A Year After Treatment

Carpe Diem - Michellie, Melody, Michelle, Morgan

What a whirlwind this past month has been.  On Thursday, March 8th we spent the day at the IWK where Michellie was poked and prodded.  All of her scans were clean and she had a clean bill of health.  What an unusual and grateful feeling to walk the halls with a well child.  It is incredible to think that life is returning to normalcy and the fear of cancer is behind us.  Michellie's curly hair is continuing to grow and at the end of March Michellie is braiding her hair and pulling it back. 



With Greatma and Carson




Never played before!

 On Friday, March 9th we boarded the plane for Alberta and BC.  This was the trip postponed the year before, and it was the first opportunity for Michellie to see Cochrane and friends again.  We began with a trip to BC to visit family and catch up with the cousins.  It was a fun three days with lots of game playing.  A highlight was playing pool with Great Grandma and all the Grandkids. 

Strip the Willow

In Cochrane Michellie caught up with as many friends as possible.  She went to the movies, shopped in Calgary, ate in restaurants, saw the high school production and walked the streets of Cochrane.  We were honored with a special Carpe Diem party at the MacAuley's with lots of great families and friends.  Three cancer survivors were honored with an evening of dance, music, singing and great food.  Although we missed last year's event, we enjoyed the talents of all of those people who gathered for this special St. Patrick's Day. 

Michellie and David flew home on the 19th exhausted but satisfied they had tried their best to take in all the sites and sounds of the "big City".  And, they had Tony's spring rolls on two occasions - definitely a food highlight.  Michelle continued with a few workshops and another trip to BC for some more family time.

Michellie is now involved in completing her projects for school.  She applied for a special program called "Activate Canada" and was accepted.  She will be spending  5 days in May in Ottawa at Carlton University with 20 other Canadian teens networking on how to get more community involvement for teens.  This will be her first opportunity to travel on her own and enjoy life as a healthy teen!  We are so proud of her.

Michellie is very accomplished at driving now.  Those first few weeks after treatment finished she could not even hold the steering wheel.  She is very excited to go for her driver's license and gain some summer freedom.  Thinking about gas money, she is working with her Mom to open a new business selling specialty tea blends for healing purposes.  They are just in the detailing now, and hope to launch this summer project in time for the opening of the farmer's markets. 

Our last trip to the Naturopath was the end of March, and Michellie is at the end of her list of complaints.  Her sleeping patterns have changed and she is now able to get to sleep much easier and for longer stretches of time.  She functions best with a wheat free diet, and she restricts her dairy as well.  She has been bothered by yeast flare ups for the last few months, so this month she is on a yeast cleanse to eradicate this.  Because of her great care with her diet and her minimal sugar intake this is not too big a sacrifice in food choices for a few weeks.  She is continuing with iron supplements, B vitamins and D vitamins.  With the research into teas, she is supporting her system with special tea blends to support her immune system, digestive tract and hormonal challenges.  Wendy's oil blend is her helping hand for mentrual cramps as well as anti-inflammatory herbs.  We are so excited to celebrate these amazing accomplishments. 

This past week we were enlightened with some info on selenium.  There is a link between Hodgkins Lymphoma and selenium deficiency.  As well, many of the symptoms associated with this deficiency are ones that Michellie was exhibiting for the last three years.  Low energy, muscle cramps, tight muscles, pain in the knees, are some of the complaints that were never addressed, but might be with selenium.  This we will explore a little more to see what happens.  We are happy to know that we may have found the final piece to the puzzle that brings everything together.



Breaking in the new Professional Taps - this year's Christmas present



This weekend is Easter.  We are so grateful to everyone for the assistance, love and energy sent our way over this last year of healing.  Everyone's energy and effort helped to lift us up and bring us back to health.  Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) and Make this Life a Great One!





Seize the Day!





The Nine Month Check

Yesterday was an early morning drive to Antigonish.  We had had a snow storm the night before so I was a little worried about what I would wake up to.  Fortunately, the roads were clear and it was so early, there was hardly any traffic.  Michellie had a CAT scan to determine if her thyroid had returned to its original size, and everything looked good there.  Woo Hoo!  The Pediatrician checked Michellie over and determined that there was nothing else needing attention, and that Michellie's brightness and cheer was a welcome addition to her office.  Woo Hoo!  Another great gift today!

The day before we had taken a plaquemount of Michellie's healing poster to her school and thanked the principal, teachers and her guide, Charlotte, who helped her coordinate her schooling last year.  It was great to finally be able to do this.  So, yesterday we visited the 4th Floor Oncology ward and Jeannie.  Everyone recognized Michellie right away, and it was great to leave a poster and card with them as well.  Dr. Ortiz was next, and she even gave Michellie a big hug!  Michellie was not happy to draw attention, but she was happy to be able to give thanks.  It was wonderful to see her bright face enjoying the people who cared for her so deeply.  There are many things that she has blocked out, and the smell of the hospital is hard for her to handle.  It was nice to have her in the hospital to enjoy it and let go of the fear and the illness.  It was nice to see everyone and be able to give them a little sunshine for the success of Michellie's healing.  We hope to get to Halifax in the next few months to do the same visit to the IWK.

Last night David put together a montage of pics about Michellie's hair over the last year.  It really is amazing to see the hair, lack thereof, and the change in the quality of Michellie's expression as well.  You can view these pics at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/109481067192625845853/TheYearInMichellieSHair?authkey=Gv1sRgCIuP542R5Oa_Ug#

Enjoy!  And, lastly, take time to look in the mirror and tell yourself you love what you see.  We need to embrace these incredible bodies and all that they do for us to enjoy life. 

Cape Breton and Day 11 and beyond

Our flight from Calgary to Halifax was long.  It was a full day of travel.  We landed in Halifax at 9 pm and had a wonderful dinner with the Krochko's.  It was nice to be able to share the trip with them as they had been the driving force with each treatment and trip to Halifax.  We stayed over night and in the early morning ventured back to the airport for Michelle to catch a flight to Toronto for a week with MacKenzie and the time to see his show.  Michellie and David headed home.  Michellie went to school for the afternoon to catch up with friends, and David tried to make some semblance out of the house.  Clare had done a fabulous job of taking care of the cats and holding down the last of the renovation challenges.  And, this begins our attempt at getting back into the regular life and finding out what impact our time with the dolphins has had.

David made magic happen at the house by finishing the floor in the studio with Michellie's help and getting all the little details caught up.  Michellie and Emma created magic by setting up the tree and decorating.  Michelle and Kenzie experienced a week of magic in Toronto with healing tap techniques from Heather Cornell and then a show that was out of this world!  As I write today, we are all home and enjoying each others company.  Last night was the winter solstice and Jill had a big party to celebrate, our next door neighbour.  Each of us gathered something to let go of and to burn in the bonfire.  We were happy to burn a requisition paper from one of Michellie's treatments as one of our offerings.  Now we are enjoying the magic of the season, the magic of our family, and the magic of the incredible journey called "life".  What a year, what incredible memories, and what experiences we could never imagine.

One of the biggest messages learned through the Dolphin experience was voiced by Doug - "Look fear in the face and walk right through it.  You can never imagine the opportunities that will be opened on the other side and the chance to experience them because of your bravery".  Michellie faced her fears in Hawaii and she conquered them.  This gift of words has been carried forward to other experiences for all of us.  If you are reading these words, we hope you will embrace them too.  All of us are scared to walk in, we dance around, avoid, go the other way, and hide in the face of fear.  We all have the strength to head straight in and know that we will have the tools to face what is there for us. 

Kenzie and Michelle used this technique when they accidentally ordered a huge platter of sushimi this week.  Raw fish was not anything they would ever choose to eat.  It was quite the scene when they were faced with this challenge.  So, they ate the fish, and they loved it!!!  After a good laugh, they both were thankful for jumping in and going for it.  More Sushimi...bring it on!

Cochrane and Day 10

After flying all night, we arrived in Vancouver at 5:30 am, and then Calgary at 9:30.  The Harris' were there to greet us and hear the stories.  We were really on another dimension when we arrived.  It is hard to describe.  David spent the afternoon in bed since he cannot sleep on the plane.  The girls shared their stories with Erin and then fell asleep, and Michelle and Mireille had tea and chatted quietly.  The evening was slow and quiet, and everyone was early to bed with another plane ride and an early morning for the last of the trip home.  I think that you can see by our faces on this last picture, we were relaxed and ready for some Christmas fun!  Our shirts are signed by all the significant people on our trip.  Thank you Children's Wish for making such an inspiring trip happen!!!  Thank you to all of those people who so generously support the Wish foundations to make such trips possible.  We are so grateful!!!

Tada!

Our last Day in Hawaii- Day 9

Michellie and Chelsie-Anne were given the choice of what they wanted to do for the last day.  They chose sleeping in and relaxing.  That of course didn't happen.  We were all up by 8 and ready not to waste a single moment.  We all headed down for swimming and hot tubbing.  We walked around a little and we enjoyed the incredible resort.  We finished off the morning with a great brunch, and the girls did a little shopping.  By 11:30 we met in our little room to have one last gathering.  It was so incredible.  I know that I have used this descriptive word many times throughout the week, but there really are not the right words to describe the whole experience.  In fact, it is hard to put much of it into words.  Our gathering allowed everyone the chance to talk about their experiences, and to give thanks.  Doug and Trish were incredible.  They treated us like royalty all week long.  They were so intuitive and receptive to all that was going on, and they were there to help Michellie make her transition to a healed world.  Once again there were many tears, and Michellie was able to express herself this time.  David was extremely moved, and he felt some deep emotions throughout the week.  He really needed this experience as well.  He was such a pillar through the whole year, and he needed some special healing time too.  With the closing meditation, we all felt rejuvenated and ready to see the world.  We packed our bags and headed to the Santa Claus parade, Hawaiian style!  We enjoyed a Thai lunch, some great shopping and some fun experiences from the floats.  We met Doug and Trish's newest grandchild and shared some time with their family. 

At 5:30 we were on our way to the outdoor airport to catch our flight.  It was sad to leave.  We all enjoyed so much with this experience.  Hawaii is truly a magical place, and we felt that.  Mahalo.

Time to say Goodbye - Day 8

We began this morning like all the others, but Michellie was up and ready right away - what a switch from the start of the week.  We headed to our restaurant, and had our usual, and then got ready for the boat.  It once again needed to be fixed, but we were used to that and how the timing of the boat leaving the harbour was alway just perfect.  Today was part of the full moon cycle and an eclipse as well.  The water was running with different currents and the dolphins were scarce.  There were a few to greet us, and then they left.  We headed north and the water was very choppy.  We could not find the dolphins and had to keep travelling a long way.  David and Michellie ended up with sea sickness and spent all their time holding on to the boat.  All at once a Manta Ray was spotted, and then 11 surfaced.  Usually you have to take the boat out at night when they feed to find them.  Today, the waters had churned up the food and they were following some little microbes.  Chelsie-Anne and I jumped into the waters to be bitten by these little microbes, but the Manta's were too big a draw to care.  There were little pacman jelly fish, and long tubular jelly fish too.  But, the Manta's were incredible.  They were like angels floating in the water.  They would swim ahead of us, and then stop if we stopped.  At one point one turned to swim towards us, and Chelsie-Anne and I had to back paddle to get out of the way.  Another time we were just over top of one and it stopped. It opened its horn of skin on the front to expose an pearlescent shine that attracted the suns rays through the water.  It stopped and sat for what seemed like eternity or 60 seconds, and then it closed up the skin and swam away.  It was so surreal.  We feel very privileged to have been able to share such special moments with these incredible creatures. 

We headed back to the harbour since none of the boats could find the dolphins.  Once there, there was a small pod of about 20 - 30 swimming there.  It was in the boat channel, so we weren't supposed to swim there, but several boats parked and we jumped in.  We were all relieved to be able to say goodbye to the dolphins.  Michellie was quick into the water even after being sick.  David we let off at the docks as he couldn't handle any more topsy turvy water.  We swam in very murky water.  It was hard to see the dolphins until they were close, but they were swimming in circles around us, and they were calling.  It was so beautiful.  Afterwards we put down anchor and had our pineapple and lunch.  This time Michellie ate most of the pineapple herself.  We were all so happy to finish the day on a high note.



With Doug and Trish!



Upon our return we headed to the Cultural Center for the chance to make our own flower lei's.  This was so easy.  We were quick to finish our creations and then we headed upstairs to get ready for the gala.  We were heading to the Royal Kona Resort for "Lava Legends and Legacies" Luau.  We enjoyed incredible dancing and music.  As well as witnessed the unearthing of the roasted pig.  We tried Poi, and other Hawaiian delicacies.  It was a fun night.  We were all dressed to the nines and the pictures probably tell more.

Dolphin swimming again - Day 7

This is what greeted us this morning!



And, they just wanted to show us that play is so important!


Today the dolphins were not in the harbour to greet us, but they joined us on our ride northward.  They were ready to play, and they continually were splashing and spinning all along the route.  The swim today was about playing and being playful.  They were moving quickly, and we spent a lot of time in and out of the boat to keep up to them.  It was so interesting how they showed us such completely different sides each day.  Everyone was feeling good, and Michellie was able to let go of Doug's hand and swim on her own and with Chelsie-Anne.  David was challenged with his gear, and he was frustrated with getting sea water up the tube as he was breathing.  We were not sure if he was breathing so hard that he sucked it up or if there was really deficiency in all of his equipment.  Instead, he got some great photos today. 

After pineapple and lunch we headed back for an afternoon with more swimming, and I went snorkeling with the sea turtles in the lagoon at the hotel.  Next we headed to Heiau and the Kona Inn.   We sat on the shore line and watched the sunset in each our own special spots.  Then we headed for a great dinner beside the ocean.





We followed up the evening with a channelling session.  This was extremely powerful.  Trish supported us through the meditation, and channelled the dolphins to us.  They had powerful messages to share.  Afterwards we were all quick to bed.  David was so quick to bed that he fell asleep fully clothed and spread out like a star fish.  It wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that he noticed he still had a belt on and it was cutting into him.  We will receive the channelling messages on a tape, and I look forward to hearing all of it, as I seemed to disappear somewhere in the middle.  They sang to us through Trish and this was incredibly powerful as well.