treenabray

[treenabray]

Transition to end of life part 1

I have been delaying sending this post because I like to use humor and I just cannot find any humor on this…. I cycle through acceptance, anger,sadnesss then gratefulness for the life I had prior to my brain Mets I have 2 amazing kids, great siblings Tbc

[treenabray]

Help, gratitude what that looks like?

So, I realize that i will likely offend someone with this post but feel its an important topic that everyone needs to consider. What is help and who defines it? Having any illness or injury is hard and stressful for the individual as well as thier immediate family. Thankfully,we had many times where others stepped up to the plate to support and help out. I know we did… many meals and offers to…

[treenabray]

How nice is too nice

Saw a movie that had me reflecting… is there a point that you can be too nice, sadly I think the answer is a resounding YES!!! The movie was Richard Jewell, he was accused of placing pipe bombs at the Atlanta Olympic Park. He didn’t but was so helpful that he practically handed them any sort of case they could scrounge up. I am not saying I am all sugar and sunshine 24-7 but I did see myself in…

[treenabray]

Fall, my favorite time!

Sweaters, actual evenings, not too warm or cold weather, beautiful colors everywhere 😍 As much as I would also like to include some of my traditional fall favorites, PSL… haven’t forgotten you!!! But I am off added sugar for the foreseeable future. Might cave when the Christmas flat whites are out! I hope everyone is well and kids have a school year where they, and thiet teachers are not…

[treenabray]

A new normal

In an effort to try to resume a life that somewhat resembles my life a year ago, I pulled out my crochet project, watched an hour of tutorials and attempted to finish my semi large afghan. I ended up having to give up and pulled out

[treenabray]

Covid covid covid

I apologize in advance, I will tick some people off with this post. Masks, no masks, social distancing, rights, freedoms, Vax, antivax Let me start by saying that I do believe that my freedoms only extend to where they infringe on someone else’s freedoms, today’s world needs to remember that I really don’t like wearing a mask but I will happily put mine on to make this virus go away I think…

[treenabray]

QUICHE SUCCESS!!!

WBR has taken me a long time to recover from, standing for more than a few minutes has been a challenge but I made some quiche last night and I call that a success for me since even chopping onions tires me out. Using the timer on my phone helped a lot. Put onions on to sweat, med heat 10 min, they were beautiful, translucent and sweet. I did use bisquick this time, next time, I will go crustless…

[treenabray]

Pride

Just when you think you have it handled… You think you’re adjusted or adjusting and then in a very honest moment you realize that is NOT the case, not even close! Had some insights today, I still keep thinking I should be the person I was a year ago… I USE A WALKER I should be using the motorized cart at Walmart instead of insisting on pushing a cart. And I simply just don’t have the physical…

[treenabray]

Cancer related fatigue

One of the hardest things to deal with is fatigue related to cancer. Inam not talking about tiredness, I mean bone weary. I think one of the most difficult part is how it comes and goes, it’s so hard to predict! I will just continue to rest when I need to, eat nutritionally well and get exercise in when I can On a good note, for the first time in 3 years, we gave seen good things happen in my…

[treenabray]

JUNE- Brain injury awareness month

Just a quick note of support to patients and care givers to those with brain injuries. I cannot remotely compare 3 crainiotomies and planned radiation treatments to recovering from a traumatic brain injury. There is no comparison. All I want to say is how amazing the brain is in its amity to heal and create new pathways. I owe my brain a huge thank you to how many times it has healed and…

[treenabray]

Many in my shoes...

Many in my shoes…

With summer coming up (yay, thankful for the weather) fast an furious I want to comment about some of the cancer events coming up to raise awareness and YES money. I am going to point anyone who is interested in finding out why this is such a dangerous disease and deserves interest and research. If we have the capability to successfully treat terminal breast cancer. No matter the type then that…

[treenabray]

Hardest treatment yet...

Hardest treatment yet…

Due to multiple small tumors popping up in my brain, my Doc and I made the decision to proceed with a hippocampus sparing Whole Brain Radiation. After curative chemo, multiple crainiotomies, multiple Steroetactic Radaiation procedures. SRS. This should be fine…. Wrong! After a month, I felt like a semi hit me. Getting out of bed was a challenge, I felt like a knife was in my head and I was…

[treenabray]

Gratitude

As i was picking up a few salad ingredients tonigjt by my local grocery store, there was a man sitting in the shelter of rhe building trying to keep warm in this -27 celcius weather. I walked over to see if he needed some bus fare to get to a homeless shelter tonight. He told me he had change to get to destination but there are currently no beds available. Honestly i was surprised that in this…

[treenabray]

When i finally decided to truly choose myself first

I have gone back and forth on whether to share this part of my story because it closely involves someone else but this is my blog and is my experience, so screw it maybe it will help someone else in a similar situation choose themselves first too! A little over a year ago I had my hardest and most invasive brain surgery yet, at that time my husband decided he has had enough of the cancer…

[treenabray]

The Long Goodbye...

The Long Goodbye…

2 things I know:

1 – I am going to die.

2 – I have no idea when but when things turn bad, the downhill is a very steep slope.

Those two bits cause me to think a lot about my death, I am not scared to die as I am very confident on where I am going but I worry for those I leave behind. I finally got up the courage to talk to Gerry and my mom about it. It was hard but I guess laying out my…

[treenabray]

Autobons, Autria and Advent markets.

Thank goodness I got permission to start driving again! The Autobahn and I get along like peas and carrots! I loved driving in Austria, it was fast but safe. Everyone follows the same rules, stick to the right unless you are passing a car and let the people going faster than you go by you on the left (not gonna lie… I did my fair share of passing!).

Salzburg was simply amazing! I felt at…

[treenabray]

And now a post about a different journey... 3 days in Munich

And now a post about a different journey… 3 days in Munich

I am going to do a couple of little posts about my little trip over to Europe, we are here to watch Canada play in the World Jr tournament that commences boxing day but came a little early to tour around the region. So glad we did.

Started in Munich, spent 3 nights at the Holiday Inn City Centre which is located a short walk from the largest Christmas Market in the city. Loved the hotel, had…