Have we ever known Lily to just let a happy event happen without throwing in her own little wrench? We went to Disney World and she pulled out her own g-tube for the first time, this time she had a playground donated and she got an infection around her stoma! We actually felt really bad for her – the entire site was swollen and gross looking, so after a playground visit with Theresa, Jason and Joey, it was off to the paediatric walk-in clinic for an antibiotic and then an appointment at Sick Kids the next morning for an ultrasound (to make sure that there was no abscess around the inside of her stoma that would rupture if we had to pull the g-tube). Luckily, the antibiotics had already started working so it was determined that we could wait a week or so to change the g-tube, which would give it a chance to heal completely. But we’ll be back to to Sick Kids just before the beginning of school to get it changed!
After all of that excitement there was nothing we were looking forward to more than our annual week at Camp JAC. Because of the playground build, we were there a week later than usual and it was funny how much the timing threw us off; for the past 5 years, camp was always the last hooray of summer before we came back to the city and started to see the usual signs that the summer was wrapping up: the weather is a bit cooler, the pools are starting to get less busy and the CNE has begun. This year, the CNE opened before we even left and we didn’t spend the August meteor shower laying out and watching it surrounded by our campers who want to do this cool thing but usually can’t pay attention long enough to actually see it happen.
But finally we arrived and it was like an amazing homecoming. From the minute the campers arrived, it was as though we had never left. I don’t think there is a week in the year where Jess and I laugh so much for so many days in a row. Between the jokes, campfires and lazy afternoons spent making friendship bracelets on the swing we always end up leaving feeling exhausted but revived. As each year passes, I find that I look forward to this week more and more and I feel less like I part of giving these campers a good time and more like they give so much more to me. The kindness and sense of family that exists between them makes my heart happy every single day. And really, truly, it’s impossible to be unhappy when a camper interrupts your thoughts with this exchange:
Grace: “Crystal”
Me: “Yes Grace?” (because this is the 18th time she’s said my name in 5 minutes)
Grace: “I love your eyes”
What I especially love is just the absolute and complete acceptance of our family to our campers. They have never questioned that Jessica and I are a family, and when Lily came along, they never questioned where her dad was, they just knew and accepted that we were both her mom’s. This year, we ended up having a long talk one afternoon about how Lily was adopted and what that meant. We explained to them that Lily was born to another mom and dad, but they weren’t sure they could take care of her, and so they let Jess and I adopt Lily. They asked if Lily ever saw her other mom and dad and we explained that she did and this just made so much sense to them – of course she would see them, they’re her family too. Sometimes you have to wish that life was this easy to explain to everyone.
The week did not go off entirely smoothly though. On Sunday morning I woke up with a sore throat, but it’s very dry at the house and so I thought that my sinus’ were just irritated. As the day went on I felt worse and worse and by the time I went to bed, I could feel that I had a bit of a fever. I was awake off and on all night and even with taking tylenol every 4 hours, I couldn’t get it to break. When I finally went and took a look in the mirror, I realized that my throat was so swollen and gross that I could barely see the back of it. Unfortunately, we were in a small town and so my only option (for lack of a walk-in clinic) was the town ER. After much shorter of a wait than I expected, I walked away with an unknown diagnosis but an IV in my hand and clinic visit booked at the closest CCAC office to go and get set up with an infusion pump so that I could have IV antibiotics administered every 8 hours for the next 3 days. The poor ENT actually thought that I had an abscess on my right tonsil but my throat was so swollen that she couldn’t get in far enough to see. The hope was that the antibiotic would treat it enough to bring the swelling down and get a good picture of what was going on. So, once a day, Jess had to drive me into the nearest city and wait for the nurses there to check my IV spot, move it if I had blown the vein – which of course I did on the second day – and then attach a new bag to my IV. Luckily when I went back to the ER on Thursday morning to get reassessed, they were much happier with the state of my throat and there is no abscess to be seen so I’m off the hook with another week of oral antibiotics and a strong recommendation to speak to my family doctor about having my tonsils removed – because apparently I’ve gone back in time to being 8 years old.
In the end though, it was a fantastic week, surrounded by some of the best people I know and sadly, before we knew it, it was over and we were back on the road to our own beds, a dinner with grandpa and Uncle Jeff, and a surprise in the mail for Lily – a new friend, who came with her own g-tube! Not only was it totally unexpected, we also have no idea where she came from, but are sending lots of thanks to this incredibly kind person!