Happy Birthday Shawn and Rick

Update...I goofed and put a picture of Terry and Ryan. I knew the hair was all wrong but Terry looked so young in the picture I thought it had to be Shawn.

I feel kind of bad because I knew Shawn's birthday was the 27th but I thought it was tuesday. Even after Shawn had asked me last week what the date was so he could figure out what day his birthday fell on. I think he just wanted to give me a hint. It's also Rick's birthday today which I didn't know untill after I told Jean I forgot Shawn's birthday and she said oh it's the same as Rick's. So happy birthday Shawn and Rick !!!

Shawn




And Rick

New Picture

Dad is a chrome dome !!!

Last night I decided to shave my head again. It's been a while since I took a razor to it but it sure felt good when I was done. Dad was napping in his chair and when he woke up he looked at me and said "I want to look like that". So Jean took him in the back room and took the trimmers to his head but that was not good enough. Dad called me in and asked if I'd mind shaving his head with a razor. I said not at all so I dragged a chair in the bathroom and made him sit down. At first it was wierd because when you shave your own head you know how much pressure to use. On someone else its hard to judge how hard to press without cutting skin. I'm glad to say it was finished with no blood being shed. Dad is actually enjoying it !! Looks good on him too !!!

Daddy's home !!!

Well as most if not all of you know dad came home yesturday morning. I answered the phone in the morning shocked to find dad on the other end. He asked for Jean so I passed the phone over and waited. I could tell he told her he was getting released. Karl and Trudy were here and Trudy must have been eavsdropping on me eavsdropping on Jean because by the time I got downstairs she was already telling Karl who was in the shower. But it didn't matter because we were all happy to have dad come back home. Jean and I grabbed some things and shot over to get dad. It's the fastest release I have ever seen. The Dr popped by to tell Jean and I about the new meds and what to watch for. Also she told us about the Cat Scan which turned up nothing and off we went. Dad was happy to sit in his chair and Brandy was happy to see dad.

I talked to dad after I got home from work and he told me he was feeling pretty good and that he ate a pretty big supper tonight. Hes resting in his chair right now with his eyes closed.

I also want to congratulate Kris as she has graduated from Guelph University yesturday. Thanks for inviting me to share in this moment with you and your family. It seems like the next generation of Gowers are all pretty smart and ambitious which is good cause it makes up for the rest of us.







One last note...I removed the comment section because no one used it and when Karl did he made fun of my poor spelling and grammer. This is who I am like it or not ! I'm too old to change and too lazy to use a spell checker.

A different post for a change

Tonight for a change I went out with Mandy and the kids to Jordan's Tae Kwon Do where we watched him do his test to get his yellow belt. It was fun watching him concentrare as he practised his moves before he had to get up in front of everyone and do his moves while being judged by the Master Young Park. He even got to kick and break a board. Thanks for inviting me Mandy I really enjoyed getting to see this.

Here are a few pictures from tonight.

Another Henderson update

update below

Well dad is still in the Henderson and may not be home this weekend. He has still not had his Cat Scan. We were told he was on the list yesturday but when Jean and I left at 8pm he had still not had it. Dad was sleeping soundly. He has been getting lots of visitors. Yesturday young Joe, Annette, Tyler, Aunt Jan, Theresa, Mickey, and Father Ralph were by as well as myself Jean and Natasha.

Dad looks good, good colour in his cheeks. He jokes a bit so seems in pretty good spirits. He has been having loads od diarea and is not enjoying that one bit so sometimes he seems annoyed with everything going on. A physio therapist was in had dad walking with his cane and did some tests to see how his mind is doing. Once in awhile dad seems confused but the Cancer Dr assured me it was nothing to do with the cancer but probably from the meds. She also said that they will probably adjust the chemo he is getting so hopefully the reaction will be less severe. She said chemo is not a perfect science and you have to adjust the meds as you go depending on the reaction. Dad had a bit to eat yesturday but said they didn't bring him anything for supper. Annette got him some icecream and he had a bit of yucky yogurt.

Jean and I are heading over in a few minutes. She had a talk with a nurse friend at church and I'll post about it later today.

Jean came home from church this morning and was telling me about a conversation with a nurse she knows. The nurse was saying that for some reason they seem to like keeping the patient and the family in the dark about whats going on. She also said that what dad is going through is alot like what she sees in her patients. The needing the blood and diarea and everything was normal. One thing she did tell Jean was that she noticed a big improvement on the patients that started smoking pot. She told Jean she should really look into it and tell the Drs so what if it's more paper work it might help him out. Jean values this person's oppinion because she is a good catholic and a nurse.

I'll continue with todays post in this one.

Jean and I went to see dad this morning. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits although he was hungry. They told him he was getting his Cat Scan and couldn't have anything to eat. The cancer Dr came in (a new one) and was saying it looked like at least tuesday before dad gets out. Jean asked him about the medical mary jane and he said they usually prefure to exhaust all other choices first but would not rule it out. Dad is on something that is stronger than morpheen. Around 11:30 they came to get dad and take him downstairs. We were there till around noon and then dad was taken back to his room after the cat scan. Dad had a bit of diarea and then had his lunch. Dad started to try and have a nap and around 2pm the diarea came knocking on the door again. By this time dad was getting pretty pissed. He didn't even want to take the imodium but Jean talked him into it. He said why the hell should he because it certainly wasn't working. Dad is trying to be positive but you can see it is wearing him out. His colour is good and they said the red and white cells are getting better evey day. They probably won't do or change anything over the weekend. I'm not sure if I will make it back there tonight but I will be going tomorrow morning and will try to update if I have anything.

Day 3 at Henderson

Went to visit dad this morning. Seems to be in pretty good spirits most of the time. Still no cat scan but the other specialist was in to see him today. He was in the washroom so she said shed be back in 15. Almost an hour and a half later and about 5 minutes too late she shows up. Dad had just finished eating his cream of tomatoe soup which I'm happy to say he ate the whole bowl. This Dr comes in with food she wants dad to try but hes full. He tries to go along with her and tries some of the stuff. She is trying to expand his menu and not just liquids.

The cancer Dr comes in and tells dad shes going to go see if she can get dads cat scan today. She as well as the other Drs need it to help them in their diagnosis. She said she would pop in in the afternoon.

Terry, Mandy, and Emily were in for a visit. We all sat gabbing with dad. Then Jean showed up followed shortly after by Michelle. Terry and Mandy had to leave as Terry had to work. A short while later 2 couples showed up (friends of Dad and Jean) so I decided to leave and Michelle offered to give me a ride home.

Tonight I'm going to a dinner and a movie with Ryan and Lacie. Not sure what we are going to see yet but it will be nice to get out. We are going to East side Marios to spend the coupon I got from the last time we were there and it was lousy. ZI hope it's better tonight.

Quick update

Quick update because I'm freaking tired.
Just got home from the hospital. Dad is looking and feeling good but nothing has been done yet. They are giving him a couple pints of the red stuff because his white cells are low and his red cells are high or something like that. They say its because of the chemo and that is what is causing the back pan. They have him scheduled for a cat scan...could be today or could be tomorrow but he is on the list. Also someone else is comming in (who knows when) to look at his throat and run some tests and see if there is anything blocking his throat that food might get stuck. The cancer Dr was in and said he will be staying for a few more days so they can watch his blood cell count and do what they have to till they can get it corrected.

Robert, Kim, and Glenn were in this morning and if laughter is the best medicine we can thank Robert because he had all of us including dad laughing our asses off. Most of dad's sisters if not all will be going in to see dad later today from what I heard.

Thats all for now because it's nap time.

Update on Dad/Papa

Update below
Second update below

Just thought I'd give a quick update before I head to bed. The past couple days dad has not been eating. When he does it either runs right out the other end or makes him sick. Jean called his Dr and left a msg hoping to get him in today (monday) I didn't realize untill dad decided he was heading to bed at 8:30 that he was having pain in his back. When Jean and I headed up to bed around 9:45ish dad got Jean to get a heating pad. I fell fast a sleep and was having a strange dream when I heard Jean call me (was around 11pm). Dads back was still sore and when he tried to take an extra morpheen pill he was sick. They decided to go to the hospital and seek help with the pain. So I got up and drove them. probably around 3am dad was feeling better but they were going to give him a bit more meds to try and get most of the pain out of there. Jean stretched out on a couch and dad was able to fall asleep himself. I sat at dads bedside and after about an hour decided to go to Tims for doughnuts and capacino to keep me awake. I also got some for a couple nurses. When I got back I saw the Dr and he said dad seemed fine now and was sleeping so they were going to let him sleep and get another Dr to check on him in the morning so if I wanted I could go home. I started to tell the Dr about dads problem eating and he asked if anyone was doing anything about it. I told him as far as I knew nothing other than a dietition telling him he needed to eat more. Since they were keeping him anyways he said that he would run some more tests and probably do exrays to see if there was some blockage in dads throat. I thanked him and told him I would tell Jean when she got up. Her and I talked to the Dr and then went to see dad and he said we should probably go home and get some rest. So we are at home and Jean is in bed. I'm heading there now. Dad is warm and comfy and in no pain and hopefully they will find whats causing him to not eat and fix it. Will post later as I find out more.

Goodnight/goodmorning/goodafternoon.

Just to update you the hospital called this morning and have decided to keep him in for a bit. Jean and I are going over after lunch and will find out if there is anything new and I will post it when we get back

Went to see dad for a couple hours. He's feeling much better but apparently there are not enough holidays in the year so hospital workers get today off as an extra long weekend so no xrays are to be done today. The nurse gave dad a shot of something good and his eyes started to get heavy so Jean and I decided to leave and let him rest. Jean and Joan are going back tonight and I will go over tomorrow morning to sit with him a while. He's in real good spirits and was joking around a bit so no worries. Will keep you updated when I can.

Happy birthday Ryan and Marriane !!!

Happy birthday to both Ryan and Marriane !!! I haven't sent cards in years mostly because I'm lazy but then I discovererd a new way of wishing people birthday and other greetings. Only problem is some people are not on the internet so they won't see this at least at the time. Hopefully they all will be on the internet in the future because I think this is the way to go !!!

Happy birthday Ryan !!!





Happy birthday Marriane !!!

Alysha's Birthday Party

Here are a few pictures from Alysha's birthday party. Papa was unable to make it because he wasn't feeling good. He did enjoy the piece of Spnge Bob icecream cake while we watched Survivor that evening. If he wasn't up to it I would have eaten it for him because it was mmm mmm good !!!

Happy 9th Birthday Alysha

Today Kim and Glenn's daughter Alysha turns 9 years old ! So even though I will be dropping by in person with Papa and Grandma I wanted to post it here to tell everyone that it's your birthday today. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSHA !!!!!!

Steelers Win

Just a quick post about this past weekend. Karl and Trudy were down saturday. Shawn and Marianne dropped by as well. Karl and Trudy went out for dinner then back to Wayne and Theresa's for the night and Shawn and Marrianne decided to stay and have Swiss Chalet with Papa and me. Jean was out at a pot luck dinner with Joan. We thought Terry was going to drop by around 3:30 but she was a no show. Was a good visit by all.

Karl and Trudy dropped by for a bit Sunday morning and left while dad was having a nap. I went over to Kim and Glenn's while they had to go out I stayed with the kids. I got home in time for supper which was a pork roast with gravy and mashed potatoes...mmmm mmmm mmmm !!!

The super bowl was pretty good from what I saw of it. I started napping through the second half. I didn't think the Stones were too good at half time. This is unofficial but I'm pretty sure Ryan won the 500 bucks in the super bowl pool that Norm had. He had Pitts 1 Seattle 0 and the final was 21 - 10. Well off to get ready for work.

Thats all folks

Survivor !!!!!!!!

A new season of survivor started tonight so there goes my thursday nights for the next few weeks. The show started off with a huge twist. I think its going to be great as usual !!!

Today I went with Annette and Tyler to a tattoo shop in downtown Hamilton. Tyler has wanted a tattoo for a while now and today it happened. No one was allowed in while he was getting it done but he came out and showed us before it was covererd up for the night. Here are some pictures.

Sitting and waiting till his turn


The outline of how the tattoo will look


just a little nervous


A happy customer !!!


The final outcome !!

Happy Ground Hog Day !!!!!!

Well it's feb 2nd and everyone is waiting for Wiarton Willie to poke his head out and tell us how much longer this dreaded winter is going to last LOL. It was 2 years ago on this day I met Barbara. Thats all I got to say about that.

Not sure if any of you know but yesturday the priest from Dad and Jean's church came by to do a special prayer. It's a prayer for the sick. I wasn't here so don't know anything about it. Got home so late and tired I forgot to ask about it.

This morning dad and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast and chatting. Dad said hey Kevin look at this my Alph Bits are trying to say something to me. I stood up and looked in dads bowl and saw oooooooo. I said dad they aint Alpha Bits they're Cheerios. Dad said oh yeah.

Today dad is actualy in a bit of pain. He hasn't felt any like this in a while. He has a chemo treatment today and next week is his chemo therapy. I believe Terry is going with him next week.

Last note is for Robert...Just wondering if Norm sent you the Super Bowl pool sheet because everyone wants to know their numbers before the big Game Sunday !! If you have them can you post them or email them to us? Thanks

And now back to our eregularly scheduled post

actualy it's done, nothing more to say

Update... Dad came home early from the chemo treatment as they decided to double it up with his chemo therapy so he only has to spend 1 day a month hanging around the cancer clinic. Dad has lost another 8 ponds and is now 192lbs