Our trip to the Calgary Zoo... and back home again!

So Charlottes MRI was Tuesday July 6, then we were to be in the clinic for Thursday to start the next round of chemo. So what did we do on Wednesday? We were lucky enough to get a trip to the zoo in! Yolanda was here and we had a full day between Charlottes appointments... the weather cooperated and we even had grandparents to help out. The RMcD house gave us tickets so we could go and enjoy a day out. The girls loved it.

We brought two strollers so there would be no “my feet can’t walk” whining and covered most of the park. I think the girls had the most fun watching the monkeys although when we got back to RMcD a lady asked Yolanda what her favourite animal was and she said the snakes!?! I don’t even remember her pausing at the snake’s tank. (This is funny because on holidays in January we went to an aquarium and at the end she said her favourite was the dolphins... I was sure we had not seen any dolphins that whole day... once I went back though my pictures there was some cement ones in a fountain. Sometimes I wonder about what goes on in her head too!)

There was a cute baby gorilla out playing with his blankie, and the girls liked the butterfly gardens too.

Thursday we were dragging our feet and trying to get mentally prepared to get started with her chemo, the new “hard” phase. We were in clinic around 9:00 but the desk did not have an ID band ready for Charlotte... they had no record of her supposed to be coming in at all that day(and no drugs ordered.) So we thought maybe we were supposed to be over in the ward and that we would be given a room right away... nope they were not expecting us. Back over to the clinic we were sitting in the waiting room and a Doctor breezed out to see us, “Hi are you here to hear about her MRI results? The preliminary results came back clear and everything looks great.” Then he noticed that we were expecting some more information from him, “So, do you have some other questions....?” Apparently he had not heard about the “We are here for some non-existent chemo” part yet so we filled him in on our confusion. He looked quite surprised and said he would look into it. The confusion is stemming from the fact that our primary nurse has been quite sick for the past few weeks and three others are trying to shift his patients around... as usual we must have slipped through the cracks. So we met another new primary who promised she would get us all sorted out. So their solution... “Why don’t you go home until Tuesday 13th, then on Tuesday come in for her LP (lumbar puncture or spinal tap) Wednesday night you will be admitted for pre-hydration and next Thursday she will start her chemo.” Well we were both mad by the time she stopped talking... we were just not sure who we were mad at. LP? Why was this the first we had heard about that? Why was it not done while she was under for her MRI yesterday? Why wait and have to put her under again? Why could we not have just have waited until next week and just done the MRI then too... instead of bringing us up to Calgary for just the MRI and now sending us back home? Why do we have to wait a week, whose idea was that- her blood counts were ready, it’s just the hospital that was not ready.... Why did we just miss the little Calgary Stampede Parade that is done outside just for the hospital kids so we could sit here and have you tell us that we don’t have to be here!?! So we packed up and headed home for a few days.

We felt a little robbed of the joy of having a clear MRI, really that was all that should have mattered that day but it was clouded over with this frustration. It wasn’t until we were in the truck and on the road that the tension started to melt from our shoulders. Charlotte is healthy, eating well, un-side-affected, and happy and now we get to spend a few more precious summer days in our own back yard with Yolanda. We have a few more days to try and get her weight up. Her MRI is clear, there is no sign of cancer and that’s what really matters. Thank you GOD.