keith’s new self

Life is good. The cob workshop went splendidly. I’m back in the big city and back at work. Autumn has arrived. My old pal Ryan Fristch and I visited Gambier yesterday for a rainy tour around the grounds and some good conversation. My eighth chemocopia funride is tomorrow, and I have a CT scan booked for next week to see how the pineapple is progressing. My goal is for “lemon or smaller”. It’s all about the fruit metaphors. Stay tuned.

posted: 8:19 am

  2 Comments

i’ve put up a bunch of photos of the cob workshop. check em out:

http://ecovillage.lightwork.ca/blog

tags: ecovillage, natural building, cob

posted: 10:52 am

  6 Comments

Hey! I’m writing from the Ecovillage on Gambier Island. I’m over here with six friends building a house made of clay, sand and straw, with a stacked stone foundation. We’re having a blast, and learning a ton about natural building.

Had my sixth chemo on thursday, so I’m still shaking off the hangover. It’s super icky, but every day gets a little better.

We’ll be here through Labour Day - let me know if you want to come visit!

posted: 7:39 pm

  2 Comments

Hey,

Good news all around. Just had chemo 5 of 12. Feeling pretty good. My white blood cell counts were excellent, the pineapple continues to shrink, and I haven’t lost any weight since I started treatment.

Also, my drugs are about to get a lot cheaper - like free-ninety-nine cheap. Got a letter from Pharmacare - the final numbers are that I have to pay $1200/year, after which I get 70% off until I’ve paid $1600, after which it’s 100% off. Not bad, eh? I’m sure I’ll hit the $1600 mark soon if I haven’t already. This is very, very good news. Yay socialism!

And my holidays start today. Heading to Hollyhock retreat centre on Cortes Is. for a week of meditation, creativity, great food, swimming in the ocean, massage, hot-tubbing, etc. Also my band is going to play a gig there, after playing their first public show (in the new hi-fi multimedia format) last week on Hornby Is..

See you in a week!

tags: chemotherapy, hodgkin’s lymphoma, lightwork, lymphoma, meditation, hollyhock

posted: 7:28 am

  3 Comments

tags: natural building, permaculture, fun

posted: 7:21 pm

  2 Comments

thai takeout
enya
late afternoon sunlight streams through open window
i think i’ll take a nap

posted: 6:56 pm

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Chemo number 4 has come and gone and I feel pretty good. I’m one third done!

Here’s a plug for local eco-hero Guy Dauncey’s initiative to create a movement for cancer prevention. It’s called Prevent Cancer Now.

Their purpose:

Our purpose is to build and sustain a Canada-wide movement that will generate the resolve and the actions required to eliminate the preventable causes of cancer.

Here’s a recent article by Guy called “Winning the cancer game”, which correlates the rise of cancer with industrial farming practices.

posted: 6:38 pm

  4 Comments

tags: cancer, comedy, kids in the hall, funny

posted: 7:12 pm

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Howdy! I haven’t blogged in a while. Had chemo 3 of 12 last week. It’s become no big deal… like going out for dinner. I sit in the chair and joke with the nurse, while she sets up my IV. Then I watch comedy on my laptop while she gives me the pineapple-killing drugs. So far I’ve gone through all the comedy specials of Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, a bit of Steve Martin, and I’ve got Kids In The Hall downloading now. I suspect some Peter Sellers may be on the way as well. Every chemo aftermath has been better than the last. The first day is usually fine, and then i get 3-7 days of hangover. The most annoying part lately has been weirdness with my senses of smell and taste. Certain smells I find almost unbearable, and I get a yucky taste in my mouth a lot of the time. Besides that fatigue is the only major side-effect - but it’s somehow more bearable - it just feels like “tired”. Easily treated with “sleep”. I also get mad cravings for different foods, and I enjoy food and anticipate eating more in general…

After the hangover, I feel really good - I feel even better than before I got sick.

Still injecting the ridiculously expensive white-blood-cell-building drugs. I imagine every time I go fill my prescription, I’m buying a tank of jet fuel for the CEO of Amgen, or helping fund Amgen’s annual “What the heck do we do with all this crazy money?” shareholders’ meeting/rave on their private pleasure station in orbit around Mars.

Ha ha… anyway - things are going good. My hair started to fall out en masse, so I’ve taken to shaving it down to nothing. I like the look and the low maintenance. Never thought I would dig a shiny dome - thank you malignant cells for showing me this.

Ta ta!

posted: 9:59 am

  8 Comments

I’m writing this from ye olde Ecovillage on Gambier Island. We don’t have power or running water, but we have wireless internet, thanks to the Gambier Radio Internet Project and a solar-powered wireless access point. It’s a beautiful sunny day. Five of us are out here doing various prep work for the cob building we’ll be working on in August - digging ditches, stripping the bark off logs, collecting stone for the foundation. I’m on cooking and relaxing duty. It’s great - nearly all the materials that go into the house have been sourced from our land - the main thing we’ve had to import is straw. Also we’ve been collecting used glass jars and bottles to become part of the wall structure. Been feeling pretty good health-wise. The last couple days were a bit yucky, but I feel much better today. Being out here in nature always seems to give me a boost. Life is good!

posted: 12:00 pm

  5 Comments