Swabbing, Llamas and Faith Journeys

It's been a busy few days...yesterday Ollie went into the OR under general anesthesia to have several simultaneous procedures: a lumbar puncture (LP) with intrathecal chemo,  an optomology exam to take another close look and take some pics of the back of his eyes, and a bigger PICC line inserted in his other arm with the smaller one taken out.

To support me, soul sister and best friend, Sonya drove up from Kingston (where she was visiting her sister and son) again to sit with me as as I waited. She has taught me so much about strength given that her daughter has had many health issues since birth and I have watched in admiration as she and her husband Jim have advocated tirelessly for their sweet daughter, Chasey. 

We had good news on the LP front in that once again they found zero lymphoma cells in there! So as I told my son, winning many battles on that front puts us in an excellent position to win the entire war.

I was also working with Canadian Blood Services to put together the promotions for a stem cell swabbing event that St. George School and Notre Dame High School are jointly hosting in Ollie's honor on March 5. I am grateful to Canadian Blood Services, Roisin Philippe and Mike Curry for making this happen and to Kelly McKibbin for the support (since she's done this before for her daughter, Hillary).

Also, last night our St. George Church hosted a prayer night for Ollie. Abby went "to represent the family" as she said, but Mario and I needed to be with Ollie after a difficult day of procedures and were sorry to miss it. We hear it was very who attended, a beautiful service and as usual our Abby impressed everyone with her strength, singing with the choir and taking softly to the little kids about what is happening to Ollie. Our deepest thanks to Monsignor Hans, Charity, Lindsay and Sherri for organizing the event and to all friends and community members who attended and prayed for our family. We are blessed to have you all as part of our "village". 

Today Ollie had a CT scan and tomorrow he'll have an MRI. We're not taking any more chances that those villainous lymphoma cells will hide now and so now we'll do full scans before every round of chemo. 

While he waited for the CT, Ollie played with Child Life Specialist, Meagan who produced moon sand and made him dig to find, feel and guess objects (he was really good).

A few days ago I tweeted a tongue in cheek tweet asking CHEO if anyone had seen Ollie's missing Llama. I had already checked with the OR and Recovery who knew nothing about our missing friend.

Funny enough, over the last 48 hours, everyone has retweeted it and started looking for either the original or a replacement llama. I mean people I've never met sending me messages offering to buy him new ones! Alex Munter, President and CEO of CHEO offering to buy him another if they couldn't find the original (no little detail is too small for him to help with!). Other amazing souls contacting vendors and Shoppers Drug Mart where we bought him, trying to locate another. Shoppers Drug Mart came through, saying that they had another that needed a home with a brave Lymphoma warrior named Ollie. The media contacted me asking if we'd do an interview about Llama. I talked to Ollie and we agreed as long as they would promote the upcoming stem cell swabbing event.

Around noon, Ollie and I were interviewed by CTV Ottawa News about the missing Llama Llama Blue Pajamas and stem cells...my boy was terrific. A born communicator (he was), he said all the right things with strength, conviction and vulnerability. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon finding Beyblades online for our little media mogul in gratitude and as a reward. 

This evening I was with Abby at her confirmation rehearsal. In the Catholic Church, confirmation is a big deal and is really about choosing to be a full fledged member of the church. In a strange way it seems pre-ordained that this year she has learned more about her faith and the strength of it, than ever before. She's actively practiced it as never before and she's ready to choose to be a full part of the church and is mature enough to do so. I am so happy that she believes so deeply and is on her own faith journey this year. I can't imagine her ever needing her faith more going forward in her life, but know that what she learns about faith from her brother's illness will shape her entire belief system from now on. Thank God the prayers are working. Keep them coming!