May 28, 2009

It has been a crazy busy month of May. Sam and I took off for the long weekend in May to travel to Vernon with our dirt bikes and ride through the mountains around Kalamalka lake. It was a fanastic weekend. We were able to ride almost the whole distance to Oyama under the power lines. We rounded one corner, high up in the mountains and Sam encountered a Cougar. I was behind him, removing a log from the road so by the time I came up to Sam, he was already turned around and ready to head home. His eyes were as wide as saucers.

The next day we traveled the road again with Nathan and Carson and their buddies from Kelowna (Michael and James). It was really great fun. The weather was spectacular. Sam even went swimming with Nathan and Carson. Swimming to their swim dock was a little bit crazy because the water was incredibly cold - but they did it. Sam even went wakeboarding with a wetsuit on.

On Friday night he woke up with a fever and we had to go into the Vernon hospital to check it out. They were great. They whisked him into an isolation room, got a nurse who could access his VAD and hooked him up to an IV right away. It was 2am in the morning so it wasn't the most pleasant experience but they were really great to us. They gave him a round of anti-biotics and by 6am we were out of the hospital heading back to the cabin. Walking into the hospital, Sam was very upset at the thought that he may have to spend the whole weekend in the hospital but in the end, he got better and we didn't miss anything. I was pretty tired though because as usual, he got the hostpital bed and I got the hard chair beside the bed.

This week was the athletic awards night at our school. It was a great success to see all the athletes recognized for their effort this year. Kate received MVP of the basketball team and also Athlete of the Year for the school. It was a great evening.

Sam and Debbie are in Vancouver at BCCH this week for Sam's treatment of Spinal Injections. As much as we're living our lives as normally as we can as a family, these trips to the hospital always bring back the reality of Sam's serious illness. He has great hopes that all this treatment has cured him of his leukemia. It is a long, long waiting period for us to find out whether he is cured.

Kate organized a bottle drive for another family in our school. Their family is going through a tough time because their father has Lymphoma and there isn't much more the doctors can do for him. He is in his 30s and they have three boys. Kate organized a bottle drive for all the families in our school to bring bottles last Friday. Bottles and Bucks for the Whytes! She helped to raise over $12,000 for the family so that they could landscape their yard this spring (which is presently just dirt). It was a great way for the community to rally around this family.

Thank you for your prayers. Everyone here is looking forward to the summer.

Gerry