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Oct 16/08 - The Mother Loader

6/24/2011

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The Mother Loader
Category: Life 

I've often mentioned before in previous blogs about some of the adventures 
we had with Darrel while driving to various locations in the van.  There were 
his quick and snappy responses to almost anything and everything that was going 
on, the constant sounds from his GameBoy and/or portable DVD player, and the 
complaining about how long the trip was taking.  It is the last point which I'm 
going to focus on this time.

Our home in Fergus is just over an hour's drive away from Toronto, where 
the Hospital For Sick Children is located.  Because it is situated (with
several other of the major hospitals) in the heart of the city, travel time
could vary greatly due to traffic, construction and/or any other reason at any
point in the day.  As most of his appointments were earlier in the morning, we
would usually hit the worst of it each trip...everytime!  We often would
encounter several points where we would have to slow down (or come to a
complete stop) along the way.  While on the 401, outside Milton was always hit
and miss, around Pearson  International Airport/427 on-ramp could be interesting
(to say the least), but the guarantee traffic jam was trying to get on the
Gardiner Expressway!

For the longest time, Darrel would call the Gardiner the 'Mother-Loader'.  
With so many on and off ramps, and collectors lanes converging so close 
together, it must have seemed quite overwhelming to a young boy from a small 
town.  Stop and Go traffic would almost always to the norm from this point on 
until we made it to Sick Kids.  But it was the 'Mother Loader' part of the 
journey Darrel dreaded the most.  After being bugged about his chosen name for 
the highway, he eventually called it the 'Gardener', but I could still get a 
rise out of him by calling it the 'Lawn Mower', 'Snow Plower', or something
else along those lines.  He would seldom lose his temper with me on any matter
(with his sisters was a completely different matter), but I sometimes had to
watch myself during these exchanges.

Reading blogs that other parents have posted has made me appreciate how 
fortunate we were to have been as close to a institution/facilty like Sick Kids 
as we were, and how trivial a delay on the 401 was compared to what other 
families had to contend with.  While we were relatively short travelling 
distance to all the places where Darrel received treatments, others families
had to endure even longer drives, and in some cases the child needed to travel
by plane to another city, province/state, or even a different country. 
Remembering  how much time and effort was made to keep Darrel safe and
comfortable during our  trips, I can't even imagine the precautions that would
be needed to transport a  child with limited or no functioning immune system,
and/or in great pain, through a busy public airport!   I was of course always
worried that our old van could break down, get a flat in the middle of no where
on a cold winter's night, or was concerned about what could be floating around
in the air if we had to stop at Tim Hortons for a washroom break.  At least
with these possible  situations, we could somewhat control most of the variables
involved.  I can think about it in those terms now, but when it is your child,
no obstacle is big enough to slow you down, or give a seconds worth of
hesitation to.  You do what  you have to do...End of story!

There were alot of panicky trips with Darrel, due to high fevers or other 
medical concerns, but these were only to our satellite hospital (affiliated
with Sick Kids) in Kitchener.  Had we needed to drive to Toronto in such cases,
those often long and stressful drives would have seemed excruciatingly longer,
and extremely more stressful!

It's odd that I can reflect back somewhat more fondly now on the countless 
early morning traffic jams, barreling through snow drifts in the middle of the 
night on Trafalger Road, and of course, the Mother Loader.  There were a few 
times when we had to call Sick Kids and say we couldn't make it in, but for the 
most part, we got Darrel there somehow.  The many rounds of chemo, various 
tests, and weeks of radiation had been scheduled well in advance, and every 
effort had to be made to achieve them, but it wasn't always easy.  Though they 
were often lengthy and unpleasant, these adventures getting back and forth to 
Toronto made up a large part of the last two years of Darrel's life, therefore 
can not be easily overlooked, forgotten, or looked upon without complete 
amazement.
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    The majority of all these entries were written by Darrel's father, Stephen.  For those that are not, efforts have been made to give proper credit where it is due.

    The bulk of the posts are in the June 2011 Archives Section, as that is when I transferred them over to this site.  Category Tags should allow you to find entries easier.

    I've tried to correct spacing issues on many of the entries, as most of the older ones have been copied from different sites I've used in the past. I apologize if some have been overlooked.

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