I haven’t written anything in a while; it’s been a bit longer
than 3 weeks, and I’m feeling badly for neglecting my blog. When
you’re writing somewhat consistently, and by that I mean 1-2 posts
every week-ish, it’s easy to stay in that routine. Once you stop,
you end up in a rut, and it’s difficult to pick things up again. It
hasn’t been a conscious decision to neglect this space though. I
did have about a 7 day stretch where every night, I was falling
asleep when I tried to put E to bed, so those were obviously
non-writing nights. Lots of other little things: Christmas
preparation, long commutes, etc. Just life getting in the way.
There’s been a few events happening that I’ve wanted to write
about, so (hopefully) without getting too long winded, here’s the
November rollup, which summarizes the month.
On Sunday November
4th, my wife, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, E’s Godparents,
and I took part in The Inside Ride to benefit Hearth Place. Our team
came in 3rd place for the amount of money raised with just
over $1900 (the total has since grown to $2050). The grand total
raised for Hearth Place at the event was over $17,600! It was a great
experience, and much more of a challenge than what I had expected to
pedal a stationary bike for 5 minutes. Or I’m just out of shape.
Maybe a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.
Early November also
meant parent-teacher night at J’s school. J has been having some
problems in JK, namely he doesn’t always act appropriately around
his classmates, and has been doing a bit of hitting, biting, and
teasing to name a few. We were let off the hook for parent-teacher
night, but we were called in on November 12th for a
meeting with J’s teacher, his ECE, the principal, and a couple of
other people who I can’t remember their job titles at this moment.
The way I’m describing it probably sounds worse than it actually
was. It was a meeting for everyone to get on the same page about J,
and the next steps we can take to enable his success this year. I was
quite nervous before the meeting, but it was a pleasant experience,
and I felt okay coming out of it. Still though, it’s upsetting to
know your child is acting out in school, and worrying when you drop
him off, and don’t know what kind of day he is going to have.
In a previous post,
I had mentioned that E, my wife, and I had gotten our flu shots on
November 14th. At the time, it was somewhat obvious that J
was coming down with some sort of sickness, so we waited a bit to
take him for his shot. Unbeknownst to us, pharmacies only give flu
shots to Ontarians aged 5 and older, so we were out of luck, and had
to book an appointment to go see our family doctor to get it done.
On Saturday November
17th, we had a busy day. We met up with one of my wife’s
friends from university in Toronto, and brought the boys with us. J
was excited because we rode the GO train. We took both the boys out
to a restaurant, which we’ve never done before, and it wasn’t a
complete and total mistake. We rushed home to make it to one of the
local Santa Claus parades that evening. We arrived a bit late, and
missed the beginning, but the boys got to enjoy some floats, and wave
as Santa went past. Checking social media for the first time that
evening, I found a message from one of my cousins. I had to read it
over 3 times in order for my brain to process the words. She had told
me that her youngest son had been diagnosed with Wilms tumor the day
before. Wilms tumor is a type of kidney cancer, and is one of the
most common cancers in children. They would be leaving for London,
Ontario on the Monday for their initial consult with the oncologist,
and she was asking for advice. As best as I could, I did a brain-dump
of anything that might be relevant, including where to stay (Ronald
McDonald House), who to talk to for support, and whether they should
bring their older son or leave him in the care of family. I started
writing this blog in the hopes that some of my ramblings might help
other parents whose children are cancer patients, so I’m glad to
have provided a bit of guidance, and I’m happy that she reached out
to me. I’ve been thinking about them quite a bit; I’m shaking my
head, and I’m quite upset about this turn of events. I’m terribly
sorry that they had to join this awful club of having a child with
cancer. I want nothing but good health, and best wishes for them
during their son’s treatment. If you’re reading this, I’m
thinking about your family every day, and may strength be with you.
The next morning, we
brought both of the boys to the Oshawa Centre for a session at
Build-A-Bear, as well as a story & picture with Santa. I’m not
going to write too much more about this one, because it’s already
up in this post:
82)
Stories, and pictures, and bears - oh my!
Also in November, J
brought home croup from school. Croup doesn’t really affect J the
way it did when he was smaller. Back then, it meant
middle-of-the-night stridor, and usually a trip to the emergency
room. J was nice enough to share his germs with his brother, and on
the evening of November 20th, around 11pm, E started
having stridor. He was flopping around, uncomfortable, and seemed
alarmed that he was having some trouble breathing. We tried a couple
of things at home first – cool mist humidifier, wrapping him in a
blanket and taking him outside in the cold air - but it didn’t
help. I paged the on-call oncologist, and afterward spoke with the
nurses of 7-West at Scarborough Centenary to say that I was going to
bring him in to be checked out. He was seen fairly quickly by the
doctor, and he was given a dose of dex(amethasone) with a follow-up
dose to be given 12 hours later. The croup cleared up, but came back
somewhat on the morning of November 28th. It just so
happened that November 28th was E’s day to start steroid
week, so his regularly scheduled doses of chemo steroids cleared up
the croup. Steroid week was a difficult time this month. E was quite
grumpy, hungry, and his sleep was poor, and disturbed. The poor
little guy has been battling a cold off and on ever since, and has a
runny nose that just won’t seem to stop. The steroid effects have
worn off now, but he’s still having sleeping troubles. It’s
difficult to get him to fall asleep, it’s difficult to keep him
asleep, and he often wakes up at 5:30am, and wants to get up and
start his day.
On November 29th
we picked up J from school a little bit early, and drove to our
satellite clinic at Scarborough Centenary for the annual POGO
Christmas party. We had been invited last year, but we were unable to
make it due to a conflict that could not be rescheduled, so this was
our first year attending. It was a great time, especially for all of
the kids! They had a number of games and activities set up around the
room, there was pizza, and juice boxes, as well as cookies, and
treats. Mr. & Mrs. Claus also made a grand appearance. We saw a
number of people we know from clinic, or our parental support group,
but it was impossible to say much of anything to them because we
spent most of our time chasing the 4 year old, and the 2 year old
around. The don’t really stand still. The room was full of kids
being treated for cancer, their siblings, and even some alumni who
have rung the bell, and successfully completed their treatment. It
was simply wonderful to see the smiles on all of their faces. At the
end of the party, all of the kids were given a gift when it was time
to leave. Thank you to POGO, its volunteers, donors, Scarborough
Centenary staff, and anyone involved in the planning and organization
of this party. It really was a great event that was put together for
these courageous kids!
Looking back, I’ve
now written waaaaay more than I had intended, so I'm going to end things here.
