Two quick trips from Whitehorse to Vancouver

Posted On November 10 , 2025

Cathy and I flew down to Vancouver on September 23rd and stayed at the Sheraton Wall Centre hotel for one night, enjoyed the lovely weather they were having, then came home. Then on October 27th (my 75th birthday) we did it again, staying for two nights at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver this time.

That might sound like a cool jet-setting sort of life, but like many of our Vancouver trips the past few years, these were medical trips. I’ll stop here for a minute to tell you that this post may not be for everyone – it’s my online journal about what has happened so far. If you choose to leave at this point, please leave with this message: if something is going wrong with your body, please get it checked out as soon as possible. Waiting lists can be long, but triage procedures work – if I had delayed a few months, I could be in a very different situation right now.

I had been having major gut problems for a long time, and on August 28th, a diagnostic colonoscopy in Whitehorse revealed a “very large” (7 cm) polyp on my lower rectum. My surgeon was very concerned about it, as the big ones sometimes hide cancer. She scheduled an MRI and CT scan for more information, but also immediately referred me to one of the top colorectal surgeons in Canada, Dr. Carl Brown at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

On September 16th I got a phone call telling me that the MRI didn’t show cancer, but it did show things that made it necessary for cancer to be part of the discussion and planning. That included the possibility of going to Vancouver for surgery but also radiation and chemo. Biopsies on the polyp were negative, but the surgeon explained that it wouldn’t matter how many she did, she could still miss the exact spot where the cancer could be living – only by removing it can they be certain. Three days later, Dr. Brown’s office scheduled me for a sigmoidoscopy at St. Paul’s on September 24th.

I told Cathy I could go to Vancouver alone, as the government wouldn’t pay for an escort. That discussion ended when she asked if I would let her go alone for a procedure like this. It was too late to get the government Medical Travel department involved, so Cathy booked the flights and hotel – we would eventually get reimbursed for part of the costs.

At 11:50 on September 23rd, we headed south in an Air North Boeing 737. There was a lot of cloud, and I slept for much of the flight. I shot this photo at 1:15, so it’s roughly west of Williams Lake, BC.

---

Reaching Vancouver, we took the Canada Line train to get downtown. From the City Centre station it’s just under 1 km to the hotel, but the walk was good for both us us – physically and mentally. We were soon checked in at the Sheraton, and settled into Room 1752, on the back side of the north tower, overlooking Hornby Street.

---

The views aren’t as interesting on this side of the hotel, but the sunshine was really nice.

---

Shortly after arriving, I had to start my prep for the hospital procedure, so we were only able to go for a short walk, down to Robson Street and back. I wasn’t able to eat, either, so Cathy went downstairs for dinner, and I looked for some interesting compositions in the view.

---

On September 24th, the sigmoidoscopy at 07:30 was almost funny, and totally fascinating to see what the inside of my rectum looks like on a large HD screen. Funny because of the way they pump people through – up on the table, drop your pants to your knees, roll onto your left side. The whole thing took less than half an hour. Dr. Brown and his team were great. We had a brief chat – they come to Whitehorse regularly so know the country, and were very surprised that I would do the canoe trip in this condition (I laughed and said it was challenging).

We were booked on the 2:30 flight home, so after the procedure had to time to kill. Cathy had read about an interesting little cafe for breakfast, so we went in search of The Templeton, a few blocks away on Granville Street.

---

The Templeton was an excellent place to re-set the day. The ’50s decor was wonderful, the noise level low, the vibe perfect.

---

And the food – O.M.G.! I got the Big Ass Breakfast – a whole lot of excellent grub for $17.99.

---

Back at the hotel – this is the north tower of the Sheraton Wall Centre hotel.

---

On the left in the next photo is St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. It was built in 1933, and a major restoration was done in 2019. On the right is an incredible project I’ve been watching since it began a few years ago.

---

That project is the rebuild of the First Baptist Church, built in the Gothic Revival style in 1911, and the iconic adjoined tower named The Butterfly.

---

We checked out of the Sheraton right at 11:00, walked back to the train station, and were at YVR in lots of time for our flight.

---

The flight home. The trip had been a success – my surgeon said he was fairly certain that the mass wasn’t cancerous, though it had to be removed and he wouldn’t be 100% certain until then.

---

Dr. Brown soon had surgery booked for mid-November, then I got a call that it had been advanced two weeks, to October 28th. While getting it done as soon as possible was appreciated, that sort of triage is also concerning.

While waiting for that, another medical issue came up to add stress. When you turn 75, a very thorough medical is required to keep your driver’s licence. The doctor assigned to do mine was fairly new to me, and had gone over my file with a fine-toothed comb. I got questions and tests up to and including cognitive/dementia tests that go back to the worst of my brain-injury days. But I passed everything and am good for another five years now.

On October 27th, Cathy and I were booked on the 08:55 Air North flight. We had initially, after talking about it with my surgeon’s office, booked only one night at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The reason was that it was expected to be minor surgery and I had training as a volunteer brain injury peer support worker starting on the 29th. Luckily, we changed it to two nights at the last minute, though I sadly had to cancel the training. Very early on the 27th, I posted on Facebook about what was going on, for the first time. I did it partly to deflect the coming birthday wishes – no I definitely would not be having a happy birthday.

October 27th, 08:59 – what a lovely start to the day.

---

That wonderful dawn light stayed for a few minutes, then we flew over a cloud layer. That’s Lake Bennett in the next photo, with Caribou Mountain in the lower right.

---

From the en route weather reports I had seen I had expected cloud all the way to Vancouver, but starting at 09:20 got a nice view for a while, with low cloud and valley fog providing some unique photos.

---

We took the Canada Line from the airport to the City Centre station again. From there the hotel is only two blocks.

---

Reaching the hotel just after noon, we were extremely grateful to be able check in almost 4 hours early. By 12:20 we were settled in Room 1251 🙂

---

The reflection of our hotel on the windows of the office tower opposite was pretty cool.

---

I had some time to kill before I had to start my surgery prep, so went for a walk with my little Canon Powershot. It wasn’t a very long or productive walk, but I found a couple of interesting sites and some days, any distraction is a good distraction.

This 12-storey office building at Thurlow and West Cordova is about to be rebuilt as a hotel. Downtown Vancouver could apparently use more hotels, to get the sky-high prices down.

---

I had seen this statue on a short median on West Cordova Street many times but I don’t think I had ever stopped for a close look. It honours Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of Victory. Created by Pavlos Angelos Kougioumtzis, it was “presented to the City of Vancouver by the City of Ancient Olympia, Greece, site of the original Olympic Games and source of the Olympic flame, to commemorate the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”

---

October 28th began very early – Cathy and I left the hotel at 05:30 to be at St. Paul’s for my 06:00 registration time. My expected minor surgery didn’t turn out that way, and then I had problems with the initial recovery, so I didn’t get released until 9 hours later. The next photo of the front entrance to the hospital decorated for their “Lights of Hope” Christmas fundraiser, was shot from the Starbucks across the street, where a muffin was my first solid food in 43 hours. Yum! 🙂

---

That evening, one of my nieces met us at the hotel for dinner. I wasn’t up to going very far, and the hotel’s Notch 8 Restaurant turned out to be perfect. My Chicken Schnitzel (with pickled red cabbage, chicory salad and mustard chive veloute) was superb.

---

There was a lot to think about. Although I had been told at least once and probably twice while in recovery what the surgery had entailed, I remember nothing of what was said except that I heard the word “stitches” once. There was only one reason for the surgery to become major, though – cancer was suspected. The next morning, I went for a walk at 04:30, and just kept going.

By the time I got back to the hotel just after 07:00, I had put on almost 8 km and had shot almost 80 photos. I’ll tell you about that walk in the next post.

Back at the hotel after my walk, I had a nap, then we went downstairs to Notch 8 again for breakfast. My BC Eggs Benedict, with smoked salmon, was very good.

---

There’s just one more photo from Vancouver, shot as we were walking to the drug store to get a few things needed for my post-surgery recovery. No. 777 Burrard Street was built in 1910 in Scottish Baronial style – it’s now a 51-unit condo.

---

Just after 11:00 we once again walked to the Canada Line station to get back to YVR for our 2:35 pm flight home. I think I slept for the entire flight, but on the final approach to YXY I added a few photos to my record of the growing Whistle Bend community.

---

On my deck the next day, I got a photo of the tshirt my niece gave me – isn’t that perfect?

---

Although the surgery was the main event, the health situation wouldn’t be settled until I got the biopsy results. Early on November 7th, I made the following post on Facebook: “04:00 – I’ve been up for a couple of hours now. I’m in a rather strange place. I have many things to be grateful for every day, but last night Cathy and I went out for a little celebration of a particular thing. I got a call from my family doctor yesterday – she told me that the mass that was removed 10 days ago was cancerous. That wasn’t expected, but is why the minor surgery that was expected turned major. They’re certain that they got it all, and I’m recovering very well. There will certainly be followups but I won’t know what until talking to my surgeon.” The mass was very large – 7.4 x 4.8 x 1.8 cm – so the section taken out of my rectum wall was rather shockingly large.

I had a tough time for a day, dealing with that news – when cancer becomes more than just an abstract term, it can hit hard. But I’ve got it dealt with now, and have moved on to working on the next Grand Adventure for Cathy and me – 5 weeks wandering around Newfoundland in a rented RV next June/July.

Going back to October 27th, the 75th birthday aspect of the day. I had hoped that circling around the sun for 3/4 of a century would prompt some profound words about life, but even now that the dust has settled, nothing has come.