Navigating my way through school and life, dealing with the asthma as it comes
Well I’m off for a whole week and I’m certainly not taking my computer with me! My family and I are going to a music festival in interior BC where my brother and I compete with our accordions. We’ve been going for years and it is so much fun. Between all the music stuff we get to go mountain biking, hiking, and swimming. Yay!
Anyway, the blog is on hiatus while I’m gone but I hope to get a few interesting posts up when I’m back. Have a great week!!
Here are the answers to my Canada day quiz. No one has tried it yet : (
1. Name the current Prime Minister of Canada (Bonus: name the party that is currently heading the government)
Stephen Harper, Conservative Party.
Aside: most people agree that our most right-winged party (the conservative party) is more liberal that the democratic party of the US.
2. Name the capital
Ottawa, Ontario. It’s a beautiful city!
3. Name 4 of the 13 Canadian provinces or territories
Provinces: Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Price-Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia.
Territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut
4. Name as many Canadian musicians as you can think of
Some that stick out in my mind: Celine Dion (say what you will but that woman has PIPES), Leonard Cohen, Paul Anka, James Ehnes my fave violinist, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Nelly Furtado, Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell, Tegan & Sara, Neil Young and…. RAFFI!
Bands: Alexisonfire, Bif Naked, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea, Crash Test Dummies, The Dears, The Guess Who, Metric, Rush, The Rankins (couldn’t resist), The Weakerthans
And MORE!
5. Name Canada’s only certified bilingual province
New Brunswick! Betcha thought it was Quebec eh? Quebec is legislated francophone but definitely not bilingual.
6. What is the name of the federal police force of Canada? (famous for their uniform)
RCMP, or Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Fondly dubbed the “mounties”. Most of the time they ride around in cars, not on horses. Their red uniform (called the red surge) is famous but they usually wear normal police outfits
7. How many times have the Olympics been in Canada (excluding Vancouver/Whistler 2010 coming up)
Twice. 1976 Summer games in Montreal and 1988 Winter games in Calgary. Both were before I was born.
8. Where in Europe is there Canadian land?
Vimy Ridge in France. Vimy was the site of an important battle during WW1 where the Canadian forces made great contributions. The land was granted to Canada in 1922 in perpetuity. I visited Vimy in 2007 for the 90th anniversary of the battle, it was a phenomenal experience.
9. Which sport is Canada’s obsession?
Hockey! If you didn’t know that, you are crazy.
HAPPY 4th OF JULY TO MY AMERICAN FRIENDS
July 1st is Canada day if you did not know! I am going up to my uncle’s cabin for the day for some beach time and waterskiing. I hope to finally get rid of my ghastly palor!
I have many thoughts about my dear little country, many emotions and many wishes for it. Thus far it has given me the best life I could hope for and I deeply appreciate all I’ve been able to achieve living in this wonderful place. I say dear “little” country lightly, as we are second only to Russia in size! But a population of only 32 million makes us feel small. Wide open spaces and perfect untouched wilderness have been my playground since birth despite having always lived in large cities. I get shivers just thinking about “my” mountains, I tell ya.
The only corner of the country I’ve yet to explore is the northern territories. My parents met in the Yukon while they were geology students working a summer job in the field. Somehow this has rendered the North a very romanticized entity in my mind and I want to go there.
Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak
Some things I appreciate about Canada and Canadians that I would miss if I left: the unfaltering reverence for human rights along with the openness of spirit, the trademark satirical sense of humour, the humbleness and low-key attitude, UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, bilingualism, diversity (of landscapes AND cultures AND political ideas), the distinct brand of Canadian film, music, and especially literature…
I might, might, even miss the weather. Yeah, I would.
yup, even this
Now that I’ve gotten all gushy about my country and that the bragfest is over, let me give you all a pop quiz about Canada. Kerri, Xavier and other Canadians lurking around you definitely are not allowed to answer! All others, try to do it without using the internet and answer in my comments section! I’m just curious to see how you’d do…
1. Name the current Prime Minister of Canada (Bonus: name the party that is currently heading the government)
2. Name the capital
3. Name 4 of the 13 Canadian provinces or territories
4. Name as many Canadian musicians as you can think of
5. Name Canada’s only certified bilingual province
6. What is the name of the federal police force of Canada? (famous for their uniform)
7. How many times have the Olympics been in Canada (excluding Vancouver/Whistler 2010 coming up)
8. Where in Europe is there Canadian land?
9. Which sport is Canada’s obsession?
Phew, this may be a toughie! But I hope someone will try it out!! I’ll post the answers on the weekend regardless of whether or not anyone answers.
Again! Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians out there!
Tomorrow is Canada day, so it’s a holiday! I’m happy to have a day off. I’m making lots of progress in my research project, I’ve gone through about 200 samples so far. What I do with them is extract the DNA from the mouthwash samples (this is really gross when you get bits of food or discoloured samples) then I amplify the gene I want to look at, then sequence it. The sequence pops up on our computer and I can easily spot mutations. I love my job and I’m pretty thrilled to be involved in research. However, working in a lab you are bound to encounter some interesting personalities. My colleagues and I joke that we could create a whole TV series based on the people in our lab. My biggest issue is unwanted attention from a certain fellow student (who hopefully doesn’t read random asthma blogs) Please, anybody have any tips on fending off boys you work in a small space with???
Breathing-wise, I’m good. I was paying for my bike ride yesterday but I’m over that today. I have a funny story about my bike ride. My sister and I rode a fair distance to procure ourselves some bubble tea. On our way back home, we were riding on a path through a park, it looked pretty deserted so my sister decided to do her infamous T-Rex imitation. She was making dino noises and had her hands in T-rex formation, all the while pedaling along. She gets really into it and it makes me lose it every time, I was killing myself laughing. All of a sudden her bike started to wobble seeing as she wasn’t holding on, and she exclaimed “Ah! I’m veering off the pathway!” And veer off the pathway she did, tumbling onto the grass… right at the feet of some poor lady sitting on a bench who had witnessed the whole debacle! Well when my sister realized this she hopped right back onto her bike and rode away, laughing very hard. I completely lost it at this point and tried to ride up to her but I was laughing too hard. I couldn’t breathe but I couldn’t stop laughing. Isn’t that the worst feeling ever? It brings back bad memories of being tickled to death by older cousins when I was a kid. ”KJ…. stop…. being funny. Can’t… breathe!” That’s what I tried to say to her, and I could tell she felt bad but neither of us could stop laughing. Anyway, it was utterly silly. This is a perfect example of how you can cause your very own asthma attack by sheer tomfoolery. Thankfully I recovered after a short break on the grass and rode merrily on home. I still had fun : )
The weather is stormy outside but I hope that the it behaves tomorrow because I have a full day planned in the SUN. Look for my (educational) Canada day post tomorrow morning before I head out!
Kerri asked me if I could write about growing up with asthma. She mentions that she didn’t really go through this since she was diagnosed at 17. Thanks for the suggestion Kerri, I can think of several posts I’d like to write. I’ll start at the very beginning… a very good place to start. (Points if you recognized the shameless use of a Sound of Music quote)
I was diagnosed with asthma when I was in grade 5. I’ve asked my mom to fill in the little bits and pieces that I can’t remember. She says I was always a cougher and was the atopic type since I was very young. I was that kid who would cough for weeks and weeks after having a cold. I don’t remember it being distressing in my early childhood and my family was very used to it. I probably had mild asthma since I was very young but it was never diagnosed nor treated. My mom now says that my asthma may not be so difficult to control today if we had taken care of it when I was a lil’ gunner, what with airway scarring and the like. I hope she doesn’t feel too guilty, it’s all water under the bridge now after all.
Anyway… grade 5. It started with a cold in the late fall. I swear I coughed non-stop the whole season. I remember my exasperated teacher discreetly slipping me mint candies to try to get me to stop. As the weather got colder I really struggled to run outdoors. My lungs would burn and I would double over or crouch down to catch my breath. I was athletic and this was distressing to me. I asked my mom to please take me to the doctor because I was having trouble breathing when I tried to run.
I believe, at that initial appointment, my doctor (the same one I still see) attributed it mainly to my lingering cold, but gave me a ventolin inhaler. This helped me to feel better after exercising, but my cough was getting out of control. As winter started, I struggled to breathe every time I stepped outdoors. To the best of my recollection, that’s the first time I ever felt my chest tighten to the point where I could not take a breath in.
I asked to go back to the doctor, who sent me for pulmonary function testing this time. Apparently, my pfts showed good lung function, but the diagnosis of asthma was made because I had such huge reversibility with a bronchodilator. This is also when I got put on flovent. The flovent helped my chronic coughing, but I was still struggling with the cold dry air.
My first major asthma attack came after Christmas when I was speed skating with my class. Speed skating is done on an indoor oval ice track and obviously the indoor air must be kept cool. While I was racing with my classmates, I felt good, and it wasn’t until I stopped skating and let myself glide that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were on fire and I couldn’t speak. My classmates were crowding around me and my teacher finally called my mom, who took me to the ER. I was treated for an asthma attack and sent home late that night. My mom says that this was the first time she ever saw me panic because of my breathing, she said I always looked to indifferent to it before that.
After this, my mom started to get serious about learning about asthma. She’s come a long way, and now she’s a bona fide asthma mom. I’m sure it takes awhile for all parents to get these things figured out, to discriminate between what is normal and what is alarming.
In any case, I struggled through the rest of that winter, and breezed through the summer that followed it. I followed this pattern for the next few years – though some were better than others – until grade 11, when my asthma underwent a colossal shift. I will write about this shift in the next few days.
My lungs, after that horrid flu, finally feel normal again. Pretty good, even. I am super super thankful for this because I think it could have been a lot worse. I have resumed work, music lessons and most of my daily activities and everything feels normal. But I haven’t done anything active yet. I haven’t been hiking or climbing, and I haven’t ridden my bike to work in weeks. Since I feel so good, I think it’s time for me to try it out, but I have a tiny feeling that something horrible will happen if I do.
However, that’s just being plain lazy and wussy. I mean really, just get up and do something already! And that’s why I’m going for a bike ride right now. I’m thinking down by the river, it will be nice and shady. It is the perfect summer day today, warm and sunny but not too hot if you know what I mean. My dad’s rebuilding our deck in the backyard and my mom is gardening. Absolutely glorious!
Searching for appartments from afar is tricky. I hope I find something soon because I have been glued to my computer following up on leads all week and it’s getting tiresome. Nevertheless, I’m very excited about the prospect of finding a place and taking that step towards being more independent. It’s time.
It’s about time I wrote a post on an actual topic, but can’t think of anything too good. Is there anything specific you would like to hear my thoughts on?
I’m feeling much better. Case in point: I walked home from the train station today instead of taking the bus.
I signed up for third year courses! Fall semester I’m taking Genomics, Molecular Bio, Molecular bio lab, Microbiology, and Sight-Singing (I have a minor in music) That sounds fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I can’t wait!
Maman and I are going to Victoria mid-July for a weekend to visit my Grandma. I LOVE the island and I’m dying for a little escape, I haven’t been out there in 2 years.
Work is good, it’s all good!
We had a lovely brunch this morning to celebrate father’s day. My sister made some delicious pancakes. Tonight we are celebrating with family friends: dinner to be followed by jamming.
My dad is my adventure mate. He’s the one I ski down crazy pitches with, discover the mountains with, climb with, canoe with etc etc etc. He’s one heck of a woodsman and fit as any person I know. I love doing these things with him and I try so hard to keep up with him. He tells everyone how strong and fit I am, which is true if you don’t count the lungs. We’ve been having some awesome times so far this summer and I can’t wait for this to resume.
Funnily enough, my dad is not an asthma dad. That’s my fault because I do my best not to show him when I’m sick so that he will still think I’m strong and able to do cool things with him. My mom always does asthma duty and I like it that way. I just hope he doesn’t feel bad about it.
I really hope you are all enjoying your father’s day and giving your fathers appropriate amounts of love and affection.
PS Did I mention my dad rocks out on the electric bass? Yeah!
Let me introduce you to my latest TV obsession: Murdoch Mystery. My sister, who has a good nose for these things, a and a wee obsession with the 19th century, introduced it to me when I got home from school. It’s a Canadian show and is set in Toronto. It features Detective William Murdoch, who solves murder mysteries with his unconventional methods (think a kinder, century-old version of House).
The best part of the show, however, is Dr. Julia Ogden, the pathologist and mortician. We love Dr. Ogden! She’s so brainy! And cool! Women in science, ftw!
Anyway, it comes on on Wednesday and Sunday nights on CITY for my little Canucks out there.
