Deja Vu

Well, after a good month of feeling strong and healthy and having some great moments... Nevan is again feeling pretty crummy.  It feels like Deja Vu of the last time we had to have his tube inserted.  He has a very sore throat from the insertion of the tube and his stomach is hurting all day.  He has stopped eating all together and is throwing up all the feeds that we are trying to put in him over night.  He is weak and frail and sleeps most of the day. 

I guess over this past month we thought the worst was over and we wouldnt end up back here but here we are.  This morning we woke up early to go and get our christmas tree in a tree farm and store in Flamborough. I made a nice breakfast of French toast and bacon at Nevan's request (of which he ate none) and then we started getting our boots on.  Nevan stopped and asked for some more medicine to help his tummy.  You know its bad when Nevan requests medicine... a few seconds later he threw up everything we put in his stomach over night including his morning meds.  We carried him to the couch where he fell asleep shortly thereafter and we just flashed back to 8 weeks ago. 

Nylah is still a happy, busy toddler, not really being affected by all of this.  She stays happy playing on her ipad and making everyone food in her play kitchen.  We ended up staying close to home this morning and getting a tree from Canadian Tire instead.  It's these types of forced changes that make life for Nylah almost unfair.  By this age, Nevan had been to the park countless times, African Lion Safari splash pad was his favourite place and riding his bike was one of his favourite pass times.  Nylah hardly knows any of these places and she has ridden her tricycle less than 5 times.  A side effect of spending our entire summer in the hospital and spending the fall and winter secluded and trying our best to avoid cold and flu season.  She is always happy and doesn't really know what she is missing... but we do. Hopefully as next summer approaches, Nevan will be feeling much better and we pack it solid with fun things for both kids to do.

Help a Child Smile is a charity organization that works directly with McMaster Hospital and they definitely make sure that these cancer kids smile.  They provide tickets to major theme parks for children well enough to go including Disney on Ice, Sporting Events and Various parties.  We also have Camp Trillium to look forward to, which is a camp for all cancer kids and their families.  Other parents have said that it is therapy for the soul.  Each child that attends is assigned their own attendant and they keep them busy with activities.  Other activities are scheduled for the adults or they can just sit and relax.  A whole tonne of family time and an escape from 'medical norm'.  Something that the kids will definitley enjoy is a cottage... we are looking into possibly renting one ourselves for next summer somewhere, but once Nevan is done his treatment, there is an organization called Cottage Dreams where people provide their cottage for a week of free use to all children who have survived cancer. 

There are definitely things to look forward to... we just have to keep moving forward to ge there...

Cute Story of the Day:

We are teaching Nevan how to say the alphabet phonetically and sound out his words... he tries to teach Nylah..... but she is not quite getting it!

Nylah: "Nevan... you going osispal?"

Nevan: "Nylah, Hospital has a H in it... H- H- ... Hospital"

Nylah: "H- H- osispal??"

Nevan: "No... like T- T Teacher"

Nylah: "OHHHH, Me Try... T-T Baby!!  C-C Nylah! B-B Toothpaste!!" 

Nevan: " Mommy... she doesn't know anything..."