Radioathon

We had a great time down at Sick Children's Hospital. They had their annual Radioathon with 1010CFRB, 99.9The Mix and EZ Rock. We where on 1010 and 99.9 which was great, it is nerve racking to be on the radio for the first time but I think we did pretty good. Except on "The Mix" when I did the plug for Shania's Fun Fair and gave March 28TH instead of April 28TH ooops my mistake. Some bad news about our cat Whiskey, he has been acting funny lately and not jumping up on things which is very strange for him, because he is a curious cat by nature and is always checking things out. We took him over to the vets yesterday to be checked out. They found a tender spot on his lower back when he gave them a very nasty hssss. The Doctor recommended xrays and Shania asked the Doctor if he is going to get a cat scan :) We dropped him off early this morning and headed down for the radioathon. When we got back home the Doctor called and told us that Whiskey has a broken Femur at the ball Joint. She said that the surgeon said that this particular type of cat can have a predisposition to this kind of problem, and that he will have to have surgery to either pin the Femur head or do a Femoral head Excision which is the removal of the head of the Femur. We asked for 3RD and 4TH opinions from other surgeons and they are recommending that he has the Excision done, just because it will most likely happen again. They say that he will be able to walk normally and not have any problems. My concern is what if he breaks the other hip? We have until Friday to decide what we want to do, this being the first opening he has for surgery. On a better note the tickets for Shania's Fun Fair are in now hot off the press! We are trying to get a rough estimate as to how many people are coming so we can gauge how much supplies we'll need. So get your tickets early if you can please.
Thanks,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Spring has sprung!!!

Boy we sure are looking forward to this spring and summer. We have so many things we want to do! Camp Quality had it's Puppet show launch today at Reesor park school. Ronald McDonald house is sponsoring this great children's cancer educational show. It was truly an honour for us to be a small part of this. Also a thanks to Mrs Porter(principal) and Reesor park School for agreeing to host this great cause. Shania started her six month treatment of Cis Retinoic acid which is a vitamin A derivative. This has been found to help cells mature which hopefully prevents the cancer from returning. The main side effect is dryness of the skin. She did a fairly good cut on her middle toe on the weekend, So I called Julie Constantine (Nurse coordinator)to see if she needed to get her tetanus shot again, seeing that the bone marrow transplant knocked out all of her immunizations and she can catch the Chicken Pox again. She said that Shania would have to get that and a Immune Globulin shot also(to help build her immune system). I'm glad I called because we don't need any surprises like lock jaw right now. We found out when our family will be on the radiothon for Sick Children's Hospital, it's next Wednesday March 28TH at 1:00PM for 1010CFRB and 1:30PM for 99.9MIX FM. We are all very excited to be in this fund raiser for these children :)
Chow for now,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Shania, Shannon and Shayne at Mount Nemo September 2006.
What a beautiful fall day it was.

Princesses

We feasted at the mighty and mystical kingdom of Medieval times. Our Princesses Shania and Shannon thoroughly enjoyed this realm of magnificent horses, brave knights, the match to find a champion of the kingdom and the heart of the Princess Esperanza. We were in the red knights realm and cheered him on. but it was not to be for the red night, as he was fallen by the evil Lord Marshall at the end of the match. After the show we got to meet the brave knights of the realm. Our red knight came right over to Shania and Shannon to say hi and we got some pictures. On our way out I went to the washroom, and while they were waiting for me, the evil knight Lord Marshall chanced upon them. But fear not because our strong and brave little Princess Shannon stared him down for the scoundrel that he is. My Queen Karen said it was quite cute to see.

Shania is so excited to be going back to school tomorrow, and can't wait to see all of her friends. Also whiskey is back home now and seems to have settled right in to his routine again. But I think that he will miss his home away from home, our kind neighbor's John and Marilyn's place. We are blessed to have such great neighbor's. A huge thank you goes out to you, and everyone else who has supported us through this last year. you are every day heros to us. xoxoxoxox :)
Sincerely,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Is March Break over yet?

On Thursday we had another meeting with Dr Baruchel and he says that everything is going well with Shania's treatment. Shania had two big questions for him. First was if she could have her cat Whiskey come back home and second could she go back to School . His answer was yes to Whiskey, and yes she can go back to School after March Break. And as you can guess her next question was "Is March Break over yet?" Three more radiation treatments left and then we'll see if this spot still shows up on the MIBG scan. We hope it is gone and then they can officially say she is in remission. We are booked in to go to Medieval Times Theatre for Tuesday we where supposed to go with Karen's Mom and Dad Bob and Ida during Shania's chemo treatments but Shania ended up in the Hospital on that day, so we had to get a rain check. I remember the first time we went there it was a blast. Shania and Shannon loved it, especially Shania when one of the knights kissed a white carnation and gave it to her. The look on her face was priceless. So I think it's safe to say that they are looking forward to going again! While we're on the subject of kind gestures, Thursday night we got home from Shannon's skating lesson, and met Danny Shields from Shania's class and his mom Pam in our driveway. Danny was holding a decorated box with money inside. He and his family asked all the people coming to his skating Birthday party to donate money to Shania's fund raising efforts instead of giving presents. Wow!!! another one of those moments that takes your breath away. Thank you to the Shields Family.
Sincerely,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Shania's Helping Hands

A big thank you to Beth Dawson, Brittany Allison, Sarah Chlan, Doug Mitchell and Elijah Sherk for raising $465.31 for Shania's Sunflower of Hope and the James Fund for Neuroblastoma research. These five incredible students of Reesor Park School (Shania's School) chose Shania for their charity project and had a bake sale last week. They called their fundraiser" Shania's Helping Hands ". Everyone can make a difference in this world and you are fine examples of that.
We would also like to thank Vikki Pappas for ordering 20 necklaces for her daughters Birthday, to be given out instead of loot bags, great idea! Hope you have the best Birthday ever Georgia!!

Shania has finished day six of radiation and is still not showing any side effects yet, which is just fine by us.
Sincerely,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

So far so good

Shania has finished four days of radiation and hasn't had any side effects as of yet, which is a great relief to us. She could get an accumulative effect of fatigue from the radiation still, but so far so good. We all went to a play at Shania and Shannon's School and really enjoyed ourselves. It was great for Shania to see all of her friends from Reesor Park. Hopefully she will be back soon. We all have been invited to be in the radio-a-thon for the Hospital for Sick Children at the end of March. We don't know all the details yet but it sounds like it will be fun. I think EZ Rock is one of the stations but don't know the rest yet. They have you tell your experiences of what the Hospital means to us and how things are working out. Also Camp Quality is launching their puppet show at Reesor Park with Ronald McDonald house as the sponsor. It is a great honour to be a part of this function. This will be on March 22nd at 11:00 AM.
Chow for Now,
Shayne,Karen, Shania&Shannon.