August 7 - Thursday

Today was great. Sam and I went downtown to see if we could get tickets to Theatre under the Stars in Stanley Park for tonight's show. Apparently they were supposed to be half price. After parking 12 blocks from where we were supposed to park and walking at a rather fast pace, we got to the ticket office only to find that they weren't half price at all. Full price was out of our budget so we decided not to go.

It didn't discourage us though. We got our bikes out of the van and went all the way around Stanley Park. We stopped at the end and walked around the big 60' sailboats at Coal Harbour marina. It was very fun.

Sam has not been hit nearly as hard by this last round of chemo as he did the first time (4 weeks in July). This is a repeat of July's chemo without the spinal injections. So, we're making the most of every healthy day.

We got to BCCH at about 12:30 because we knew that it was hamburger/hot dog day in front of the clinic. Sam was psyched because they had slushies today. He got his Ara-C IV Push and then we left.

When we got home we found out that our neighbor was back from the hospital after a 3 week stay to get his hip replaced so Sam wanted to go say hi. We stayed there about an hour and had a great visit. Sam asked him all about his adventures in WWII as an officer aboard a Canadian Navy Corvette. It was amazing.

Today we received this note and I just think it is amazing so I'm posting it here too. Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers and practical help for our family. We cannot express the gratitude we feel toward all the people who have stood beside us on this journey.

Ger

To the Goertzen Family,

Kelly here from the Prince George Bank of Montreal, just wanted to say HI and send well wishes to the family from everyone here at the bank! Hope Sam is feeling better today! :)

I received a request to contact your family to let you know who donated the $700 to Sam's conquering of A.L.L. trust fund at 15th and Central. It was all the employees here at the bank that contributed the funds. We hope and pray that the family is making it through such a hard time and wanted to do our part to help ease some of the financial worries that may arise.

Take Care,

Everyone from BMO Bank of Montreal
Prince George, BC