JibJab Halloween

The kids LOVE JibJab! So I made up this funny e-card for them.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Under(sewer)cover for Halloween

Ever since I have been doing Halloween costumes for Nick, I wanted to have something for his wheelchair as well as his walker. Nick has been very specific that he wants to do Halloween in his walker this year, but I still wanted a wheelchair costume for Nick.
So I wouldn't do anything big, but something fun.

This is my inspiration.

So I would make a sewer grate.
Easy right?

Espeically when I found a guide! http://www.thescrapshoppeblog.com/2013/09/diy-1-manhole-cover.html

I got some foam and some sticky letters. I glued the foam down on the cake pan.

When I covered it in foil, the NYC SEWER didn't stick up high enough. So I did it again.

 I wasn't too sure about the painting, or my painting abilities.
But it doesn't actually  need to be neat or anything.

Overall, with some trial and error it took a couple of hours to get this. It should be able to withstand any rain if we have it, Nick really likes that he is sitting under a sewer grate.

The walker costume will be coming soon!

All ready for a shell-raising good Halloween!

When it was time to come up with our Halloween costume this year, Nick was very specific about what he wanted to be this year.
Ninja Turtles!

And also that he wanted to go trick-or-treating in his walker.
So then came the planning.

And of course it had to be some kind of waterproof alternative that I could paint and stick together.

We had all of these floor mats available, The bottom side provided a smoother surface that I can paint. The mats fit together, can be taped and glued, cut and painted. And waterproof!

The shellraiser (the new-age turtle van) is actually a subway car. So we needed some subway doors and windows.

 The windows are actually boarded up. So I got some wood-looking foam that I glued in place over the windows.  And the green roof is taped in place.

The design is the show combined with the toys to get an idea of what I should
The back of the shellraiser has blue rockets and some kind of red  bumper at the back. The Shellraiser sign is on the back too. And the back of the walker helps to keep it in place.

After putting it together I wanted to make sure I got the grafitti right. I practiced on some spare pieces to use my spray paint right, because I only had the one chance.
Purple, red, orange and blue graffitti, and of course 'Turtle Power' on one side, and 'TMNT' on the other side. I outlined the words to make it stand out more. We added a marshmallow shooter gun, and a roller-bumper in the front.

Nick-angelo loves it!

If you know Ninja Turtles and Michaelangelo in specific you may know that he is the party dude that also yells out "Cowabunga", in the 80's show, and "Booyagasha" in the current show. Nick likes both of them, so I added something in the front of the shellraiser to make it look more like a van/subway care.

And Cowabunga! Nick is all ready for Halloween!

Children's Police Games

In our second of year of what I expect to be an annual tradition of participating in the Durham Regional Police (DRP) Children's Games. The website is pretty awful. Just writing, you can't actually get how exciting and fun these games are!

We went last year for the first time. It is a free event hosted by the Durham Regional Police for children with physical disabilities to participate and compete in a variety of athletic events.

The kids get divided up into teams, the Grandview/Campbell's kids from the school were together in one team. Nick was part of the Auxiliary team this year. Actually Auxiliary police are part of our team as well. Last year Nick got tired and overwhelmed. This year he was excited.

The day starts with a parade of the kids coming in. Nick was all ready to lead the pack this year!

There was a moment of silence for solider, Cpl Nathan Cirillo killed at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at the War Memorial in Ottawa in the attack on the Canadian Parliament this week. And honouring everyone whose job it is to protect us every day. It was very emotional having the moment of silence and bagpipes playing.

There were other speeches in the opening ceremony and then it was time for the games to begin!

Katheryn came for a little while, but then she got bored and left with Kyle to be with grandma and have fun.

Nick played the games, they had some practice shots, and then actual shots that counted as points for the competition part of it.

There was bowling

And basketball

There was golf

 And wheelchair rugby!
(That was my favorite)

There was a relay. To dress (and undress) the police man

And hockey

There was parachute game (Nick's favorite part was playing under the parachute)

But the actual game was the put the balls into the specific holes

There was a big ball that needed to be pushed from one end of the gym to another.
Nick ran in his walker, pushing the ball with is head

There was also curling

And some bocci ball

Nick got the spend the day with his friend Alej!

Between some of the games we had time for a team photo.
This is the kids on the team, the volunteer helpers (one of them Nick's EA from school and her son, another a retired teacher from Campbells), and the Police who were part of our team.

They also had Nova's Ark was there with a bunch of their critters, including this tarantula spider (but they also had some fluffy things)

 And there was Elsa.
Nick saw her while we were playing one of the games and all he wanted to do was have a picture taken with Elsa!

As expected Nick got tired during the games. Part of the day is spent in the tennis courts, and part is spent in one of the large party rooms. So this year we brought Nick's walker and wheelchair in with us so that when this happened...

We had a backup plan

"No Mommy, I'm not tired"

There was a big lunch with a live band and we got to have some pictures taken together

We even stole up on the stage!

After lunch they had a game of wheelchair rugby between the police and the highest team. The kids team won (of course) something like 20-1. It was a lot of fun to watch (even though Nick doesn't look like he is having fun)

At the end of the day every kid got to go  up and get a medal. And one participant from each team got a Spirit Award. And Nick won!

It was another great day! Can't wait until next year!

MACE update

We continue to battle with the granulation tissue. Every time I think I have it healing something else brings us right back to the beginning. I also have a feeling that Nick has been scratching at it. If you have no desire to see pictures of granulation tissue in the belly button up close... just skip this post

There has been trial and error in the process. I have been taking pictures every night to try to look over the progress. Which gives anyone who looks at my phone pictures a bit of a double take.

We used an antacid, Milk of Magnesia, in a liquid that I put a small layer on with a Q-tip. I also tried to soak the Milk of Magnesia in a gauze square. After about 3 or 4 days I found that it wasn't making any difference.So I thought I'd try my other plan. The Tea tree oil.
I mixed 1 1/2 tsp of water with 3 drops of tea tree oil, soak a gauze pad and taping the pad in place for a couple of hours. The first couple of times the skin around the belly button turned red, so I added vaseline around the belly button, so that only the granulation tissue would get 'treated'.

 After doing it for a couple of days I started to have some difficulty putting the catheter in. Because the tea tree oil helps wounds to heal, I was afraid that it was helping too much and starting to close the stoma.
I looked up a bit more online and found that the sites that discussed the tea tree oil had a catheter left inside the stoma. So After our nightly routine I cut a line into a gauze soaked with the tea tree oil and wrapped it around the catheter. Then the taped the whole thing down and left it in over night. Kind of like how the catheter was left as the MACE started healing originally.

That worked pretty well.
Except for the skin issues.

Regular hospital tape left red marks, Clear tagaderm (the IV covering clear tape) actually left blisters. Paper tape and the white dressing tape were the only ones that Nick's belly did not react to. Except that it leaves his belly all sticky, but in the long run using some Remove pads helps.

I've left the belly button open to air some days and covered it with a bandaid other days. I think that the bandaid helps to protect it when/if Nick scratches at it. It will look like it is healing well, and then the next time I turn around it is right back to where it was. Any irritation no matter how small makes the granulation tissue grow. The progress we see is measured in mm. It is very frustrating.
The only thing that keeps me from really freaking out is that it doesn't actually both Nick. It is all just cosmetic.


One night the catheter came out and sat against the tissue and irritated it. Back to square one
Another day the gauze that is on the inside of the bandaid came undone and was resting against the tissue and irritated it.
One little scratch and we are back to square one


I am continuing to treat it with the tea tree oil and the Milk of Magnesia, but in the end I think that we are not doing anything to prevent the use of the silver nitrate. Maybe keeping the granulation tissue from getting worse?
I only hope that the silver nitrate will actually be a solution.

Because in a month between these pictures, I'm not sure how much progress we actually made

 Of course for those that are interested I'll follow up with how the Silver Nitrate works out. I've been in contact with the urology NP and she wants us to continue. We see Urology for follow up the beginning of November (and hopefully the Silver Nitrate).