71. Breast Health (5) Point-of-Care Ultrasound

The Alberta Cancer Foundation purchased a Point-of-Care Ultrasound recently.  As a portable piece of equipment (roughly the size of a laptop), patients can be visited at home rather than in emergency clinics.  I don't know what brand they bought, but here is an example of one: how it works and what it can deliver (in a nutshell):

"Lumify portable ultrasound app brings diagnostic capabilities to your compatible smartphone or handheld device.  Built for versatility and flexibility the compact and durable solution facilitates ultrasound whenever and wherever.  The solution enables staff newer to ultrasound to capture images accurately while educating at a distance, even for a consult right from the patient's bedside, enabling physicians to make fast, accurate and timely care decisions for shallow and in-depth applications including soft tissue, cardiac, muskoskeletal, superficial, abdominal, FAST (?), OB/GYN, and lung examinations.  The quick workstream tool currently evaluates lungs in patients with COVID symptoms and beyond and generates a report based on the findings.  Lumify's ultrasound imaging capabilities, connectivity and ease of disinfection offer a uniquely safe solution, reliably available for first-time-right diagnosis and symptom tracking.  It eliminates wait times.  (Does that ring a bell?)  Cost, training and access are the usual suspects hindering POC ultrasound adoption."      Source:  frost.com   Phillips 2020 Global Integrated Telehealth Solution in POC Ultrasound  Customer Value Leadership Award

There are several other brands available.  I chose this one at random.

Lastly, but I will not elaborate on this, scientists are always working on tumor markers to detect certain cancers in blood or in saliva samples.  I am sure that goes for breast cancer as well.

So, that's my ranting and raving about breast health.  I just needed to "get this off my chest", because it is so near and dear to our hearts.😊 And yes, men can get breast cancer too!

Back in a few days with another anecdote from my younger years.  I need some frivolity to kick off my last chemo week! Till then!  SanTeh!

70. Breast Health (4) DITI Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging

I go for regular mammograms every second year, religiously, faithfully.  I haven't ever skipped to my recollection.  My aunt (Mom's sister) died of breast cancer in the early 70s.  So did her daughter, my cousin.  Her daughter in turn underwent treatment for breast cancer and thankfully survived.  I am always relieved when my letter comes back saying that everything is A-OK.  Lately however, I have been thinking that I should have a yearly check-up.  (Wonder why?)  But how?  The screening program only allows for screening every 2nd year. Then I found a clipping tucked away in a drawer and I was intrigued.  It talks about Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging.  It works on the principal that, where there is an inflammation on the surface of your body, the digital apparatus will pick up on that inflammation and provides an instant image of the area involved.  Now it is not a good idea to believe everything you read 😏 and I prefer to talk about personal experiences.  So I phoned up the clinic where this service is being offered and tried to get an appointment for a breast DITI.   But when I told the naturopath, who handles this procedure, that I am currently taking chemotherapy, she replied that in order to get a good baseline (i.o.w. you should be nearly perfectly healthy for the first scan) I would need to wait at least 6 months after I finish chemo.  Otherwise it would really mess with the results.  Fair enough.  Any subsequent scans get compared to the healthy baseline one.  So if you have problems to start with it is not the perfect time to be doing this.  And there is a cost involved of course.

I did some more digging on this matter and found that the conventional medical profession is against this procedure because it had women going "in droves" to get unnecessary mammograms and thus "clogging up the breast screening program for other women who really needed to be screened".  But excuse me, my husband had yearly FIT tests ordered by his physician and no one squawked about that.  And also "More than 95% of men and women referred for colonoscopy do not have cancer." (source: Screening Program for Colorectal Cancer)  Does that not clog up the system with a certain amount of unnecessary colonoscopies being performed also?  Having said all that, I do not know of anyone who ever has been through this process to see if it actually works.  I am just putting it out there as a possibility.  And you do have to pay out of pocket.  No free medicare here!

Next: Is there perhaps another method available? 

69. Breast Health (3) Self-exam

 

68. Breast Health (2) Lois

Lois lives to tell her story.

Like a lot of women 50 and over, Lois participated in the screening program for breast cancer.  But lo and behold, she found an egg-like lump in one breast in the interval (in between 2 screenings 2 years apart).  She discovered it herself.  There had been no mention of any abnormality in the mammography prior to the discovery.  How did she find it?  She did a breast self-examination.  Now if you are like me, I would not know how to do this properly or how to distinguish it from normal breast tissue.  She says it was a hard, rigid lump, not painful to the touch.  It was not a squishy, moveable one that makes slushing noises when moved and that hurts.  That could be a cyst.  She was sent for a mammogram and an ultrasound immediately after.  It was confirmed that she indeed had a malignant tumor at the Stage 2 level, that it was an aggressive tumor which needed to be promptly removed.  And she had 16 chemo treatments over a period of 6 months.  

Lois also stipulates that every woman should know her breast density.  The screening program should inform you about that.  The denser the breast tissue, the more difficult it is to detect any lumps.  The same goes for large busted women: the larger the breasts, the more difficult it is to detect.

Now Lois is a nurse herself so she knows what to look for.  You and I might need a bit of training in this regard I think.  

It has been 8 years since Lois found the lump.  She continues to do regular breast self-exams but is no longer in the screening program.

"Traditional mammography has an accurate rate of around 75%.  Breast Cancer Scout is a new breast cancer detection test currently in clinical trials.  Pre-clinical test results show that Breast Cancer Scout has an 87% accuracy rate".  (source: Alberta Cancer Foundation 2019 Spring Progress Report)

I wonder if there are any other detection tools?  Preferably for early on?

67. Breast Health (1) Jasmine

Jasmine and I were colleagues at the same elementary school.  A royal 10 to 15 years my junior, she was everything a person would want to be at that age: young, pretty, smart, sociable, you name it.  On the last day of the school year, as I was loading up my car with numerous gifts from generous parents, I decided to stop in at the principal's office and offer her a big bouquet of freshly cut flowers, because we were heading out camping the next day and I did not know what I should do with them.  Jasmine and the principal were in the midst of having a conversation.  When offering the bouquet, Jasmine quickly jumped up exclaiming it was gorgeous and asked if she could have it.  I am glad she ended up with the gift.  Later that summer we ran into her in the beer gardens of an outdoor country music festival.  She was living it up and having a really good time.

She did not start the next school year in fall.  There were rumors that she was not feeling well, but no explanation was offered.  By mid April the following year, she was gone.  Just like that.  She died of breast cancer at the age of 45.  She was not yet eligible for participation in the provincial breast screening program.  

Her tragic story unfortunately is not unique.  I have heard similar stories, as I'm sure you have.  And I have met young women at the cancer clinic with advanced breast cancer who were "not yet eligible."

A spokesperson for the breast screening program tells me that if you are less than 50 years of age and you find a lump or you have discharge from your breast, you should go see your physician immediately and get a referral to be screened through the program.  You need to insist if your doctor refuses! 

Might be of interest:  There is a drug called Myocet liposomal that has been approved in Europe and in Canada for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in combination with cyclophosphamide, another cancer medicine.  In the USA, the FDA has granted "Fast Track" status to Myocet as first-line therapy for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

66. Chemo Yesterday (all my troubles seemed so far away)

I did not have a good day yesterday.  But then again Saturdays at the end of each chemo week are my worst days.  It is then that detoxing begins.  It is hard to explain.  I just don't feel right in my own skin and I do not know what to do with myself.  I do not have any energy.  My legs feel like lead.  I get chilled easily, but above all, I suffer from that dreaded neuropathy, especially in my hands.  Lotion barely alleviates the burning sensation in the palms of my hands.   I am wondering if this might become permanent after chemo is finished.  I know of 2 ex-chemo patients who are still suffering three years after their last chemo treatment.  I would like to avoid that if at all possible.  I will ask my oncologist at the next appointment what can be done.   I would also like to have a consultation preferably with a neurologist.  And/or have my last chemo dose reduced.  That would be nice.  Today I am better though!  Yeah!

65. Chemo What About the Young Ones?

This should come as no big surprise...

Day guards in Finland built "forest roads" and changed children's immune systems.  Within 30 days of playing in forest soil and leaf litter, Finnish pre-schoolers had increased the number of T-cells and much more varied gut bacteria.  In a fascinating experiment, Finnish researchers had recreated the environment of a forest floor on the playgrounds in 4 urban nurseries.  They covered the playgrounds with forest soil, moss, meadow grass, heather, blueberries and crowberries and installed planting boxes for annual garden crops.  Childcare workers instructed the pre-school age children to play in the greenery and the soil for an hour and a half each day for a month.  Their gut and skin microbes were analyzed before and after the experiment and compared to children from normal urban nurseries with regular sterile playgrounds.  After just 28 days the diversity of their bacteria increased dramatically, as did their T-cell numbers and other important immune markers in the blood.  The findings support the hypothesis of biodiversity and the concept that low biological diversity in the modern living environment can lead to an uneducated immune system and thus increase the incidence of immune-borne diseases.

Back tomorrow with 1 or 2 posts and then I am taking a break till mid-week when I will post what I found on breast health.

64. Chemo Uranus: our Weird and Wonderful Alien Planet needs More Fiber!

Denmark prides itself on having the sexy Little Mermaid statue.  Here in Canada we have the Humble, Industrious Beaver.  My country of origin's landmark is Manneke Pis, a small bronze sculpture in the heart of Brussels, of a naked little boy urinating in a fountain's basin.  The statue attracts thousands of visitors each year and wears costumes on special occasions.  So is it any wonder then that I, having grown up under its influence, am not too adverse to blogging about bodily functions?  Having cancer is Not Glamorous.  And having colorectal cancer is about as unglamorous as it gets, taboo even yet in some circles.  But guess what?  From the cradle to the grave, everyone in the world poops.  And a lot can go wrong with your plumbing, apart from having cancer: IBS, Celiac and Crohn's disease, you name it.

Here in the western world, if your man decides on having steak and potatoes, let him go ahead.  He can probably digest it better than you.  The ratio for constipation is 3 women to 1 man.  Oh sure, us gals can have steak and potatoes also.  It is just that we may have to supplement with a lot more fiber than our male counterparts.  There is no fiber in meat or dairy products and some other foods!  I used to think so.  Wrong!  If you want to supplement the above meal with the usual baked potato and salad and the recommended daily intake for fiber is anywhere from 25 to 38 gr./day, you would have to eat (according to my calculations ahem!) the equivalent of 6 baked potatoes with skin (1 equals about 4 gr.) OR roughly 2 kg of green leaf lettuce without fixings (1.3 gr./ 100 gr.).  Of course a healthy portion of lentils, beans, chickpeas or other legumes would do the trick in a heartbeat!

We should take good care of our Planet as it becomes more evident over time how important our gastro-intestinal tract is to our overall health.  Research scientists claim that there is a direct link between our brain and our digestive system; that in fact certain gut bacteria influence our thought patterns and our behaviour even.  That's no small feat!  Food for thought!  Sant-eh!!

63. Chemo I have to admit I have piles...

I have lots and lots of piles (of papers that is.)  😄  For instance:  I have one on how to write a blog, one on all my chemo treatments, one on nutrition, and many more!  So, when cleaning up the other day, I found some more additional info on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) that I added to post #24, in case you are interested.  I do not plan to revisit that topic anymore after today.

Also, if you are interested in reading about how to avoid having "piles", I did come across an interesting website you may want to look into.  It has lots of other good info also!   (Source:  niddk.nih.gov   Then in: Health Topics go to: Digestive Diseases  Then in: Featured Topics, go to More Digestive Disease Topics  Find: Hemorrhoids into the Topics   Then scroll down to Eating, Diet and Nutrition  You should come to the article: Eating, Diet and Nutrition  What should I eat if I have hemorrhoids?  But the website has TONS of other info as well.  I highly recommend it!

Back tomorrow with a little quiz.  Won't be posting my (growing) pile of info on breast health till next week, when the kiddies or grandchildren are back in school after the Easter break.  Almost May and we are still getting snow!  Yikes! 

62. Chemo Waking Angel

I happened to spot this statue called "Waking Angel" on our way to an appointment in the city.  Just noticed it recently.  Maybe it has been there for a long time already.  If you happen to be in the vicinity, take a look.  It is a Gorgeous piece, just Fa Bu Lous and life-size.  Looks like it has been carved in one piece, but not likely.  On the north side of College Avenue between Broad and Albert but more towards Albert.  It is on private property however.  So I was trespassing when I took the picture.  Oops.  Looks like it could be a fountain also?  I think every town or city should have a (waking) angel.  Too bad it is not on city property and more accessible.  Waking Angel by Scott Chandler McLeod, sculptor, 1990 or 1999.  The wings aren't very visible in my photo.

61. Chemo Resurrection

Fred was a friend of the family, or to be more precise, a friend of my husband.  I knew very little about him: that he liked to be around people and always travelled in company; that he liked to tease me (goodnaturedly), and that there were some unflattering rumors circulating about him.  I paid little attention.  I had just started taking classes at university toward an Education degree and my plate was full.

Then one day we found out that Fred was in hospital with cancer.  The prognosis was not good.  So on a Sunday afternoon a group of us decided to pay him a visit.  I tagged along because I needed a break from my studies.  We all piled into the small hospital room much to Fred's delight and said things like: "When you get out of here Fred, we are going to ..."  But we knew that this was a lie, that he would not make it out alive.  At one point during the visit, the group decided to go find a cup of coffee in the cafeteria.  I stayed behind.  I didn't know what to say to him, but he started the conversation himself.  "Irm, I have been a bad person."  I thought: "OMG!! This man wants to confess!!"  I shot up out of my chair and headed for the door.  I said:  "Wait a minute Fred.  I will try and find the pastor for you."  But he replied wearily: "No, don't bother.  Just sit down."  I obliged and he continued: " I don't think God will let me into Heaven", part question, part statement.  All I could think of muttering was: "I don't think God thinks like people do, Fred."  Awkward silence.  I was very relieved when the group returned! 

As expected, Fred passed away soon after.  And after his funeral, a couple of church ladies came to me and said: "Irm, Fred's child is having a birthday coming up and we would like you to host it at your place."  I had all kinds of excuses: I am busy with my studies and exams coming up; I am not good at hosting; I don't have a bond with the child,...  But they insisted and I gave in, reluctantly.  The event went off reasonably well.

Now if you dream in your sleep you will know what I am talking about:  some dreams are forgotten as soon as you open your eyelids and then there are some that are so vivid that you can almost touch them.  This was such a dream the night right after the birthday party.

I was standing in Fred's farm yard,  not exactly a cheerful looking place.  But the one thing in it that always struck me as being hopeful, was Fred's child's metal swing.  In my dream I was walking toward this swing.  A figure sat on the seat.  As I came closer, the figure was getting up and I realized it was Fred.  But it was not the Fred I knew; it was a better version of Fred: standing tall and proud in a suit, hair combed, smooth skin.  But it was Fred all right, no mistake about it!  The man took one or two steps toward me and then stopped.  I said: "Fred!  Are you all right?"  He did not answer but gave me a great beaming smile, turned around and slowly disappeared out of view.  It was then that I woke up.

Chemo treatment week nr 11 is coming up and I need bloodwork done tomorrow.  We will need to find a lab that is open on Easter Monday.  I am still working on info about breast health.  I am not ready yet to post this.  But I have a couple of posts lined up for next week, depending on whether or not I can use my hands after treatment.  Have a Happy Easter everyone!  It is also Passover and Ramadan.  I have adopted a new motto: SanTay!  from the French Sante (to your health!) for me it means both physical and mental health.  So: SanTay Everyone!

60. Chemo No Easter Bunny

 If our son and grandson would have been here for Easter I most likely would have been writing about the Easter bunny, about an exciting Easter egg hunt and what not.  But they weren't.  So instead I am going to draw some parallels to Good Friday and having cancer or any other major crisis in one's life for that matter.

Good Friday is the day on which Christ dies a horrible death on the Cross, for our benefit, our salvation.  What I draw from this, other than the obvious religious connotation, is that I am still here because other previous patients are not.  In a way I owe them my life precisely because they died and some lessons were gained from their death: from good to better and better practices, more sophisticated treatments, equipment, etc.  I owe them, big time!  I realize that full well!

Christ had an entourage of disciples around him even at the time of his death.  They felt helpless, possibly even hopeless and defeated and were literally scared to death.  They thought that the same fate would fall upon them.  I have mostly my husband as my entourage.  He feels helpless and suffers along with me.  Often times the support crew also needs help in dealing with the crisis, a fact that sometimes gets overlooked.  As a mother I can't imagine the agony Mother Mary must have gone through.

But in addition, the whole point of Jesus' crucifixion was that He would rise from the death and give us hope!  His Death and His Resurrection: the two are inseparable.  One does not make sense without the other.

And so I have a story about a Resurrection if you will, to which I believe to have been a reluctant witness.  It is a deeply personal story.  It is as personal as it is going to get...

59. Chemo Happy National Pet Day!

Here's our gem, Miss Gemmie, celebrating her special day with her best buddy and afternoon nap companion!  Those two, honestly!

Pets: good for our mental health and part of the family!
  

58. Chemo The legging fairies strike again!

This last week or so I have been plagued by legging fairies.  They showed up after I started walking outside again.  I think they hitched a ride in on my clothing, on my leggings to be precise.   They are not harmful, just sneaky.  There are no encounters when I am walking or lying in bed, only when I am sitting on a dining room chair.  I will be sitting on the chair minding my own business and just like that they will almost imperceptibly ride up the back of my legs and then shoot down into my ankles like they are on a down-elevator joy-ride.  I have been trying to catch one so I could show you.  But so far, no luck.

So I mentioned this to my oncologist.  She cast a sideway glance at my husband.  I could tell what she was thinking: "Poor guy!  I wonder what all he has to put up with?".  Then she turned to me and asked me point blank if I had been indulging in any alcohol lately.  I was taken aback.  Again she looked me straight in the eye and asked if I had considered taking medication for anxiety.  I stammered that I did not need any.

So in light of that conversation I did not dare mention the claw devils that used to pester me during previous treatments.  And pester they did!  They would fling my dominant hand into the shape of a claw for no reason at all, except to amuse themselves. They would also make me drag my legs a bit.  Now this would have been half tolerable had they had a decent sense of timing, say, for Halloween, but no!  They decided to appear afterwards.  In addition they made it impossible for a day or two after chemo treatment for me to use my hands and get dressed and undressed by myself.  Even this would have been acceptable as it had the potential to put some spice back into a 39-year old marriage! 😉 Except again, their timing was off, way off!

I no longer get plagued by claw devils.  Ok.  Maybe a tiny bit off and on.  And the legging fairies I can handle, so life is good!  

No major post till Easter Monday.  I am working on an interesting post on breast health for after Easter.  Happy Easter everyone!  Take care!

57. Chemo Ditty

I went outside to get fresh air

but my legs wouldn't carry me anywhere

They were just dead

They felt like lead

So I turned and wrote the next blog instead.

(I wonder if any inspiration will remain after I'll get taken off the steroid meds 😏)

56. Chemo Visit at the Surgeon's Office

First just a quick back-track to stress a few important points.

In February 2021 (last year), I received the FIT kit in the mail.  It sat on a shelf for 3 months, unused.  Having colorectal cancer was NOT on our radar.  Far from it.  No one in our family had had it, so why worry? Having cancer was something that "happened to other people", not me!  Right?  The reason I did proceed was, yes, my husband prodded a bit, but my friend, who worked for the mailing company sending out the kits, had included a little note saying: "Hi Irm!  Thinking of you!"   I did not want to disappoint her by having to confess: "I threw out your kit."  So finally I sent in my stool sample late May.  In June the letter from the screening program arrived stating that the result was "abnormal".  I was scheduled for a colonoscopy on August 5th and following the colonoscopy for a visit at the surgeon's office.  

Now you will have to excuse me because at the time of that visit I was suffering from severe Iron Deficiency Anemia, brain fog and did not write anything down.  The conversation was mostly one-sided:... Greetings and some small talk...biopsy done...confirms cancerous tumor...in cecum area...where small and large intestines meet...Stage 2, possibly 3....need chemo...need surgery...panel of professionals will decide on best course of action (I do remember thinking: Yes!  I like that idea!  It is not just one person's decision!)...possibility of laparoscopic surgery...depends on...otherwise open surgery... depends on...may end up with a colostomy (bag)...depends on...recovery time...depends on...Oh!  And by the way: Do you have a Living Will? (gasp!)  "Pardon??"

The panel decided on surgery first, then chemotherapy.  The surgeon promised to get me in a.s.a.p.  The surgery date was set for September 20th, day of our federal election.  Needless to say you couldn't find me at any polling station.  I was being prepped on the operating table getting ready to be sliced and diced.  But before the surgery I would have to have a blood transfusion, an iron infusion and a CT scan...

55. Chemo Mobile versus Web Version

I have renumbered all of my posts so that when you point out to me that there are errors or omissions, it is easier and more convenient to find them.  I looked on other blogs that don't number their posts, and although they look a lot more polished than mine, 💅 😔, I decided that that just wouldn't work for me. Recent posts show up on top, earlier ones when you scroll down.  My first post is at the very bottom.  That is just the way a blog works.  Also, please feel free to not only post comments, but also questions you may have.  Anonymous is fine by me!  I will try and answer them or refer you to a more knowledgeable person if I can.  

There is some confusion about the comment section.  You can only comment if you have or open a Google account.  The blog is set up that way.  Also some people think that when you decide to follow my blog (blue button) on the very bottom of the blog Not Visible In The Mobile Version (you will have to switch to View Web Version), that their e-mail address will be revealed to everyone.  Rest assured. Your e-mail will only show up on your device!  I do not know your e-mail unless you or I have been in contact through the "regular" e-mail channel.  And no, your e-mail will not become public to other readers.  Also I have included a cookie and tracking warning on the View Web Version if you are worried about that.  But since there is no advertising on my blog it should not be a problem really.  Labels for specific topics, such as humor, chemo, music etc. are only visible when you switch to View Web Version on your mobile device.  I hope this clears things up a bit.

Back tomorrow when I will take you with me to the surgeon's office following my colonoscopy last year.  Take care!

54. Chemo Dalal's Ancestry

I was curious about Dalal's Arabic ancestry and this is what I found:

Benedict Chuaqui Kettlun was born in 1895 in Homs, Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire.  He came from humble beginnings.  The Arabs under Turkish rule were poor.  He emigrated with his family to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1908, the year of the Young Turk revolution.   But the family decided to move on further to Chile.  This meant going across the Andes on the backs of mules.  Benedict was a travelling salesman for a while selling goods from door to door.  His business prospered to the point that he had a silk factory in the garment district of Santiago.  But more important than that, he was heavily involved in the Arab community and culture, was a volunteer firefighter, was a member of the Lodge, wrote several books and held famous monthly meals at a prominent Santiago hotel, the Hotel Crillon.  His original Arabic name was Yamil Chuaqui.  After his death in Santiago in 1970, the family was uprooted again and they lost everything in the years that followed.

Even though I can not confirm this 100%, I am pretty confident that the above information is about Dalal's father.  If it is, he was a very prolific man because Dalal had 8 siblings!  What a history!

Source:  second.wiki     Benedict Chuaqui Kettlun

Next Saturday I will write about my appointment with the surgeon after my colonoscopy (It follows the March 17 #39 post.)   Till then!  Take care! 

53. Chemo Chilly Eh?

Dalal Chuaqui and I worked in housekeeping at the hotel.  My first impression of her was that she was an older, energetic, meddle-some, short busy-body who dabbled a bit in paintings in her spare time.  One day she asked me to do some modelling for her, after numerous co-workers had turned her down.  She would pay.  Cash.  Getting paid for just sitting there?  I quickly jumped at the chance!  It was then that I got to know her better...

She rented an apartment in the Madrid building on the corner of Broad and College (still there), a place with creaky hardwood floors, high ceilings and a lot of ambience.  She would start each session by pouring us a cup of tea (English culture infiltrated Chilean culture).  Then, while painting, she would play her favorite Chilean or classical music, talk about her previous life, talk about arts and culture and feed me Chilean food, home-made beef empanadas in particular.  Yummy!  Throughout our painting sessions I would learn that she had studied drawing, composition and painting at the University of Santiago, that she had Arabic origins and that her father had owned a nylon stocking factory in Santiago.  She left Chile in 1971.  After a brief stay in Germany she settled in our city in 1973 the year of the coup by Augusto Pinochet.  She had a great sense of humor and liked to play tricks on people.  For instance:  every time a newcomer started at the hotel by way of introduction, she would say: "I met this lady on the sidewalk today on my way to work and she said to me: "Chilly Eh?".  I was so very surprised!  I thought to myself:  How does she know??"  

My parents were patrons.  So were the late Morris and Jacqui Shumiatcher among many others in our city.

Dalal moved to Ottawa in 1978.  The loss was ours.  She was generous, kind, social and talented with a mischievous sense of humor.  She never married.  When she died in Ottawa in 2010 at the age of 81 from terminal cancer, she left behind numerous nieces and nephews, memories and art work in Canada and elsewhere and all her pre-1971 art work in Chile because she never went back there.

So I was curious whether or not there was indeed an Arabic connection.  That's when I found this...  (see next post) 

Two old-fashioned "selfies" produced by Dalal.  😄  (she and I)

52. Chemo A Youth-Full Chilean Prank

 Did you get pranked yesterday?  Or did you prank someone? 😄

Hotels are an entry point of employment for new Canadians, and the hotel my sister and I worked in was no exception.  In the late 70s, a group of freshly arrived Chileans flocked in, among them a handsome young man by the name of Nelson, who was a favorite with all the female staff.  In addition to having little knowledge of English, the man was shy however, extremely shy.  It so happened we also had a freshly divorced cougar on staff, named Shelly-Ann.  She was desperately looking for some action and focused all her attempts on poor Nelson.  It was painfully obvious to everyone but Shelley-Ann that he was not in the least bit interested.  This hopeless situation went on for a while till my sister and I decided to do something about it.  We asked coworker Dalal, also Chilean, how to say some words in Spanish, then promptly taught this to Shelley-Ann, which we assured her would endear her to him.  At the right moment (we did not want to miss this special occasion) we brought the two lovebirds together.  As per our instructions, Shelley-Ann snuggled up really close to Nelson and blurted out:  "Tengo dos tetitas como dos manzanitas."  Loosely translated as : "I have two small breasts like two little apples."  Nelson did not say a word but his eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.  Then he slowly spun around on his heels and walked out the door,...  walked right into a much more lucrative job in construction!  Shelley-Ann was furious at us.  But her anger soon vanished when a couple of weeks later a contingent of Vietnamese boat people arrived.  Lucky for her, we made no attempt at learning Vietnamese.

Have a listen to the local band called Andino Suns off-spring of the Chilean immigrants that settled here in the 70s: Cantando el pajaro

Back tomorrow with 1 more Chilean story  Till then!