Mama Outpost: Voyage through Childhood Cancer

Shave for a Cure

On Monday, The University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine Smiling Over Sickness Group hosted their annual Shave for a Cure event in support of Childhood Cancer Canada. Every year, medical students raise funds, cut their luscious locks and shave their heads in support of Childhood Cancer Research. It was an honour to speak at this event…

In the News

This week has been trying in the news and has impacted me more then I can really explain. How can I feel such emotions for people I have never met? The news of Johnathan Pitre left me in sobbing tears as I pictured his mother by his hospital bed everyday and the familiarity just hit…

Time

Growing up I felt like I had all the time in the world. I was carefree and invincible. I believed in infinite possibilities. My friends and I would make up dances on the beach, we would climb tress and make forts. We jumped out of barns onto piles of hay or snow boarded down the…

1 Month in 3392 words #BellLetsTalk

#BellLetsTalk I see it all over Facebook. I understand the premise of it and I understand the truth behind it but sometimes when we suffer from depression and mental illness it just feel like talking won’t help. The fear of bringing other people too close or down outweighs anything else. I have tried to be…

Many Faces

Rows of faces, mothers, fathers, babies, children, teens. Walking through the halls, Going here and going there. In the waiting rooms, Sitting on plastic covered chairs. Doctors, patients, families, visitors. To appointments and scans and clinics and more. Adverted eyes, unspoken words, understanding smiles. This place. This place full of the best help but feelings…

Scanxiety

The phone rings, it is the MRI department at Sick Kids in Toronto. “Hello, is this the parent of Aiden Fotherby-Verk”, Yes I reply, “This is appointment reminder for December 15th at 1pm, no food or drink after midnight, clear fluids or apple juice until 10 am that day. Thank You” I hang up the…

A Simple Update

Everyday I have people ask how Aiden is doing. It has been a very long time since I have write anything. Trying to settle back into normal life over the last month has had its ups and downs. As we come to the one year mark when our world changed forever, I feel the effects…

It all just Filter

I have fought, I have pushed on, I have stood strong. I have fought the pain and the truth and I have kicked it down so hard I did not think it would ever appear. I swept it under the rug, into the corner, into the cracks. I dug a hole in the dessert and…

Closing a Chapter

"How did your weekend go?" the ultimate question…. moving out of the Ronald McDonald House Toronto after 5 month was very emotional. I said goodbye to another mother, who is on her second time being here and also on her 5 month mark. She is there with her husband, two healthy boys and sick daughter…

The Time to Talk

September 20th, 2016 we lay in Aiden’s Hospital bed chatting and joking. Eating candy apples and telling stories. Aiden was joking with the nurses over the red stickiness on his cheeks from the candy apples, “I am saving it for later” he told them. If I could go back in time to that night before…

1 Month Down 5 to Go

It is hard to believe our first month is DONE! One round down, five to go. (well technically 4 rounds because Aiden JUST got administered his second and we have 28 days till the next) And although I can not say this month did not have its ups and downs I can honestly say that…

Video: Enjoying the Rainbow!

After one of the worst weekends yet and I really wondered how we were going to get through this, Aiden wakes up this morning and asked to go for a walk!!!! March 8th will be a day I will never forget! It is the first time Aiden is really walking with no help! The first…