A night of Courage

On Friday, July 8, Urban Male Magazine(UMM), Canada’s Best Selling Men’s Magazine, is holding the first official A Night of COURAGE.  It’s one night dedicated to raising important funding in support of Cancer Survivorship Care programming at the Maplesoft Centre. 

It's a perfect example of how local businesses are joining the fight for cancer survivorship. Their efforts are helping reach a new generation of donor.

On July 8, 100% of Cover Charge, Donations and Silent Auction proceeds from the UMM establishments listed below will benefit ‘A Night of Courage’

LOBBY  Nightclub @ 158 ½ Dalhousie St.

Tila Tequila Nightclub @ 104 Clarence St.

Buddha Bar Lounge @ 104B Clarence St.

Mansion @ 400A Dalhousie St.

Union Station Pub Club @ 360 Elgin St.

I hope many of you will join in on a night on the town and a night of courage. 
 

You could feel the energy

It was amazing to be part of the 13th edition of the Alterna Do It for Dad Family Run and Walk. Not only was there record participation and money raised, but you could feel this positive energy ripple through the entire site. It's a unique running event. Given it's Father's Day, you have all generations represented from babies in strollers to the 70+ who actually ran the race. Over two thousand people participated in this year's event topping last year's number by over 500. It was such a beautiful day in Ottawa -- sunny, little wind, no humidity and a celebratory feeling that had everyone smiling.

It was a sea of grey Do It For Dad t-shirts -- 56 corporate teams, 49 family teams and waves of individual participants. Max Keeping, one of the founders of this event and such a powerful community ambassador led the formal presentations with his warm and familiar voice. Greg Herbert and Team greggybear were front and centre having raised over $72,000. Just about everyone in that crowd has been touched directly or indirectly by cancer and that's a powerful incentive to get involved and contribute.

Together we are making a difference one victory at a time.
 

Two more sleeps until Do It For Dad

The Cancer Foundation offices have been buzzing all week as staff get set for this weekend's Alterna Do It For Dad Family Run and Walk. We are looking at a record number of participants this year -- nearly 2,000. We added a new 5 km walk this year that has proven really popular. We already had the 2 km family walk, but I think people wanted a little more exercise without necessarily running. 

The Alterna Do It For Dad is by far one of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation's biggest fundraisers and we are lucky to have some great sponsors to support us especially Alterna as our title sponsor. This year, the money raised is going to help fund a very cool robotic surgery system called the Da Vinci surgical system. In a nutshell, it will minimize surgeries, reduce recovery time and shorten hospital stays and those are all very good things.

Anyone who has ever been involved in organizing an event of this size can appreciate the work that goes into the backend. I have to give a very big shout out to our event planning team and all of the Cancer Foundation staff, for putting together what looks to be a fantastic event. It even looks like Mother Nature is going to cooperate which is always a bonus.  

It's not too late to join in and Do It For Dad. You can still register on event day starting at 6:30 a.m.

Staff members at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation are looking forward to moving into the new Cancer Survivorship Centre on Alta Vista Drive that is nearing completion. They are even more excited about what it will mean for cancer survivors in the region and their families. 

The 11,634 square foot home, located adjacent to the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park, is about to transform cancer care in our region. It has been designed with the comfort and care of cancer survivors and their families in mind. The idea was to create an attractive, warm and inviting environment where survivors could access services often overlooked or simply not covered in traditional cancer care. Dozens of workshops and programs will be offered free of charge and without referral dealing with all sorts of issues from eating right, to dealing with financial issues, to improving the quality of sleep and even music therapy.

Many of these programs are being offered right now. You can visit the Cancer Foundation website to see what workshops and programs are available and to register.

The Cancer Foundation broke ground on this innovative centre in 2010 and it’s exciting to be near the end of the construction.  Many professionals were consulted before and during the construction of the home resulting in details that will make a significant difference — things like radiant floor heating, fully-equipped teaching kitchen, zero VOC paints, cozy fireplace, lots of energy-efficient windows resulting in tons of natural light, and a carpet system that involves no glue or harsh chemicals.

 

Stay tuned for more information and pictures as the Cancer Survivorship Centre progresses.

Where do you go from here?

As we continue to attend appointments and have blood work/tests every couple of months, our thoughts turn to the future.

We are happy that Andy’s health is returning to normal, and that we are able to live our life with some sense of normalcy again. We always still feel a little funny when we get to the Cancer Centre for appointments, but that may always be there.

But we are living for the now and having a great time as a family.

We are also turning our thoughts to giving back. It was an honour blogging for the Ottawa Cancer Foundation this week, and I thank you for reading along.

The Alterna Do it For Dad Walk and Run on Father’s day will be a perfect way for us to celebrate Andy’s health and we look forward to participating. I hope you consider it too.

Our future is bright but we can’t take our health for granted. It’s surprising how quickly circumstances can change.

Wishing you and your family good health.

Food: Friend or Foe?

Of all the things we began to worry about in the first few days of Andy’s diagnosis, we didn’t realize that food was going to be one of them. At first, we had no desire to eat because of stress. Then, as Andy started treatment (or after surgery), we realized that what he could and wanted to eat would greatly change. We stopped eating most dinners at the table as a family. I would eat with the kids, and he would eat when he could.

We were very fortunate to have wonderful friends and family who helped by bringing meals, offering meal gift certificates and making sure we were well stocked with food. This was incredibly important and immensely helpful.

Eventually it became clear that there were certain foods that Andy preferred. The grocery list looked sort of like this:

• Ginger cookies

• Cottage cheese

• Tuna

• Crackers

• Eggs

• Toast

• Rice

• Oatmeal

• Macaroni and Cheese

• Baked potato

And oddly, the occasional fast food hamburger was a must.

It was repetitive but we learned to stick with what he liked and knew. If we tried something else, it often went to waste.

He noticed his taste buds changed, so some food he greatly enjoyed wasn’t the same anymore. And in some cases, while trying to control the nausea, he didn’t want to eat his favourite foods for fear he’d never disassociate treatment with the food.

He lost weight, but little by little and not drastically. He ate what he could, when he could, at all hours of the night and day.

When treatment was over, and he finally could taste his favourite foods again, it was like a new awakening for him. He was enjoying food and able to eat what he wanted.

And we all started sitting at the table for dinner again.

Parenting with Cancer

In the early days of my husband’s diagnosis, everything we did seemed on autopilot. It was hard to have our usually fun-filled days with the kids. We kept them busy but we weren’t really in touch with anything else that was happening.

Surgery happened within 5 days of diagnosis, and luckily we had family around to watch the kids while we were at the hospital.

It wasn’t until Andy came home from the hospital to recover that him being sick seemed to set in. He wasn’t able to play (or move easily for that matter) and certainly couldn’t go to the park to play baseball with our son like he once had.

As we dealt with his recovery, and then chemotherapy which led to us being away for many hours at a time, we realized we needed a plan. We had to make the process as easy as possible on us and the kids.

Here are some recommendations that we learned may make the process a little easier:

1. Talk to the kids and fill them in according to their age. Be honest, but select your words wisely

Our children weren’t quite 2 and 4 so we stuck with general ‘daddy’s sick’ or ‘daddy has an ouchie on him that we have to be careful with’. We actually didn’t tell them about ‘cancer’ until he had to start chemotherapy.

When he started chemo, we were once again honest with them (mostly my son, as my daughter was too young to understand) about physical changes they would notice. Fatigue, loss of hair etc.

2. Line up a team of child care helpers and plan the schedule

We pretty well knew ahead of time who we could call during the day for appointments, last minute emergencies in the middle of the night (in case a fever spiked or reaction to medicine) and also lined up people who could care for them during our big weeks in treatment.
These are also the people that you want to encourage your children to talk to (in addition to you) if they have any concerns or worries while you are away.

3. Don’t change routine or habits any more than need be

Now is not the time to change sleeping times, eating habits or start potty training. Keep them on a routine as much as possible and let them have some flexibility – you’ll need it too.

4. Have an emergency bag ready to go

Ours had a change of clothes for each child, diapers and wipes, a few favourite books and toys. This was ready in case we had to change child care plans suddenly or had to drop them off somewhere that was unplanned.

5. Cut yourself some slack

There is nothing normal about what is happening to your family. The kids will become emotional at times (ours did) and ask a lot of questions (ours did) and that’s perfectly normal. You will be overtired and long for routine yourself. It will feel like you are failing them somehow because you aren’t playing as much etc. It’s ok.

When possible, spend as much time as a family together as you can, playing board games or reading stories. It will seem harder on the kids than it really is. Mine rarely talk about the hospital or when daddy was sick anymore.