Being cooped up in a small room far from home is bad enough at any age – but summertime at age 12 going on 13 – what a bore. Despite lots of visits this week at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, it is really hard for Brittany Michaud to have any real fun. No beach visits or PNE.
The pictures here show two sides, a happy Brittany while friends her own age are in the hospital room but she can get testy with all the attention. That’s something she doesn’t like.
Brittany just wants to resume a normal life. But that has to wait. Many hurdles to jump over waiting for a heart to come her way.
Doctors are not completely sure what happened but it sounds like a virus set up a dynamic of infection and then irreparable heart damage – so much so that Brittany is a prisoner to a hospital and is tied down to medication being delivered intravenously on a rack she must drag around from bed to shower. Not nice. The Children’s Hospital is a great resource but not a place you can meet friends.
Brittany is at the age she would love to get back to school – she would be attending high school for the first time in Oliver. She would be showing off just how much she has grown and she is getting taller …every day she eats another bite.
I went down to Vancouver for another Saturday event but was invited by Bernie and Shawna to visit. I took a few things suggested by Sherilee and Mo – so she and best friend Rayleen sat around painting nails and playing with a new toy – an electrical lightening shocker or something that all the kids liked playing with. We all had fun but Brittany had a tube in her nose and did not really feel up to a photo shoot.
It was good to meet Brittany and try to feel just how it would be like to be put on hold at that age.
Brittany was 13 on Thursday.