Santa and Discharge from the Hospital

Wednesday morning Dr. Ali stopped by and told Jennifer they were going to keep them another night.  He wanted to wait for all the test results to come back and for all the doctors to look over the information and make sure they knew what had happened.  Karlee’s fever had finally broken about 4:30 in the morning and she was feeling much better.  It was a long night for them since the nurse was in every hour to check Karlee’s temperature and take her vital signs.

Tuesday night they had put Karlee on another dose of antibiotics and then decided to give her a different one to help with the fluid on her lungs.  All the antibiotics and fluids they were giving her caused her to pee very often and gave her a little diarrhea.  It is nice that the hospital provided PJs since every fart seemed to be a little more than just a fart.  Karlee was on issolation so she wasn’t allowed out of her room so it made for a long day.  She also had an IV in her arm which limited her mobility.  Thankfully they put it in her right arm so she still had her left to colour, do crafts and eat.






I arrived up there around 2pm and they were both standing at the windows looking for Santa.  I figured if Santa was coming to visit he would be walking through the halls, but was I ever wrong.  Santa, Mrs. Claus and a couple of elves showed up with the reindeer.  Karlee quickly determined that this had to be the real Santa Claus since he brought reindeer and they only live at the North Pole with the real Santa.  He walked all around the side of the hospital by us and then walked the path all around the units.  It was great being on the main floor since we were very close to him.  Right after Santa left Bingo started.  Karlee had to play in her room so she had a walkie talkie and played over the airwaves.  She won twice and got 2 lucky numbers.  She won some great prizes and even got one for her brother.  Child Life then brought by a ginger bread house for her to decorate.  Karlee had fun decorating and Mom had fun eating the jube jubes.  Wednesday night on the unit is Kids Cancer Care pizza night.  We all enjoyed pizza for supper and then I headed home to pick up Ryley from Grandma’s and get him home to bed.
 
Thursday morning Dr. Ali again stopped by and gave Jennifer the low down on what he thought.  He had seen the echo cardiogram results and there is nothing wrong with Karlee’s heart; the blood cultures had not turned up anything that was concerning and the chest x-ray showed some fluid on her lungs, but nothing to be concerned about.  He figured that while they were trying to get her port working they had moved it around a little and hit her Vagus nerve.  This nerve runs from her brain, through her chest and down to her groin.  It regulates organ function and he figures it got bumped or jarred and that is what caused the issue.  He figured there was very little chance of that happening at home since she would not be accessed at home.  He said after rounds they would be discharged and on their way home.  After several delays and false starts Ryley and I came up to wait for them to get the chemo to bring home.
 
While we were waiting and the kids were jumping around like fools, the Chaplain from the hospital stopped by to talk to us.  Marcel had stopped by before an played some music for us and visited when Karlee was first on the unit.  He told us that he had heard the code called Tuesday, but had assumed it was a test and was never told that the patient was still in the hospital.  We had a nice chat with him and I found out some more information about the code.  When I was told about the code I was told it was only 30 seconds that she was out.  Today I found out that she was non-responsive for about 3 minutes.
 
It is nice to have everyone at home.  Everyone finished their shopping today and tonight and now most of Christmas is wrapped and ready to go.  Hopefully we will have an uneventful and quiet Christmas.

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year.  This year has had it’s share of ups and downs, but at the end we have made it through with the support of everyone around us.  It means so much to get an e-mail, a facebook message, a text message or a phone call.  Just to know that people can take the time out of their day to think about us is very comforting.

Scariest Day Yet–Karlee Coded in the Clinic

Before I get into too much detail I want everyone to know that Karlee is doing good and everything seems normal now.  This afternoon she was doing crafts and colouring and acting normal.

Right before the code

I was going to continue trying to catch up with some of the blogs from the start of the school year, but now it seems more important to detail what happened today.  I will still try and go back and get some of the other stuff caught up over the Christmas break.

To get to what happened today we need to go back a couple of days to Sunday.  Early Sunday morning (2:00am or so) Karlee wasn’t feeling good.  She had a fever and vomited in her bed.  Jennifer took her temperature and she was well over 38.  First thing Sunday morning we paged the on-call Oncologist and Dr. Ali called us back.  He wanted Karlee to come in, but needed to figure out where to put her as the unit was full.  He called back and they had one of the day rooms available.  Jennifer and Karlee went up there and saw Dr. Ali.  He was concerned about her cough and order a chest x-ray since he heard a crackle in her lungs.  The x-ray came back pretty good, but not pneumonia.  He gave her a dose of antibiotics and told us to come back on Monday for another dose.  Monday Dad and Karlee went back and got her another dose.  She had come home accessed and on Monday her port wouldn’t work.  They reaccessed her and everything went fine.

Tuesday morning was supposed to be a normal procedure day.  Jennifer and Karlee were at the hospital for 9am and were placed in an exam room since Karlee needed to be isolated due to her cough.  The exam room is very similar to a doctor’s office room.  There isn’t a bed or anything it them; just an exam table and a few chairs.  Dr. Singh saw Karlee and decided to delay her due to the cough and not wanting to risk putting her under.  After seeing Dr. Singh they were going to quickly give her some fluids and then send her home.  Her port was again not working so they had her lay on her back to see if it would allow them to pull some fluid or push some saline.

At this point her eyes went kind of funky and she stopped breathing and turned blue.  The nurse quickly called opened the door and called for a doctor.  Dr. Singh and Greg (one ot the nurses) came rushing in.  They determined that the oxygen in the exam room wasn’t working.  Greg took over at this point and grabbed Karlee, told everyone to get out of his way and ran to the clinic.  He took over an empty bed and told the other nurse to call a code.  Very quickly there were a room full of people in the clinic all around Karlee.  They got an IV started in her arm and pushed epinephrine to kick start everything.  During this time there were people poking her ankle, fingers and toes to try and get a line started and to take blood-sugar levels.  They quickly got her breathing again and found a pulse.  They had to push another drug to slow down her heart since they got it racing pretty good.  From somewhere a crash cart had appeared and all the people who needed to make everything work.

During this time one of the social workers had taken Jennifer and just reassured her and kept her calm.  They had also magically moved the other patients that were beside the bed that Karlee was in.  Jennifer was very shaken by everything that happened and some of the other parents stepped up to reassure her and offer support.  The primary nurse and all the other nurses were great.  The called me and suggested that I come down, but that Karlee was fine.  Ryley was home sick so I arranged with Grandma to keep him while I headed to the hospital.

When I got there Karlee was looking better, but was still pretty out of it.  Jennifer was still shaking and very stiff and sore from the stress.  They were still monitoring Karlee very closely.  It took almost 3 hours from the code until Karlee was talking and acting like herself.  The kept her in the clinic and monitored her fairly closely until about 4 when they moved her over to the unit to keep her overnight so they could reassess her in the morning.  She started to settle in and then vomited on herself and the bed due to her cough.  Around 6pm she started to nap due to all the activity of the day.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then I came home to get Ryley into bed.  Karlee was getting ready for bed around 8pm and Jennifer was looking forward to some sleep too.

So… here is what we know about what happened and why.  Karlee was completely non-responsive, not breathing and they could not find a blood pressure or pulse.  They did find a very weak pulse in her groin on a second check.  Once they got her breathing again they gave her an APGAR (same test as for babies) score of 1.  They got an IV in her arm, but also poked her 3 times in the ankle and pricked both her finger and toe to check blood sugar.  They once again took cultures and also did another x-ray and and echo cardiogram on her in the clinic to check her chest and heart.  They pushed epinephrine and another drug to slow down her heart.  The also gave her an antibiotic again to help combat the virus that is attacking her.  She was on fluids and 2x the normal rate until about 3pm and now is on 50mL/h.  As an interesting fact they had to cut her shirt off to get at her chest just like you see on TV.

They are still not sure what caused the code, but they have a couple of theories.  The first one is that it could be the viral infection she is fighting combined with all the drugs in her system.  We have been told that happens with cancer patients sometimes.  The other theory is that there is some bacteria in the port (or the access needle) and that could have caused the problem.  Hopefully tomorrow we will have some better answers and they will get discharged and be home so we can finish getting ready for Christmas.
 
That was the first code we have seen or heard called in the many times we have been at the hospital over the last year and a half.  We have never heard another parent talking about a code happening to them or anyone else.  It is really scary to think that it was our Karlee that needed to code team and the crash cart.  It is very hard to actually slow down and think about what happened and what could have happened if there had not been such an incredible team all around us.  Jennifer really summed it up when she said today was scarier that the cancer diagnosis.  Everything has been going so smoothly and once you are in maintenance it is supposed to get easier.  This is something you just never think about happening.  There are lots of side effects to the medicines and complications, but you never think about a code.

I’m sorry about the rag-tag way of writing this one, but there is a lot of information to get across and hard to put into words.  I would like to thank everyone for the text messages, phone calls and facebook messages of support.  You guys have no idea how much that means to us.  If you have any questions about what I have written e-mail me at ronlewis@telusplanet.net and I will try and answer them.

Shoot Day for Kids Cancer Care

This is another blog from the summer that has been a long time coming.


Way back in June Ashlee from Kids Cancer Care asked us if we would be willing to take part in the KCC 2012 video.  They were looking to feature 2 families who they would interview and film at various events and then would make a 90 second to 2 minute clip as part of the 2012 video.  We were thrilled to be asked and even more excited to help out Kids Cancer Care in any way.


We met with the producer and the director in July and discussed our journey and the impact the KCC has had on our lives so far.  We showed them our blog, Karlee’s photo album, both kids beads and various other stuff we have collected so far.   They met the kids and got to see how they react to different people.  They talked to us about how they saw the shoot going and what we should expect.  We then worked out a date for them to come and spend the day with us taking some video.


On August 19th they showed up at our house at 9am.  We had Grandma looking after the kids in the morning so we could have uninterrupted time to be interviewed.  It took a while for them to determine where to shoot us and then it took even longer to make sure the background was perfect.  They had us make the house very dark and then set up lights in the house.  It is amazing how small your house feels when there is a camera and a couple big lights setup.







We spent over 2 hours talking to them about everything and anything to do with cancer, The Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta, camp and life in general.  They made us feel very comfortable and made it very easy to talk to them.  There were some very emotional moments and some funny and happy times.  It was a good experience and we enjoyed sharing our journey.


After they got back from lunch we did some outside shooting.  This we neat because they captured the kids running around and playing with Grandma.  They got to hold a white board that they will impose words on during the video.  We sat down and talked about the beaded journey and how each bead had a special meaning.  That was really interesting looking at how long both kids beads have gotten over the year.  We then looked through a couple of photo albums and talked about some memories while they filmed us.  Somewhere in the middle of all this we even managed to squeeze in a wardrobe change.  At the very end they got Ryley jumping into the pool which was very, very cold.


Now they disappear for a while a edit the video to make it into something that makes sense.  It is amazing to think they are going to take 4 or 5 hours of video and edit it down to 90 seconds.  They are supposed to give us a call and let us come in and take a look at the first cut.  We are looking forward to seeing what they create.


Hopefully this video will serve a couple of different functions.  The primary reason is for Kids Cancer Care to use the video to raise funds to continue offering the great programs they do.  They will be posting the video on their website and showing it at events to show people the positive impact they are having in the lives of young cancer patients and their families.  A secondary reason for the video would be to help other families.  We have drawn incredible strength and support from all the families we have met.  It would be nice to be able to help some of the newer families in some little way.  This video will also give Karlee and Ryley something to look back on in 20 years and say we made it through an incredible journey.  It will be a permanent reminder of where we were one year after diagnosis.


We are looking forward to sharing this video with everyone when it is released in early 2012.

One Year Anniversary

August 6th was the one year of Karlee being diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  Some days it seems like only yesterday, but other days it seems like we have been going through this experience forever.  It has been long year of some pretty low lows and some pretty good highs with a bunch of different experiences thrown in.

We were camping at Old MacDonald’s Resort for her first anniversary and we still wanted to do something special.  We decided to go out onto the beach before supper and let balloons go.  Someone pointed out that this was very symbolic of letting go of some of the baggage while still holding the important things close.

So Saturday morning I drove into Stettler and found the Walmart.  I bought a helium tank and a bunch of balloons.  We spent a while blowing up and tying balloons.  Thankfully Jon and Allison had their eating shelter set up so we didn’t have to worry about the balloons floating away.  We ended up with about 50 balloons that we carried down to the beach.  We had several families with us there… the Haskeys, the Hunters, the Perzans and the Suttons.  We met the Suttons while camping this year and the kids had a great time playing with them.

We walked down to the beach and just before supper we handed out the balloons to everyone and let them go.  It was a pretty powerful sight seeing everyone with the balloons and then seeing them floating away until they were no longer visible.

It is hard to believe everything that Karlee has been through in the last year.  She has had one surgery, over 12 procedures (where she is put under), countless doses of chemotherapy through her port and has learned to chew chemo and all kinds of other pills.  She has had 2 blood transfusions and has spent too many nights in the hospital.  She has also had several positive experiences over the year.  She has been to family camp twice, has spent a week at the Kids Cancer Care camp and even stayed over night.  Kids Cancer Care has done a lot for us over the year – more than we could ever expect.  We have also been looked after by the Church, by all our family and by numerous friends.  We have all met many incredible families and special kids over the year that have touched our lives in ways we couldn’t imagine.
 
Karlee still has another year and 8 months of treatment and we know there will be tough spots, but with all the support we have we know we can get through it.

Clinic Day and Camping

Wow… just realized how long it has been since I last blogged and how much I have to catch up on.  So it is now the middle of October and I am blogging about the start of August.  Hopefully I can rattle off a few entries this week and we can get everything caught up and start blogging about current stuff.










August 2nd was Karlee’s clinic day.  It was also the Tuesday after the long weekend so it was an extremely busy day.  Their appointment was at 11am for a check-up and chemo.  Even through it was supposed to be a quick visit Mom, Karlee and Ryley were all there until almost 4pm.  Karlee and Ryley were both pretty well behaved for such a long day.  Of course there is only so much to entertain them at the hospital so it takes a toll on everyone there.


On Thursday August 4th we packed all our camping gear and headed to Old MacDonald’s Resort on Buffalo Lake.  Old MacDonald’s is just outside of Stettler – about 2 hours northeast of Calgary.  2 years ago we went there and had a wonderful camping trip with lots for the kids to do.  Last year we were scheduled to go (and 1/2 packed), but were spending time in the hospital.  The day after we would have arrived Karlee was diagnosed with leukemia.


We got out there in really good time and got ourselves setup fairly quickly.  We were in the newest loop, but still had a nice site.  One of the great upgrades that they did earlier this year was to put in new toilets and sinks with running water and electric lights.  That was some excellent news for Karlee as she prefers real toilets.  It was also nice to have running water to wash our hands regularly as camping is not the cleanest environment for Karlee.


There were 4 families out there (all from Church) so the kids had other kids to play with and we had other people to socialize with.  Old MacDonald’s has 6 or 7 playgrounds, a beach, peddle carts, a petting zoo, mini-golf, carrousel ride and hiking and biking paths.  We also picked this weekend as it is Christmas in August.  Saturday they have Santa show up and all the people with power sites put up lights and it is normally a great time.


Friday was a fun day at the beach even though the beach was a little less than perfect this year.  There was a lot of flooding so the beach was considerably smaller than previous years.  The kids still had a great time swimming and playing in the sand.  We probably pushed a few limits with Karlee having her playing in the water and the dirty water on the beach, but everything worked out fine and she had a wonderful time.  The kids met up with a couple of other kids from a camp site just down the road and they had a great time playing together.  We invited them to join us for our fire and everyone had a good night.  Friday night we had a little rain storm once we were in bed.  Karlee liked to snuggle up to the side of the tent which resulted in a wet sleeping bad and a wet little girl.  Otherwise we survived the rain fairly well.


Saturday was the one year anniversary of Karlee being diagnosed.  We did a special ceremony which I will write about in the next blog.  Saturday night we went down for the wagon ride to see the lights.  Very shortly after we got on the wagon the weather changed and the sky got dark in every direction.  The wind picked up and we all knew we were in for a good storm.  When we got down by the beach you could see the water blowing in and the beach pretty much being completely washed out.  As soon as we got off the wagon everyone headed back, except me and a few kids.  We walked around to see if we could see some of the lights.  We did take a pretty direct route back once the weather started to get even worse.  When we got back Jennifer and Raeleen had wrapped our tent in a tarp.  Very shortly after that we had an incredible downpour that went on for most of the night.  Our tent survived very well, again except Karlee’s side.

Sunday was a pretty nice day with a cart ride and a few other fun events including an evening tour of all the playgrounds followed by a pitch black hunt of all the playgrounds for Ryley’s hoodie.  Monday we packed up and headed home and then spent all afternoon and evening cleaning up and washing everything.  That was a long and hard clean-up from a camping trip.

VBS and SunRise and SunMaker Camps

The last 2 weeks of July were once again busy for the kids and Jennifer.

The week of the 18th through 22nd the kids were in a Vacation Bible School (VBS) at a local Church that our Church had partnered with.  After the Tour For Kids Jennifer and her friend Vivianna headed over the Peace Lutheran Church to set up for PandaMania.  They were going to teach the kindergarten kids from 9-noon each day for the next week. 

Each morning for all 3 of them were out of the house just after 8am and didn’t get home until almost 1 each day.  The kids has a great time learning about Jesus and the Bible and coming home and sharing their lessons with us.  Ryley seems to be starting to understand; he is remembering the stories and maybe even starting to apply some of the lessons he is learning.  Karlee is still at the stage where she enjoys meeting other people and making new friends, but she is understanding some of the lessons too.

Jennifer realized that limiting Karlee’s exposure to sick kids is a lot harder when she is volunteering.  When she is leading the class it is very hard to pull Karlee out when she gets to stay.  She also found out the people will send their sick kids to just about anything and don’t have any regard for the other kids and teachers.  This is going to impact some of Jennifer’s ability to volunteer with some of the activities Karlee is in this coming year.  Fortunately Karlee didn’t catch anything during the week.

Thursday night they had a bring your parents night when we all went and watched each group do a little presentation.  After that they showed us around the Church and showed us some of the stuff they had done.  The kids really enjoyed VBS and I think we will send them back again next year.

The next week was camp week for both kids.  Monday morning we headed to the Glamorgan community association to be there just before 9am.  When we got there we took Karlee into the community centre and she disappeared very quickly.  She knew a couple of other kids there and at least one of the volunteers so she didn’t have any issues leaving us.  Ryley had to wait until 10am for his bus to leave to take him to Camp Kindle.  He quickly found a few other guys his age to go and play with on the playground while we got him registered and checked in.  It was a very enjoyable morning chatting with all the other parents while we waited.  There really is a special bond between all the parents that have gone through cancer.  It is also very uplifting to hear about all the kids that have beat cancer and are now happy, normal kids.  This time I knew how Ryley would react to the bus getting ready to leave so we called him over before they started to line up and said goodbye to him.  Again he had no issues leaving us and heading out to Camp Kindle.  Jennifer went back at 3pm to pick up Karlee after her first day and she just loved it.  They had a busy and fun program set up for them the entire week.  She had such exciting days that she fell asleep in the car on the way home every day!  She made a pair of little friends and they were inseparable all week!

Thursday morning when we dropped Karlee off we dropped her off with all her stuff to stay overnight at Camp Kindle.  After lunch they brought in the bus and loaded all the little kids up and headed out to camp.  This was kind of weird as it was the first time ever that both kids were out of the house overnight and we were both home.  We went out for a drink and some munchies and then went and saw Transformers 3 in 3D.  Thankfully we had a coupon for the movie so only paid the extra for 3D because we both would have been disappointed if we had paid full price to see that movie.

Friday morning we were out of the house fairly early and heading out to Camp Kindle to pick up Karlee.  We arrived about 10:30 and headed up to the main lodge even though we knew Karlee was at the music hall.  We didn’t want to interrupt anything they were doing so we thought we would go hang out with the other parents.  Of course Sharlene had other plans.  As soon as she saw us walking up the road she told Karlee we were coming so they waited and waited.  Due to the way the building is located you can watch us walk up, but when the road Ys you can not see it.  Finally they hopped in a golf cart and came up to see us.  Karlee was very happy to see us, where as Ryley was too busy playing to notice we were there.

We went down to the music hall with Karlee and found out she had a good, if little late, night.  They had a camp fire and she even managed to have supper, wait 2 hours, have chemo, wait another hour and then have snack.  Sharlene and the volunteers did an incredible job of making sure she was able to enjoy snack.  After the fire Ryley gave her a big hug before he headed up to bed and Karlee got to watch a movie.  She liked being with the big kids out at camp.  We joined everyone for lunch and then we said goodbye to Ryley and headed for Bergen. 

We spent the night in Bergen with Frances and Roland at their chalet and had a great night.  Karlee played with their dog (technically Amy’s dog) Jazz, got to drive Roland’s golf cart and went for a big walk around the estates.  We sat around the fire, drank some beer and had a great big dinner.  We were up early the next morning to go and get Ryley from Camp Kindle.

He had a great time and even got an award for the motivation he provided to another camper on the climbing wall.  Several of the volunteers and Ryley himself said he really enjoyed the dance this year and loved seeing DJ Fish again.  He made more new friends again and reconnected with some of the campers from last year.  Next year camp is going to be a new experience again with them undertaking $4 million in renovations.  The old dorm that is starting to fall down is being removed and they are building a new main lodge and another dorm.  There is going to be some very exciting changes including a new pool if everything works out correctly.

Tour For Kids

On Wednesday July 13th Kids Cancer Care put out an urgent request for volunteers to help with the Tour For Kids the upcoming weekend.  They had a miscommunication and were short 2 truck drivers and 2 riders for the 3 day bike ride through the Rockies.  Without really knowing what I was getting into I phoned Sharlene and got a few of the details and was assured I would have a great time.  After checking with Jennifer I agreed to give them a hand and spend a 3 day weekend driving.

Friday morning Candice picked me up just before 6am and we headed to Rock Point Church.  There were a bunch of people from KCC and several organizers from Coast to Coast Against Cancer from Toronto.  I was given a few t-shirts and then shown to my truck.  Sharon & Kristen from Toronto were the ones in the know and would be making sure we knew what we were doing all weekend.  We would be travelling in a 3 vehicle convoy all weekend with them leading the way in a car and then me driving the dry goods truck and Jay driving the refer with all the refrigerated goods.

We were on the road by 7:30 headed to the mountains.  We missed the starting point due to a missed turn, but headed to get gas and then off to the first rest stop to set up.  The long riders started just outside Banff on the 1A highway and headed to Lake Louise.  Basically we spent all weekend driving to the rest stops and unloading tables, chairs, huge signs, bike racks, food, water, Power Bars and everything else the volunteers and riders would need.  Unfortunately the day before when they loaded and prepped the trucks Sharon was not around and my truck was not set up correctly so we fought trying to get the correct stuff out at each stop.  We got to meet the volunteer teams at the rest stops and got to snack each time.  The riders went from Lake Louise to Saskatchewan River Crossing and then headed towards Nordegg.

After the last rest stop we saw a bear on the side of the road using the washroom.  We drove to David Thompson Resort and started setting up for the night.  They had several massage therapists come in to look after the riders as well as a first aid tent, concierge tent, pub tent and shop.  Once we got everything parked and all the tents setup and the snacks, beer, wine and ice unloaded we had a few minutes to setup our tents and look around before the riders started arriving.  It was a beautiful camp site with an incredible view of the valley.  The first day’s drive was some of the best scenery in Alberta.  The views were phenomenal and the hills were insane.  When the trucks have issues getting up the mountain I have no idea how the bikers could do it.

When the riders started showing up it was great to get to meet them and talk with them about the ride and why they were doing it.  There was at least one KCC survivor riding in the Tour For Kids.  It was great to talk to the volunteers (including a survivor), the organizers and the riders.  David Thompson Resort did a great job of putting on a steak dinner with all the trimmings and Mill Street Brewery did a great job providing the beverages.  After supper the final trucks had all arrived and we reorganized my truck for the next day.  We did a much better job organizing everything so Saturday would be a much smoother day.

After everything was ready we went over a enjoyed some of the entertainment.  Steven shared some of his story from the ride last year.  He is a survivor and a camp alumni.  He was also featured in the KCC video from last year:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIZzw6ofBvI.  It was a very moving moment and there were very few dry eyes.  We then had the Truckstop Superfriends entertain us for a while.  They were great and it was a great big party.

The next morning we were again up early and were treated to a great big breakfast by David Thompson Resort.  We hit the road around 7:30 again and were off to Rocky Mountain House.  We set up a bunch of rest stops and went through Nordegg, Rock Mountain House and Caroline.  In Caroline we set up the lunch stop for most of the riders.  The long riders were doing 215km this day.  We spent a little extra time there making sure everything was ready to go and visiting with the volunteers.  We then headed up several really, really big hills to Sundre.  We stopped and set up another rest stop and then headed to Sundre Aquatic Centre to set up the finish.  We set everything up and then we waited… and waited.  Finally the truck that was supposed to setup the finish arrived and then everyone left to go set up at Camp Kindle except, myself, Dana and the finish volunteers.

It was nice to get to see all the riders arrive and get to cheer them into the finish.  Once again they had a couple of massage therapists setup here, but the majority were at Camp waiting for them.  They got a quick snack, some water or Gatorade and a bag lunch.  As soon as enough riders showed up they loaded a bus and transferred everyone to Camp.  We had to wait for the 2 clean up trucks to arrive as they had everything for my truck for the final day.  We had to do the transfer in Sundre so they could load all the bikes into the 2 clean up trucks for the trip to camp and the trip to the start in the morning.

Finally once the trucks were transferred over we headed to Camp Kindle.  Everyone with Kids Cancer Care (and many of the volunteers) were very excited to show the riders and organizers where their money was going.  Once we arrived everyone was having a great time… the giant swing was going, tents were being set up, people were checking the camp out and they had the lemonade stand serving organic beer and lemon tea beer.  Once everyone showed up we all had a great meal and small presentation about the camp.  Everyone had a great night with the zip line, the big swing and lots of good conversations.  It was also nice to have a long hot shower and sleep in a bunk for the night.
 
Sunday morning we were again served a great breakfast and were off again early to set up the rest stops.  This was the shortest day for the riders as they had a choice between 100km and 120kms.  We set up one rest stop and then headed to a small community hall to set up the lunch stop.  Since this was a short day there was a lot of setup at lunch and lots of volunteers showed up to get lunch ready for the riders.  After one more quick rest stop we were back at the Rock Pointe Church to get ready for the finish, the BBQ and to clean up and organize the trucks.  Jennifer and the kids came to welcome the riders and there was a fun party atmosphere to the finish.  It was great cheering the riders as they finished this great tour.
 
During the BBQ Sharon asked me if we would be interested in having Karlee featured on the signs and website as one of the kids they are riding for.  Of course we agreed as anything we can do to assist Coast to Coast Against Cancer and Kids Cancer Care is worth our efforts.  I have already let them know I will be back next year and am working on convincing Jennifer that she should join me.

We were also talking through the entire ride about The Inside Ride.  They take a bunch of stationary bikes from Coast to Coast and have teams of 6 ride for 10 minutes each.  It is another fundraiser for Kids Cancer Care and promises to be a great event.  I have put together a team and we will be riding at Bankers Hall on September 26th from 12:00 – 1:30.  If you would like to make a donation you can do so at: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3070385&Lang=en-CA.  Please pledge our team if you can as this is a very worthy charity and 100% of the money raised comes back to Kids Cancer Care.

Great Long Weekend and Clinic Day

The Canada Day long weekend was a very busy one around our house.  Canada Day started out a little rough.  We went down to the bank and were heading over to Chapters when the car just stopped.  I thought I might have stalled the car, but looked down and the clutch was still in.  I tried to restart the car, but nothing happened.  We pushed the car over to the side of the road and called Grandma to ask her to come pick us up.  We had a few people stop and offer their advice and then a great guy in a truck stopped.  He offered to hook up a tow rope and pull us over to Canadian Tire.  We hooked up the car and dropped it off.  Thankfully they could take a look at it that day.  We headed home to wait for a phone call.

Around 2 we headed over to Grandma’s for her block’s annual Canada Day party.  Their block puts on an incredible potluck party.  They got 2 huge (the biggest I had ever seen) bouncers and provide all the burgers, hot dogs and Spolumbo’s sausages you can eat. The kids had a great time spending almost 5 solid hours in the bouncers!  We had a good time sitting around on the green visiting, drinking a few beers (and wine and coolers) and enjoying the food and great weather. During the middle of this party Canadian Tire called a couple of times to let me know both the battery and the alternator needed to be replaced.  Thankfully they got everything done and the car up and running on Canada Day!  Ryley was very upset when we left at 7pm.  Last year they had fireworks and Grandma told him about them so he wanted to stay and watch them.  Unfortunately the kids were too tired and would have never made it.  Thankfully we didn’t stay as they didn’t let off any fireworks this year.
 
Saturday we went to a pool party at Willie’s house.  It was a party for Ryley’s hockey team (The Lightening Bolts).  The kids had a wonderful time playing in the pool, throwing water balloons, shooting water guns and eating food.  There were only a few kids from the team there, but everyone had a good time.  Thank you to the Rennie’s for hosting all of us.

 
Saturday evening we went to a BBQ and potluck at Steve and Shelly’s place.  The kids had fun playing with the other kids and jumping on the trampoline.  Travis brought his guitar and played for all of us and there was even a poker game going on, which Jennifer was eliminated from and I had the sense not to join.

Sunday afternoon was Cousin Oliver’s 3rd birthday party.  It was a great celebration with lots of family there to ensure his birthday was a special day.  It was nice to have all of us there as Karlee and Jennifer have missed a couple of get togethers at Randy and Catherine’s due to Karlee being sick or in hospital.

Tuesday was Karlee’s monthly clinic day at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.  It was a fairly routine clinic day with a procedure.  She is down to having procedure days every 3 months now, which is a nice change.  One thing of potential concern is her liver enzyme levels.  They are currently 8% above normal.  If they reach 20% above normal we will have to pause treatment and determine if the treatment is doing more harm than good.  Karlee has been complaining a little more about stomach pain lately so we are hoping this is what is causing it and that the levels return to normal next month.

Wednesday night was our first night of church at the new location.  Our church has rented space from another Church to save some money to allow us to realize the dream of building a community centre (and Church space).  It is a nice cozy location that will hopefully fit New Hope’s needs for the next few years.  The one downfall is the lack of air conditioning.  During the summer we meet on Wednesday nights as most people want their weekends to do family events or go camping.  Meeting in the evening after a warm day makes for a very, very warm service.  Once winter rolls around and we start meeting on Saturday evenings it should get a lot better.
 
Thursday was Ryley’s first day at Skillz.  We had a year membership donated to Ryley at the Skate-A-Thon last year.  He had a great time working his butt off.  It is great to see him coming home dripping in sweat and enjoying it.