Taking Care of Business

December 21, 2007 SugarSpawn

Dylan’s 9th Birthday was yesterday. Every year I marvel at the fact that he grew yet again, and think back to the days when he was a mere football in Daddy’s arms, fragile with heart problems and a sweet, happy baby.

This morning Daren text messaged me from work to tell me that Dylan’s cardiologist and the only other pediatric cardiologist here have both been recruited to Winnipeg and will be leaving London in June 2008. For 3 years, the Children’s Hospital has been trying to recruit a 3rd pediatric cardiologist with no luck and now we’re going down to zero?

Well shit.

I’m not complaining for us — Daren and I have the means to make an annual trip to Children’s in Toronto for Dylan’s workup. What bothers me is the children who need these doctors more frequently than us - some of which are in the intensive care units with Kawasaki’s or something equally scary, or awaiting operations, or whatever.

What bothers me is that there are parents who can’t afford to travel to and stay in Toronto for care. The one day I went to visit my cousin Jessica in the Toronto Children’s Hospital after her last surgery, it cost me around $50, between parking and gas (it was only a day trip). $50 bucks I can afford. But to families that need care for their babies and kids, $50 wouldn’t even begin to cover the expenditures of having a child in a hospital 2 hours away, not to mention the toll it would take on a family with other children, or in home where the parents aren’t together, or any number of things.

London is not a small town. There are 350,000 people in this city, and the hospitals here help people for miles around, so I’m sure if you added it all up, the staff at London’s hospitals care for a lot more than 350K. I know this is a financially driven decision - that health care is a business. But, A contingency plan will be put in place if they don’t hire new doctors in time they say? NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.
I could talk about the health care system up here and brag and say that most of the time, it’s really good. To be honest, in the entire world, there really is no place I’d rather be.

BUT.

Canadians boast about their “free” health care but we need to own it — we pay taxes that pay for health care and ought to be our own best advocates for it. Getting brushed off by the doctor is unacceptable. Waiting weeks or months for specialists is horrible. We pay for these services and I’m sick and tired of hearing that we ‘can’t switch family doctors because there aren’t any.’ The government needs to put some real money into the system!

Our health care system is fair, most of the time - I’ve had good care over the course of my life. But I’ve never had a major problem — the biggest things were the births of the kids (both smooth and fine) and Dylan’s Kawasaki’s Disease almost 9 years ago. For us, it’s been okay.

Having said that, I waited 8 months to get a therapist. There’s a lot that could have happened in 8 months. I could have gone a completely different way and destroyed myself, my kids, my marriage, taken my life, any number of things. Thankfully I leaned on the husband and he helped me to get through this time. Heck, he still is helping.

My family and I are extremely healthy, with the exception of Dylan’s heart. I’m grateful to be in the situations we are in, in terms of money, health and opportunities. Unfortunately, it isn’t like that for many people. These aren’t the first doctors we’ve lost here. I’m sure they won’t be the last.

It just makes me so very sad to know there are families here that need these guys.

Dr. Buffo & Dr. Pepelassis? We will miss you — both of you have been so kind to Dylan. Winnipeg is very lucky. And Dr. P? Dylan says hi to your son — the boys played video games together last year while Dylan was confined to a bed awaiting tests after a chest pain scare. Best of luck to you and your families.

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Also, I designed some buttons for a very worthy cause. Friday December 21st, 2007 is officially Frozen Pea Friday at Photrade and for every Pea photo you upload, we’ll donate $1.00 to the Frozen Pea Fund created for Susan Reynolds. (I have 3 more invites!) will donate to The Frozen Pea Fund - more info if you click the button:

and please spread the word:

Posted by Karen Sugarpants @ 12:07 am | 9 Comments

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time

December 13, 2007 SugarSpawn

For the last week or so, Thomas has been pretending my kid brother has been at our house (he’s 30, but still my kid brother). Every lunchtime, I’ve had to make an extra sandwich for Uncle Joel, making sure to cut it into triangles. Hey freeloader, you owe me $4 worth of peanut butter and grape jelly.

“Uncle Joel” has been here all week despite holding down a full time job & taking care of his girlfriend Mel, and their fur-babies. Thomas has been running all over the house, yelling, “Come on Uncle Joel! Take off your sweater Uncle Joel. Oh, I like your shirt Uncle Joel! Do you like my shirt Uncle Joel? Let’s play swords/cars/Lego Uncle Joel. YOU CAN BE THE BAD GUY.” Heh.

Thomas woke up from a rare nap this afternoon, crawled out of his tent (which he has been sleeping in for 3 weeks) and announced, “UNCLE JOEL FARTED IN MY TENT AND WOKE ME UP!”

“Oh no,” I said, “What are you going to do about that stinky Uncle Joel?”

“Throw him in the snow!” he exclaimed.

“That’s not very nice,” I offered. “Who will you play with if you throw Uncle Joel in the snow?”

“Auntie Mel,” Thomas said. “She smells good. Like chocolate pudding.”

Posted by Karen Sugarpants @ 10:08 pm | 16 Comments

With A Corncob Pipe and A Button Nose, and Two Eyes Made Out Of Lead

December 10, 2007 SugarSpawn

About 6 months ago, I dragged both kids to Build-A-Bear because Dylan had a Build-A-Bear and Thomas didn’t and I like things nice and even between them and won’t it be funny when Thomas is 10 and a half and I buy him a car that will have to sit in the driveway for 5 and a half years because Dylan will be 16 and have his own car and Jeebus I just realized we need a bigger driveway? Yes yes yes, I am also socking away money for therapy for the boys.

(Would you like some Imodium for that run-on sentence Karen? Why yes please!)

ANYWAY, it was around the time I went off to visit the Queen and her Royal Awesomeness of a Family and got to meet the loveliest of children, Jackson (Jack) and Hala. While they stole my heart, sadly I had to come back to my own spawn and talk about how children with voices like candy existed as mine sat, mouths agape with wonder over the perfect children (Erin’s laughing) that live in a place that NEVER. GETS. SNOW.

In sharing the pictures of my trip with the boys, Thomas became completely enamoured with the name Jackson and thus, Build-A-Bear did not have to be called anything lame. Jackson was born, here in Ontario, with fresh stuffing and an extra special ~~ripoff~~ heart that sent money to children’s charities ~~in countries where similar *cough* lead *cough* teddy bears come from.~~

Fast forward to this past Friday, when I brought home a Christmas decoration to fill up a sad, pathetic, empty space in our living room. He stands taller than Thomas, alongside a Christmas tree which we dressed with mini lights. He wears a brown leather coat and holds a pair of skis in his paws. He has a smile only a snowdrift could love.

And Thomas? Named him Jackson.