Developments here

Since fall, posting on Place de choix has diminished and Jasmina’s been learning how to use the blog. Since September I went back to school to continue my studies and the change in atmosphere did wonders, as my husband and I discovered we were pregnant in October. We’re due for a little girl June 20th. Between studies, work and pregnancy, the blog has been left behind, and Jasmina’s taken to e-mailing news to a group of friends as she’s done before. If you’d like to be on her e-mail list, let her know by sending her an e-mail at ploner23 at hotmail dot com. I sometimes publish her e-mails in their integrity on the blog, but I’m afraid I’m not always consistent. I enjoy writing and miss interacting with parents and publishing news related to Sébastien, his treatments and SickKids. As the first year of University comes to an end, I’m considering beginning a personal blog and promise that if I do, you’ll be the first ones to know.

As for Sébastien, David and Jasmina, they are doing well. A friend recently visited them in Toronto and brought back nothing but happy news. Sébastien is becoming more and more talkative, and makes himself understood in simple sentences. David’s influence is felt as Sébastien is integrating more french into his vocabulary. He’ll be going to school in the fall and David and Jasmina hope to send him to l’École élémentaire Georges-Étienne-Cartier (translation: a french catholic school with just the right atmosphere). Sébastien is in the second half of his treatments (one dose every 21 days). The first ten days after treatment are the hardest on Sébastien because of the side effects which include insomnia and hallucinations. He needs lots of attention and patience during that time and once it is over, he’s himself again until the next treatment. He’s getting more adventurous when it comes to walking and he makes his way around the appartment by going from couch to couch. We miss him bunches and bunches and hearing his voice over the phone melts our heart!

I wish everyone a lovely continuation… don’t ever hesitate to write Jasmina or I (our e-mails are on the right).
Take care!

La Marraine

Monday’s scan

Friday last week, Sébastien was scheduled for a scan, and I was hesitant to put it on the blog, since there are usually little hiccups that can happen between the scheduling and the actual event occuring. And… if there was to be any bad news, David and Jasmina would rather spare you the details. The scan was put off until Monday of this week, and yesterday, Jasmina and David received the results:

Hello to all of you

We are very happy to inform you that Sebastien’s scan showed improvement from the last one in december thanks be to God and there is truly a God that watches over our dear Sebastien and we thank you for all praying the novenas for our dear son Sebastien your prayers are carring our little miracle boy through his journey . Thank you from the bottom of our hearts …… this were the best news we got and I cried as I was just soooooo relieved …. thanks to also all of you for praying….

The test results are final in a few days and due to this we were informed that we have to hold of his treatment this wednesday and he will also need an echo tomorrow and until we get all the results it is safer to wait to start his 3rd round of treatments

Ahhhh what a wonderful blessing to get those news and we would like to invite you to celbrate with us the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes which is also the World day of the Sick so we can keep Sebastien in this prayer and also all the sick children in the world and sick adults…..May the Lord and our Lady of Lourdes protect them all with her banner and heal them……

Thank you soooo much again for all your support and prayers it means so much to us and your prayer carries us through this….

With Gratitude and united in Prayers
Love
Sebastien xoxoxo David and Jasmina Forest xoxoxxo

A message from David and Jasmina!

It has been a crazy week and despite all the tests investigations we want today to celebrate Sébastien’s 4th birthday. It was so touching seeing all the people come and sing “Happy Birthday” to him. Sébastien’s room was decorated by ChildLife and you should have seen how excited and special Sébastien felt! Also, Sébastien’s teacher in the hospital brought the whole class and they all sang. It was so touching!

The medical team would like to treat Sébastien’s thickening of his stomach wall with treatments for the next few months as we do not want it to get worse.

We want to ask you to keep Sébastien in your special prayers for the next few months and thank you for all your support, prayers, etc.

With love,
David Sebastien and Jasmina xoxo

No News

I want to thank everyone who have sent e-mails and comments wondering about Sébastien and asking for the latest news. Unfortunately, my husband and I have no news from David and Jasmina. It isn’t easy to write on their behalf. We believe, from the little we know, that they are facing the challenges of submitting Sébastien to a number of tests (both last week and this week) and wish to have their privacy from close friends and well-intentioned acquaintances. To the best of our ability, we try to respect their wish. So, whether or not they have results to Sébastien’s tests, we await their call and their permission to publish it.

In the meantime, we entrust our thoughts and prayers for Sébastien to the angels that are watching over him, and know where to apply them!

Wishing you all a peaceful advent season,

Jacinta

New Video!

Here is a video of clips taken of Sébastien during the summer. Hope you enjoy! As for news, Sébastien is still doing well. When I talk to Jasmina on the phone, I’m always delighted to hear his voice in the background. He’s becoming more and more verbal. He loves the school teacher’s visits during dialysis and Jasmina gets him to sing rhymes. He’s awaiting a kidney, and so we keep hoping the wait isn’t too long.

And for Halloween… Sébastien is going to be a monkey! If he comes by your house, give him a treat from us!

Pictures!

52 new pictures from this summer… Click here to check it out!

September news

It’s been awhile since this blog was last updated, and I’d like to thank all the patient Place de Choix readers. Why has it taken so long? Well, there are a few reasons. The first and most important is that in general, Sébastien is doing very well. David is only a tiny bit superstitious saying that if I write on the blog with good news, I might jinx it… And of course, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for that…

About Sébastien’s capsule endoscopy, unfortunately, there isn’t much to say. I would ask Jasmina about results, and none were given to her, until about a week or two ago, when the doctors let her know that there weren’t any results. The capsule depends entirely on the natural process of digestion and relays pictures for up to eight hours. As with any bowel transplant patient, Sébastien’s digestion is slow and he relies on medication to keep things moving, but even with that, it took over two days for the capsule to come out and by then it had long stopped taking pictures. Let’s just say that the partial evidence is too weak for a case to be laid against the bowel, accusing it of bleeds. AND… cross your fingers, Sébastien hasn’t had any serious bleeds since his trip to Winnipeg.

Sébastien is walking. You know the walkers seniors use? Well, a nice pysiotherapist found one adapted especially for kids like Sébastien. Imagine a walker, but instead of having it in front of you, you have it behind you, to keep you from falling backwards, supporting your hips and keeping your belly forward. That’s what Sébastien has! And he likes it. He’s standing longer, and learning to move more independently.

Sébastien loves going to pre-school. Jasmina started bringing him about a month or two ago, to get him used to interacting with other children. There is a little story to this… When Sébastien was here in Winnipeg for a visit, a play-date was organized at our house with the little girl of Jasmina’s friend who is also my husband’s cousin. Her name is Mireille and she’s a good year younger than Sébastien. They posed for pictures, and after snacks we supervised their playing. Sébastien is used to playing with adults, and he’s quite organized. You spill the Dora dominoes, find matches, and then you put them back. But Mireille was sure that it was more fun to scoop them up in their tin, shake them about and spill them standing up. It was all too much for Sébastien. In his mind, that was all wrong. For the adults it was a little amusing, and Jasmina took it to heart to teach Sébastien how to share and interact with kids his own age. Now, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, Sébastien will ask “Me, school?”. Pre-school is twice a week, and on dialysis days, a teacher comes by to visit Sébastien with school activities. With the cold and flu season arriving, David and Jasmina decided this week that it was best Sébastien stay away. Jasmina’s thinking of trying the Montessori method of homeschooling. If you have resources or ideas, I think she’d love to hear from you.

When are there going to be pictures? Or videos? This week! I’m working on it today.

Why is posting so sporadic, and what’s up with the website? The main reason is that I’m now a full time student and part time office clerk. So, l’m a bit busier. When Sébastien is doing well, I don’t write as much or as often. As there is news, I’ll be writing. As for the website… I’m as frustrated as you… I hope the hosting company will be able to get things up soon. For now, the best is to keep Place de Choix in your bookmarks or favorites. If you google Place de Choix, we’re the first ones up!

What’s next for Sébastien? We hope he maintains his good health and that sometime in the near future, new kidneys come in view!

Just to say…

THE CAPSULE IS OUT!!!
Jasmina called me before 4:00 today to tell me the good news!

Happy long weekend to everyone!

Waiting game…

I’m delighted that Jasmina got a Blackberry to replace her dying phone… Yesterday morning I received a short note saying that Sébastien had been to the O.R.

This morning Jasmina sent me word that they were waiting anxiously for the capsule to come out through the ostomy. I responded (saying that you are all thinking of him!) and asked if he was sedated as they wait for the capsule… Four minutes ago, another message:

Hello

Sebastien was in the O.R. and had a breathing tube in when they put the capsule into his stomach after that he was in recovery for some time and then got to go to the ward where we monitor him. So he is awake playing bowling and play and play to keep his mind of food as he is not allowed to eat until the capsule comes out, only clear fluids and all you hear from Sebastien is: “pizza” “noo noos” “cheese” etc. It has been three days without food soo we are still waiting and praying.

With thanks and love

Little hungry monkey gorilla Sebastien David and Jasmina xoxoxo

So you see why I’m happy she has a Blackberry?

Jasmina writes

Hello to all of you!

Just sending you a message to invite you to please keep Sebastien in your prayers this coming Thursday as he undergoes his unique capsule test and we are all praying that this test will go smoothly and that Sebastien will stool this capsule out and we do not want this capsule to get stuck in him as it would mean to cut him open to retrieve it…… ahhhhhhhhhhh not good…. well soooooo please pray for this capsule to end up in his Ostomy pouch and that the camera in the capsule will take all the pictures necessary to give us answers to fix his bleeding issue…… (Jacinta did such a great job on SEbastien’s website to provide a link to the Capsule Procedure and you can see it online and read up on it and you can have a better idea how big this capsule is, we actually got to see it last night and Sebastien was allowed to explore it as we are preparing him by showing him what we will be doing with him on Thursday……. sooooooo we are all praying and hoping you will join us that everything will go well and we thank you for always praying and supporting our little monkey SEbastien xoxoxoxoxooxooxoooxxoxox

On a different note I want to share with you a little story that just happened yesterday and it really touched our hearts….. David brought early morning Sebastien to his Dialysis treatment and I got the wonderful treat by David to sleep in and have breakfast and do my Physio Exercises ( yes I need now Physio too =:)
and just finished packing all the things for Sébastien’s hospital stay sooooo off I went from our apartment walking with a heavy suitcase, cooler and most needed Barney, Dora, Boots and Elmo to the Sick Kids hospital…. Austrian as I am I just enjoy walking and don’t mind pulling all the stuff to the hospital, well I got of our elevators of the apartment and my first challenge was to get through the 3 doors, no problem there was my hero /Angel# 1 of the day, a old Chinese Lady, opening each door, with a smile I thanked her for her kindness and off she went and continued her way, I thought in my head oh how kind and nice….. ( it does not happen very often that someone will open the door when I come with Sébastien and his avalanche Stroller that someone opens the door at our apartment block) I continued and a few minutes later I see the old Chinese Lady come back, she came up to me and said: I will help you at least until the next intersection…… Wow… I couldn’t believe what I just heard…. thanking her for her really kind offer we continued our journey…….I had to stop for a dear friend at the health food store to pick up some more Healthy stuff and I got to the next intersection and was waiting to cross the street and suddenly I hear another person asking me a question…..: Do you need any help…… Well, you should have seen my face…… another kind Hero/Angel #2 well not sure what to say and just sooo amazed by the kindness I thanked them and we continued our journey to the hospital……. What a beautiful beginning of the day…… soooo finally at the hospital our day was just quiet, filled with anxiety not knowing what we will do and enjoying playtime with our dear Sébastien…….soooo the day goes on and we get one hour to go out and have supper before we had to check in with Sebastien’s night nurse, it was a beautiful evening made by God and the sun was still shinning and Sebastien requested Noo, Noos (Noodels) sooo David and me decided to treat Sebastien to a nice Italian Pasta close to the hospital and usually we take out but this time we thought we just gonna enjoy the nice sun and evening and sit outside at this little non expensive Italian restaurant on Baldwin Street. Well, Sébastien wont be allowed to eat after this supper until Friday….. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh… we just gonna watch Barney, Barney, Elmo, Dora, ……or play, play, play….. Soooo well, we sat down ordered some food and Sebastien was all exited about his Noo, Noos…….. Sebastien just has a special gift to warm peoples hearts and the couple just sitting beside our table started talking to us charmed by Sébastien’s beautiful smile and Aura……. Talking shortly with them they learned about Sébastien’s profound Journey and encouraged us with their wonderful words of support. We thanked them and continued with our supper as suddenly they offered us each a glass of wine and just amazed by this wonderful kindness of two strangers I nearly started to cry…… the Lady said: you know we have a granddaughter of 7 1/2 months and she is all healthy, you have to be sooooo gratefull for your health……….we were sooo touched and Sebastien got to even touch their beautiful 2 puppies and he was sooo amazed by them…. it just was like being in heaven for Sebastien as he loooooooooooves puppies…..

Well here are my Heroes/Angels #3and 4 of the day and I could not believe how blessed we were today with just random strangers being sooo kind and thoughtful….. It opened my eyes that in all this Anxiety that we are experiencing at the moment preparing for this big test God could have not been closer to me by sending all this Angels along our paths and I learned A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS does not take a lot but it will make someone else’s day and I had a day filled with them…….

Sooooo thank you to all of you for making our day and for being touched by Gods Love and Kindness with A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS BY A STRANGER.

With Love and Thanks and United in Prayers

little monkey SEbastien xoxooxxxox
David and Jasmina Forest xoxooxooxooxoxxoxoxoxooxxooxoxox