Today Kim got sick enough of losing hair by the handful to allow me to cut it all off. She has a really positive attitude about it all though, making jokes and such so things are good. Kim's doing well health-wise too, the second chemo treatment didn't seem to bother her stomach much.

As for the house, we're all unpacked and well on our way to getting settled. I've made lots of trips to Canadian Tire and Home Depot already.

Kim had her second round of chemotherapy today and it went extremely smoothly. She was just an outpatient this time and St. Michael's has a really nice area set up with comfy chairs and TVs where the cancer patients can sit while they get their medicines given by IV. It took most of the day to go through the four drugs, but nothing eventful happened and Kim's now sleeping soundly. Only 4-6 more rounds to go!

Our Internet was connected today! Yay! We managed to avoid both Bell and Rogers by going with TekSavvy Cable Internet and the first six hours seem to have gone really well. The installation was fast and painless and I checked a random Internet speed test and verified that we are getting 18Mbps download and 1Mbps upload! The monthly bandwidth cap is 200GB which is plenty adequate and it only costs $42.95/month. Also, there is no fixed length contract so if things go bad we can quit at any time. I feel fortunate to live in a city where there are alternatives to the stupid Rogers/Bell duopoly.

The rest of the house is coming along well. We got the kitchen and master bedroom pretty much set up and our new washing machine and dryer are awesome. We made our first of many trips to Canadian Tire today too.

On the cancer front, Kim's hair has started falling out which is expected I guess, but still a bit distressing. Her neck tumours are noticeably smaller though so I suppose the treatment is working. She goes in for blood work on Wednesday and then assuming her white blood cell count is good she'll get her second round of chemotherapy on Thursday. Kim's mom and sister are coming to stay with us for the treatment and for Christmas so that will be nice.

We're moved in and leeching wireless Internet from a neighbour until tomorrow when our Internet will be hooked up. The house is chaos, but it's also good. The move went super smoothly thanks to the awesome help of many friends and family.

The deal is done and we have the keys to the house! We're moving in a few hours, but we've already been up to check things out and move a few fragile things. Excited!

We signed the papers with the lawyer today for our new house! Only four more days until we close and then we move on Saturday. We're almost packed and super excited.

Kim has continued to do well for the past few days and so other than her being tired and bored, there is not much to report.

Instead, I'm going to post a fun image I saw today. Rob Ford is already busy declaring Transit City and anything resembling LRT or streetcars to be dead. Toronto residents want subways apparently. Whatever your views on this matter I think you'd have to admit that the preliminary subway plan from the independent council Save Our Subways is pretty cool. How awesome would it be if that was the baseline subway system in Toronto and the only problem was how to get people to the nearest subway stop?

Of course just because something is cool, doesn't mean it is possible. I'd love to see this built, but it would take decades and billions of dollars and some sort of long term plan that couldn't be overturned by the first disapproving government. I don't think any of these things are just going to appear. Rob Ford is trying to will the subways into existence which probably won't work. If he does manage to kill Transit City then I also hope he succeeds with his willpower, because it would suck to have nothing at all.

Kim is home! After almost exactly a week in the hospital, she was discharged today around noon. She had a really good weekend after the chemotherapy finished and the fever never returned. I could tell she was about ready to freak out from boredom/monotony if they kept her another day so I'm really glad they let her go. She's super happy and excited to be home and she spent all day today going over financial stuff for the house and contacting the lawyer to make sure everything is ready to go.

There was almost no nausea from the chemotherapy. There are really good anti-nausea pills now and they worked perfectly. There has also been no hair loss yet, although apparently that could start at any time. We're prepared for it though, Kim's mom ordered her a bunch of fun scarves and things to help keep her head warm.

She has a follow-up appointment on Friday just to make sure everything is still going well. Then, the next round of chemotherapy will probably be on December 23rd assuming her blood counts have recovered enough. Merry Christmas, I guess. It's all good though, after the 23rd, there will only be 4-6 more treatments to go!

One more thing, both Kim's mom and my mom have been super awesome and helpful this past week. They both came up to stay with us so that there would always be someone with Kim at the hospital (the three of us took turns). This meant that Kim's nurses didn't have to work as hard and also that there was always someone with her to talk to when she got scared. It also meant that I was able to do some packing and other stuff for the move despite Kim being in the hospital. So yeah, the moms are awesome.

Due to the fever, Kim's doctor decided to keep her for observation over the weekend. Thankfully, things have been quiet since the fever cleared and there have been no strong reactions to the chemotherapy drugs she received on Friday. The hope is that they will discharge her on Monday and things can go back to being semi-normal.

I got a flu shot yesterday to help keep me healthy and my arm is a little sore but no other reaction so far. Mentally I am definitely feeling a stronger urge to blindly obey authority (everyone knows flu shots are mostly made up of mind control serum).

Last night I managed to pack a couple boxes, which breaks the inertia of the last week. Hopefully I can pack some more today after I sit with Kim for a while.

Last night after I left the hospital, Kim spiked a fever of 102 so they started running antibiotics along with Benadryl for itching. They also did another chest X-ray just to make sure nothing serious was happening. She just has an infection of some sort. It's probably something she had before last night and the Rituximab simply aggravated it. By the morning she was back to normal more or less and they were able to continue with the chemotherapy around noon.

The three drugs today (cyclophosphamide, hydroxdaunorubicin, oncovin) were administered without any difficulties, and the anti-nausea medicine seems to be working for now. Hopefully it continues to work tonight and tomorrow. My mom is staying at the hospital with her to give Kim's mom and me a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep. In my case, I'm catching up on house stuff too.

Also today we had a bunch of visits from hospital support staff including a social worker, dietitian and the case manager. All of these people were super friendly and helpful. The dietitian had some cool books that deal with all the eating problems that occur as a result of chemo.

Tomorrow I have to go get a flu shot to help make sure I stay healthy over the next six months. I've never had one before (not even sure I've ever had the flu before) so hopefully I don't react funny to it or anything.

We got the final count from the fertility clinic today. Before freezing, one of the good embryos failed and so only four were able to be frozen. Also, the special procedure for the immature eggs was not successful in any of the cases so the final count will be just four. This is still enough, but there's obviously not a lot of room for error or complications when we go to use them. It's a little disappointing, but we did the best we could. Kim's health is more important.