To those struggling I can relate even though we don’t have the lockdowns some have seen other than a minor lockdown a year ago. After Christmas we were getting really frustrated with everything and kids were driving us nuts. January 28 we found out our 10 year old daughter had a mass in her abdomen during a completely unrelated appointment and her white blood cell count was off. At first they were thinking her colon or uterus. A bunch of test were fast tracked and off to the Stollery for us. A CT scan there showed a 10cm ovarian dermoid cyst - they can sometimes be cancer. 10 days after surgery the pathology report showed it was benign. We are still waiting on one tumour marker to return to normal. I can tell you that was 3 weeks of hell waiting to find out if your daughter has cancer while the rest of the world carried on - and her sister and my mom who flew over to help couldn’t visit her while she was in the hospital. We did not care at all about the pandemic at that point. Im definitely not knocking mental health but there are a lot of people with other struggles going on as well. We made the best of it and really pulled together as a family. Life can change in an instant. Do what you can to make the best of it now - I still need that reminder occasionally.
Absolutely. I even said above that at the end of the day our health is most important, we don’t have anything without our health. I am very grateful and thankful my family is healthy.
It goes without saying that a family tragedy, cancer etc would make the pandemic fade in the background, not that important at all.
Nothing else matters when a family has to deal with something like this or another tragedy. However ... it would also be the case if there was no pandemic. Your world stops dealing with things like this and we all quickly realize how nothing else matters but our health. So I completely agree with you and I am so happy to hear it wasn’t anything really serious with your daughter.
I think when people talk about the mental health issues they are dealing with during the pandemic, the effects on their kids, not being able to travel etc - it’s not to take away from really really serious issues people may be dealing with, even though mental health issues can also sometimes have tragic outcomes.
I worry about my almost 12 yo if things lock down again, he is only starting to act semi-normal again. When you see a child who was athletic, confident, strong student and happy change into an anxious, stressed, scared and lacking motivation child - in a matter of a year is very very troubling to a family. As his parents we are positive and optimistic, yet it’s not always enough for these kids, especially in the tween/teen years.They are surrounded by 24/7 covid negativity.
Like you are saying though, we are trying to get through it and make the best of the current situation. It’s about balance in my opinion, yes it could be much worse, yes my kids sports or our vacations don’t matter much if something serious happened in our lives. In my family, we are definitely trying to step back and appreciate the little every day things and teaching our kids same. I think we have to be grateful for the every day as you said life could change in an instant, but at the same time improving our mental health is so important we have to try and do whatever we can to move forward.
This past year will be one that will have a profound effect on how we go on with our lives. At least I think.
I do wish for better times ahead for everyone no matter what you’re dealing with.
I’m so glad we have Dis - as everyone here loves Disney and travel and at the same time it’s just wonderful people dealing with real life issues, supporting total strangers and offering great advice.