Thank you, Wesley, for your wonderful comments! So glad you are now doing well and able to regain a quality of life that many of us lose. I think the key is to not give up and continue to seek remediation through physiotherapy, diet and through the breadth of availability of prescription and non-prescription drugs. Some might also pursue naturopathy if that's their thing. For me, it's now been 1.5 years since my ileostomy reversal. I'm 2.5 years post-first-major-surgery (cancer removal) and my numbers were 3.1, 2.6, 2.8 and now 3.1 - each taken at 6 month markers. I've just had my annual CT scan and nothing showed. On the urging of my oncologist, I've just started a 2 week trial of Loperamide Hydrochloride (1mg) (non-prescription Imodium in Canada) which is helping tremendously with trips to the bathroom and decreasing the number of "bad days" I'm having. I have much more confidence in leaving our home now and this is the "most normal" I've felt since this entire episode. I have to say that I resisted using this drug because a) it's an opiode based on morphine, and b) like alcohol, cannabis and other painkillers, it requires increasing the dosage over time to remain effective. But I've also just had a consult with a dietician and discovered I'm eating a large amount of insoluble fibre which contributes to the bathroom problem. So she's given me a list of foods I can eat, and ones I can't, with the goal of reducing the trips to the bathroom and providing an increase in bulk. I start that in another week at which time I will crease the use of imodium (so I can judge the effectiveness of a diet change). So hopefully these are all avenues to an improve quality of life. On a side note, my partner and I are also coming up to 32 years together and I completely agree that a caregiver's support is absolutely invaluable and appreciated beyond words. I met many cancer patients who had no one to support them (other than daily home nurse visits which are free in Ontario, Canada where we are) so the struggle is unimaginable. Employer support and accommodation is also vital. I met many whose income ceased because the employer didn't have a short term and long term sickness plan for pay continuance. I'm lucky in this regard, too, as my income was not impacted and I have graciously been able to work from home indefinitely (given the obvious circumstances). But all are not as fortunate to have a job where this can happen. I also have a hernia that needs to be dealt with at some point. And while I wear underwear nearly all the time, I will switch to a diaper if I'm having a challenging day or if I have to go out and the risk is elevated. I generally don't leak but the advice for use of a panty liner is good. There is also, effectively, a diaper-like underwear liner that is thicker than a panty liner. I have one but have not tried it - but probably a good solution for those who leak at the back or who have bladder issues. Anyway, enjoy your weekend and it was very nice to hear from you. :)

@@TravelByNumbers My 4 year anniversary was in August for my reversal. The first 2 years were challenging and I’ve found using the cholesteromine a great relief as it’s a binder and I only use the lomotil as necessary. I haven’t had to use the, as they’re known here, Depends for the last 18 months. I have been vegetarian for the last 4 years. I found that meat is too hard for my system to digest. It’s all trial and error and finding a regime that works for each individual. I suffered from what I called system malfunctions for 2 1/2 years before I found what worked for me. I been fortunate that I am a retired architect that was in private practice for 30+ years upon my retirement 10 years ago. The cost here in the states is astronomical. My billed rate for all my treatments to date is $1.3M. My treatment has been gold standard and I’ve had zero delays on all required therapies and surgeries. My tumor marker numbers are almost exactly like yours. I’ve always been a realistic optimist and have always had a positive attitude but those dark days of misery can certainly be a challenge. I live in the mountains and sometimes I go outside away from everything and scream as loud as I can. I do find it helps me release any stress and doesn’t get everybody else upset that I might be losing it; which I do privately. Then again a go hearty laugh and keeping drama and stress to a minimum has worked wonders for me. In looking back on my struggles and challenges they are becoming a fading memory in lieu of a painful reminder. I hope and wish the same for you. We’re lucky to have our anchors in the stormy sea of life for support and tolerance on this dark days to be by our sides. We do have visiting nurses here also but I refused them due to the onslaught of COVID when I was beginning my treatments and surgeries. I come from a family of doctors and nurses in Germany and they’ve been monitoring my treatment with my doctors here and feel that I have all my bases covered. It is most concerning that there are those patients who fall through the cracks or don’t have insurance that become casualties of the health care system. Canadian citizens are fortunate to have a health care system in place that puts people first instead of profits. It is something to be admired by many here. Germany also has a good health care system that I first considered for my treatment. My spouse doesn’t speak German and it would have been a greater challenge for both of us. We were lucky that he could take an 18 month hiatus from his work and monitor all my treatments and doctor visits and hospital stays, which like yours was numerous. I’ve just found your videos on KZbin and can’t figure out why you both don’t have more exposure and followers. Your videos make me want to load up my RV with the dogs and spend the summer in Canada. I have been to Canada numerous times and love everything about it. I hope everyday gets brighter for you and it sounds like you’re making the best your time everyday. I have a motto that I live by: You only die once but you live everyday. Have a great weekend 🌈☮️

@@wesleyluvsoktoberfest What you've been writing here is not only helpful to me but others who will read these threads months and years from now. I was actually in the hospital during covid and saw first hand the stress and danger health staff were placed under, as well as understaffing due to staff illness. Twice I was put in a private room because they thought I had covid - but I didn't. I was, however, on a floor with covid patients so I felt the danger too and wore a mask, as required (not that it did much as we now know). Like you, the many details of the challenges I faced fade, and now others seem more impressed with what I've been through than I do myself. It becomes a blur of pain and success, improvement and failure. Graduating from diapers to underwear was a huge relief and major marker of positive change. Other than that, one seeks small signs of improvement - anything, really, to show progress so as not to remain stagnant with the hand you've been dealt. Extremely important, too, is consideration for your partner/caregiver and trying, wherever possible, to return your life back to a (new) normal and do the things you used to do. We've been able to travel twice in the last 12 months. Extremely high anxiety for me, but important for him and us as a couple. One of the things I tell people is that when you get a diagnosis like we did, you have to be comfortable with your life and all you've accomplished. I am. That makes all the difference. We, too, are disenchanted by KZbin's algorithm which, among other things, seems to take consistency of posting - no matter the actual content - over inconsistency but high quality. This is not a career for us and never was intended to be. But KZbin could go a long way to help promote creators like us who spend an inordinate of time and money creating our videos for the benefit of others (again, we're not monetized). We see other videos of the same travel locations, shot on a cheap smartphone with little or no post production, terrible audio, no music or sound fx, no colour grading ... and yet thousands of views vs 10s or 100s for us. We try to hope that it's not the "2 old gay men" optics, but unconscious bias is a thing and it's difficult to disprove that it doesn't play into our views. Pathetic, still, if it were conscious bias. KZbin, either way, has to do better. Anyway, thank you for the kind words. We're lucky the followers we do have are kind-hearted and positive. Take care!

@@TravelByNumbers thanks for your kind response. I’ve felt I’ve been on borrowed time for the last 40 years. Having survived the AIDS/HIV crisis of the 70’s & 80’s and taking care of friends who were not so fortunate makes one appreciate life even more. This of us a certain age went through what most people go through at this time on life’s journey. Losing close friends, partners and spouses. And then out of the blue, wham, here comes another challenge. We’re both fortunate that we have partners/spouses that did stick by us as many during the AIDS/HIV crisis were abandoned by them and family sometimes too. I did always remind the medical team and others that this not only affects us but takes an inordinate toll on our other half and the caregivers since this is not what they are trained to do. Hang in there good times are coming again. It’s ironic that things such as ditching diapers and going back to underwear would be such a satisfying accomplishment. Just goes to remind us that it’s the little things we take for granted that really mean so much and who’d thought that something that doesn’t cost any money could bring such joy. I’m a couple of years ahead of you on this continued journey but it’s good to look at the map and see how far we’ve both come. There will come a time when I’m sure my progress will reverse due to aging but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. In the meantime I plan on getting out as much as possible and not be concerned what others may think. If I really cared what strangers thought I’d jumped off the bridge many years ago. Be kind to yourself and forgiving of others who aren’t so. I do try but some times I just came forgive meanness. When they ask me what I’m allergic to in the hospital or doctor’s office I always answer mean or bigoted people. Now to get ready for my massive hiatal hernia surgery in a couple of weeks and then back to life. Make a special memory today with the ones you love…we never know if it’s the last. 🌈☮️🙏🏻

Hey Jeff! We were there from April 6-13, so just about a week after Easter. Our room, as you saw in the video, was beside the adult pool, so no kids allowed. The majority of kids would have been at the big pool and in the kids area I filmed. It's quite a ways away from our room. As well, the 2 beaches at our end of the resort were quiet and mostly kidless too. The adult pool has music played through speakers at the bar, but not overpowering. It wasn't loud in the pool either; we were able to have long conversations with many people on many subjects. Really nice to meet folks from all over. This happened to us in Turks and Caicos too where we made friends in the pool who we're still friends with a decade later and who we travel with too. There were one or two evening parties at the adult pool which we did not attend, but I'm pretty sure the music ended around 10pm. It's pretty chill at that end of the resort - and frankly the buildings are very solid and you won't hear sounds from the next room(s). They don't have pool exercises or dancing at the adult pool. All that (with a DJ) is at the large pool. We're not party people and hate loud noise too - especially late at night, so we can sympathize. You'll be just fine if you stay in any of the buildings around the adult pool. Enjoy, and thanks for watching!

Hahaha! Well the truth is that we've had so many underwhelming butter tarts over the years that we're a little cautious with ones we've never had before. We would normally buy a half dozen and freeze 4 of them. Thanks for watching!

I generated it using AI. Lyrics written, instruments played and sung by AI. Surprise. Thanks for watching!

Glad you enjoyed the brief tour. This will be a major tourism destination when complete, no doubt. We actually saw a ceremony whereby a Buddhist Master entered the Hall of Sudhana - along with his entourage. We weren't allowed to film this, unfortunately, though many of the Buddhist volunteers (presumably) took out their phones and filmed. I wish organizations treated persons with larger cameras equal to those carrying 4K smartphones. It makes no sense otherwise. Thanks for watching!

@@TravelByNumbers Yes Shawn mentioned about the ceremony and I wholeheartedly agree about the "rules".

I've also been in quarries when I was a kid, but many of them now look like this one - basically a lake. Thanks for watching!

I'm sure you'll love it! Have a great time - and thanks for watching. :)

Well you may as well conquer Malta and join the long list that did so before you: the Romans, Moors, Knights of Saint John, the French and the British. Good luck and thanks for watching!

Hahaha! It's surprisingly difficult to find a decent butter tart, but it's something for which we keep searching. And the one we found in this video was a real surprise. Thanks for watching and enjoy your long weekend! ❤

Thanks for watching - and enjoy your trip!

The teapot handle and spout are added after the fact. There's at least 2 ways to form handles and both are quite difficult to craft and to attach. And forming a spout and attaching it to an appropriate spot is also difficult to learn because you have to ensure it pours correctly and doesn't overflow the top of the teapot! We bough I think 6 beers from Publican House. Only tried one so far, but it was tasty! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Since you've had positive memories all these years, you'll be relieved to know that you'll again leave Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton with great memories this time. In some ways - because of the expansions - it's even better than it was in the early 2010's. The Montego Bay airport posed no trouble for us with the exception that the area dedicated for those who have goods to declare is much larger than the area dedicated to those who have nothing to declare. When a tourist plane lands there, and after security and baggage pickup, you end up in a massive line while the other 65% of that large room sits idle. We flew Westjet and when we went back to the airport to return home, Westjet was only operating 2 wickets and the lineup moved slower than a snails pace. Plus the airport was hot and muggy. But after you get through that and finally to your gate, you'll find lots of restaurants and places to shop. It was actually very nice and air conditioned. In terms of advice @ the resort, beside the lobby check-in, to the left, is a desk where you can book all of your a-la-cartes at once. I know they tell you to use the app but the 4 of us didn't and we got everything we wanted. The Indian and Mexican restaurants are open-air just above the pool so it can get very hot and sticky depending on the weather. Also, as I mentioned in the video, pack your patience. We had various gripes about 4 of the 5 restaurants we tried (the best was the Japanese). Butter chicken at the Indian restaurant is extremely bland. Steak at the steakhouse took 50 minutes to arrive [sigh]. Fish restaurant had entre portions that were the size of appetizers. If you want more beer or anything different in your fridge, leave a post-it note with your instructions on the fridge door with a tip for the guy that fills it. Oh, and your room may not be ready when you get there, or even by 3pm. If you watched my cancer video you would know that I have a quality of life change post-treatments and surgeries, and out of frustration I told the front desk that I urgently needed our room as I had a medical need. They got it done in 10 minutes [thanks to the staff for expediting]. You're going to have a wonderful time. It's just not possible to go to that resort and be disappointed. And all the positive reviews on TripAdvisor bear that out. Have fun!! And thanks for watching our video. :)

Yes it was great to see fellow KZbinrs and travellers on this trip! I don't know what it is about pools. We met 3 other couples from across America in a pool at a boutique resort in Turks and Caicos and spent 7 years in a row travelling with them. We still travel and visit with one of the couples. Regarding editing speed, my whole life (since 16) has revolved around computers so I was a quick study for post-production. We've watched a couple of your videos and look forward to more! Wishing you both a truly great summer and epic travels in future. Thanks for watching! ♥🍁

@@TravelByNumbers Just curious, 🧐 Which editing software do you use?

@@lost-together1993 At age 57 (7 years ago) I switched from PC to a Mac so I use Final Cut Pro + a bunch of plugins (titles, transitions, effects) and overlays. If you're on a Mac and don't use FCP, try the free 30-day trial from Apple. There has generally been move away from Adobe's Premier Pro this past year so your other pro choice would be Davinci Resolve. They have a free version for PC and Mac. It's really great but more cumbersome to learn and use than FCP. But honestly, any of the above will work just fine.

@@TravelByNumbers TY... 😀 We're re "Android/PC" people . I'm trying out Corel Video studio next. FYI ... just a bit of clarity, my search shows the GP has 537 rooms. I think the 1800 number you mention in your video is the. # if guests they can accommodate. 🤔

@@lost-together1993 I got the "1,800 rooms" from a Grand Palladium presentation ( www.palladiumhotelgroup.com/en/about-us/presentacion ) and another website called the JamaicaObserver ( www.jamaicaobserver.com/2023/12/20/grand-palladium-resorts-spa-celebrates-15-years-of-excellence/ ). This number includes all of the rooms on the Lady Hamilton side as well as all the rooms in the villas on the Jamaican side. At the end of the day, who knows? Websites aren't updated. Projections may not come to pass. I just know it's a _lot_. :) Good luck with Corel Video Studio - I'm sure it's brilliant. I used CorelDraw for many years. Too bad the company isn't Canadian-owned anymore.

Thanks for the kind words! There were actually a lot of people around, but I shot a lot of the scenes early in the morning so as I wasn't shoving a camera in people's faces - they get intimidated sometimes. The pool is multi-level and you can body surf to lower levels. So much fun, and really so much more we could have shown. Absolutely worth a visit. Thanks so much for watching, and have a great week!

Had a mostly great time (grrr ... cancer) and it is a highly recommended destination for a worry-free week long vacay. Thanks for joining us on the vlog, and thanks for watching!

My gosh you've been through a LOT! That's the thing though, there will always be someone - with cancer or other maladies - that is worse off than ourselves. I'm glad you've reached some stabilization though and acceptance to concentrate on just living. Mankind, up until only a few hundred years ago, only lived until about age 40. We've been able to extend that through better hygiene, better (and worse) food sources, medicine and improved living conditions, so I've always felt that any life expectancy over 40 was a bonus anyway. Some still don't get to live that long. Yay us! Thanks for watching and good luck in the future. :)

Thanks so much for the kind words. My "Lucky" t-shirt says it all. Thanks for watching!

Thanks. I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Mostly hate. Most of the time it's completely pointless despite significant work being put into it. Thanks for watching!

I see you're travelling the world now! Good for you. So important to experience this planet and not "wishing" you had done more when it's too late. We'll catch up on your episodes and look forward to vicariously experience the destinations you reach. Thanks for watching!

Hahaha. You noticed the "smoke"! I had to try and figure out a way to represent something you can't see, but you certainly can smell! Unfortunately, for the sake of brevity, I've had to skip over a multitude of details, but I think this is a good representation of what someone else in my circumstance would likely have to endure. It's a journey for sure. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the kind words but we're not interested in any third-party services related to channel growth.

@@TravelByNumbers Ok..Thank for your feedback

We'll I'm glad you said hello, and I hope you enjoyed this video! Thanks for watching!

On a positive note, you weren't a prisoner then! ;) Thanks for watching!

Yes, aboriginal land acknowledgement has been popularized over the last few years through the media and corporations as they seek to recognize that the land we claim was not ours to claim in the first place. It's too bad they ran out of maple-flavoured sausages though; had to stop selling them until they could grill more of them up. Maple syrup in chili sounds interesting! I'll have to try that! Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching!

The Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1921. It was named with the common nickname - first used by T.C. Haliburton - applied to those born in Nova Scotia. Ha! I never think of whales having bones proper either; expected a lot of cartilage. Thanks for watching!

So glad you enjoyed the episode. We've realized, since we got home, that there is SO much we wanted to see, but missed, and so much more to explore than we could have realized. That means a return trip. ;) Thanks for watching!

Kingston is a university town, so very hip and welcoming. We love it! Thanks for watching. :)

Yes, we saw the beach when it was cordoned off during the pandemic. It's nice to see people enjoying it again. Thanks for watching!

A very popular butter tart place in Barrie is The Sweet Oven (thesweetoven.com/). They specialize primarily in butter tarts and rotate the types they offer. Thanks for watching!

See my comment directly below this one. Powered surfboards are not new but still not visible in quantity. We only have somewhat decent waves during brutal winter storms, so the powered surfboards serve a purpose when the weather is warm. :) Thanks for watching!

Thanks! I haven't been out to the west coast since 1971 but I do have vibrant memories (still) from that time. Thanks for watching!

Thanks. Yes, improving at less than a snail's pace. Thanks for watching!

1 second ago Didn't the pool building burn down eventually though? Thanks for watching!

@@TravelByNumbers no I believe it is still there!