My family and I moved from Holland to Canada 7 years ago, in 2003. Was quite the move, but looking back on it I would do it again in a heartbeat. It took us about a year to adapt to the Canadian way of living. Working hard, but enjoying our new life and excited for the future.
Both my girl and my boy were doing fine; making friends, learning a new language, exploring their new environment and enjoying life “in the country”.
One day my girl gave me the biggest scare of my life. (I mention this, because looking back on our whole ordeal I believe this is how or where it all started.) We were close to Halloween and she wanted to try on her costume. To make it all look official I suggested I would do her face makeup too. (That’s kind of a hobby for me.) I believe she wanted to be some kind of princes fairy or whatever, forget the exact nature of her outfit. I asked her to close her eyes so I could paint them. She couldn’t do it and I was a little upset with her, for I thought she was kidding me. The next morning I looked at her and the whole right side of her face drooped. I was freaked out, but I calmly send her off to school and immediately contacted our family doctor. I was sure she had a brain tumor or some other scary abnormality in her brain. The doc told us she had Bells’ Palsy. A temporary “miss-wiring” of the facial nerve, often caused by an infection of some kind in the body. In most cases this disappears on its own, some cases need further treatment, and in very rare cases the nerve is permanently non functioning.
Phew, we got away good there, within a day or 10 all was well and life went on as normal.
Since my girl is on the tiny side, we thought it might be nice for her to start doing Karate, to get her a little stronger and it was a great way to get her involved in sports too. She seemed to enjoy it and it went well ….for a few months. One day, all of a sudden boom, she had a knee the size of a football. She complained of pain. At first I was a little upset with her, for I thought she was playing me. She wasn’t injured, she didn’t fall, never bumped it, there were no bruises, so; suck it up and stop whining.
Soon I realized that a big, fat, warm, swollen knee was not something you could fake. We went to see our family doctor again and that is when all the testing began.
To be continued!
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