struggles with his celiac issues. We are advised that this could continue for some months. One contact advised that her daughter took about a year to really recover and start to feel 'normal' again. He needs to find an alternative to iron pills, as he can't seem to keep them down! Oh, and Erica turned 43 today! Good thing we're not aging that quickly!

Thank you again to Erin and Kristian for hosting us for so long. It was a great time staying there. Kristian celebrated our departure with a new quad-copter drone. We look forward to seeing how he has learned to fly it. Kristian had two days off school this week, but was not feeling well, so Erin stayed home with him on Friday. He had bowling league this morning, but he slept in! That won't advance his average, but it will probably help him overcome his illness.

Travis and Joanna were busy early in the week getting some jobs completed and out the door. Then, they brought Minnie over to visit us as they drove down to Minneapolis to collect Gemma and Andrew after their Florida vacation. They all got back tonight. We're grateful for their safe travel.

And that's about enough for this week.