Day +760: Camp Okizu
Everyone had a great time at Camp Okizu. We left mid-afternoon on Friday and arrived early evening-ish. Okizu is in Berry Creek, which is about a 4 hour drive from San Francisco with no traffic. There was lots of traffic on the Friday before Memorial Day, unfortunately, so it took us quite a bit longer. We finally ended up taking back roads, which saved us quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, the kids were too wired to sleep Friday night, so they got to bed very late and were exhausted on Saturday.
Camp Okizu has a big lodge, little cabins that the families sleep in and several other buildings including an infirmary (of course), lodging for the staff, and a new boathouse down by the lake. Meals are served in the lodge, and the parents get together for group sessions during the mornings while camp counselors entertain the kids. It's always interesting to hear other people's stories. Some of the stories are inspirational, and others are really sad. This year they broke the group into one for leukemias and lymphomas and one for all other cancers. There were three other AML cases, and we ended up talking to each of the families. One of the little girls with AML has developed congestive heart failure from all of the chemo, which is one of our nightmare scenarios. There was also a 17-year-old who was all packed to go to college back East, and then collapsed because her red blood counts were a third of normal levels from the cancer. In one family, the father was diagnosed with lymphoma not too longer after the child was diagnosed with JMML. Another family had just learned that their son had relapsed for the 4th time, and didn't want any more chemo. The intensity and drama of the stories is totally gripping, and people are eager to hear them, even asking questions to draw out people who told a short version out of shyness or reticence. All the same, there was a sense in which I felt less personally vested in the stories than last year when it was all still so fresh. My comment when it was our turn to talk was that we are charging ahead. Mina isn't looking back, and just keeping up with her regular four-year-old issues is plenty enough to occupy our time and energy. I say "we" because I *think* Keri feels the same way about all of this, though I don't know that for sure.
We saw a lot of familiar faces from last year, both among the staff and the campers. It's funny how much you feel like you can get to know someone in such a short time. There were a few faces that we missed, which I suppose comes with the territory. The staff at Camp Okizu are really terrific. Most of them were campers themselves, either as cancer patients or as siblings, so they have a ful understanding of what these kids are going through, and they really go all out to make the kids feel special. Mina got a lot of attention all weekend, of course. Everyone was remarking how cute or how beautiful or how sweet she is. It's funny, I'm so used to her getting attention for more normal reasons, I could almost forget why she would get the extra attention at Camp Okizu. She really is doing amazingly well when you consider all that she's been through.
Saturday the kids napped through all of the afternoon activities, but they woke up in time for dinner and after dinner there was a campfire with lots of singing. The kids got up in their age groups and sang songs. Mina and Isaac's group sang a song about Tadger, a creature that lives at Camp Okizu and helps take care of things. He's part tiger, part badger and part leopard, and he lives in a little house on the top of a tree and only comes out at night after everyone has gone to bed. The kids write him letters and he sometimes writes back. I have a video of the kids singing the Tadger song that I'll post soon.
Isaac napped again on Sunday, but Mina was awake so I took her down to the lake to swim. She had a ball, of course, but got a bit cold after a while. It was in the low 80s, but a bit breezy and the water was cold. Sunday night there was a dance. Mina saved her pretty long dress to wear to the dance, and she danced with a lot of the counselors before finally coming to find me. Isaac was kind of out of it, so he and Keri went to bed early. I finally took Mina to bed about 9:00, and she fell asleep in about five minutes with no fussing.
Isaac was really fussy on Monday morning, crying hysterically about the tiniest things. It wasn't until we got home that we realized he had a slight fever. He threw up Monday night in bed, but was doing better Tuesday morning. He got bit by mosquitos all weekend and has red welts all over his face and neck. He looks a bit thrashed, actually. I seem to recall him looking thrashed at the end of camp last year too. He was very sad to be home, though. He keeps saying "I want to go back to Camp Okizu!" and I think he's serious. We played a lot of "bat the ball" while we were there, which is one of his favorite games. Mina was excited to be home. She went straight to the back room and spent the next couple of hours taking care of her babies. It's kind of what she does when she's been overly social and needs to unwind. Isaac stopped being upset after I put on some music (Bob Dylan), and he finally went and found his guitar and played that for a while.
Unfortunately, for the second straight year we did not have a working camera. I'm not sure how many pictures we would have anyway, because the magic of Camp Okizu is really in the human spirit and can't be captured on film. One of the staff promised to email me a picture she took of Mina and me, so I'll post that when I get it.
Mina was very happy to go back to school on Tuesday. Isaac couldn't go because he'd been sick, but Teacher Julie had called and asked if we would trade his Tuesday for Friday because some inspectors from the accreditation agency were going to be there and she was worried there were too many two-year-olds. Then she said "Mina has to come!" Julie said she had a great day, best she's had in weeks. Mina's friend Maddie wasn't there Tuesday, and Julie thinks the Maddie/Riley/Mina triangle has been a source of stress for Mina. I'm glad she's finally taking that seriously.
Funny things that the kids have said recently:
I was telling Mina a story, and she had to go and do something else in the middle of it, so she asked me to "pause the story."
As we were driving the backroads up to Camp Okizu, Isaac kept asking why there were no sidewalks.
When we were driving back from Camp Okizu and were approaching the Coast Range, Isaac was looking up at the mountains and remarked that "the mountains are cracked."
And last and maybe most telling: Mina asked me to read "Curious George Goes to the Hospital" the other day. Partly to be funny and partly to test her, I said the book was "Curious George Goes to the Pole House". Mina looked at me kind of funny and said "Pole House? What's the Pole House?" I had to stop suddenly and clear my throat because something got caught in it.
Camp Okizu has a big lodge, little cabins that the families sleep in and several other buildings including an infirmary (of course), lodging for the staff, and a new boathouse down by the lake. Meals are served in the lodge, and the parents get together for group sessions during the mornings while camp counselors entertain the kids. It's always interesting to hear other people's stories. Some of the stories are inspirational, and others are really sad. This year they broke the group into one for leukemias and lymphomas and one for all other cancers. There were three other AML cases, and we ended up talking to each of the families. One of the little girls with AML has developed congestive heart failure from all of the chemo, which is one of our nightmare scenarios. There was also a 17-year-old who was all packed to go to college back East, and then collapsed because her red blood counts were a third of normal levels from the cancer. In one family, the father was diagnosed with lymphoma not too longer after the child was diagnosed with JMML. Another family had just learned that their son had relapsed for the 4th time, and didn't want any more chemo. The intensity and drama of the stories is totally gripping, and people are eager to hear them, even asking questions to draw out people who told a short version out of shyness or reticence. All the same, there was a sense in which I felt less personally vested in the stories than last year when it was all still so fresh. My comment when it was our turn to talk was that we are charging ahead. Mina isn't looking back, and just keeping up with her regular four-year-old issues is plenty enough to occupy our time and energy. I say "we" because I *think* Keri feels the same way about all of this, though I don't know that for sure.
We saw a lot of familiar faces from last year, both among the staff and the campers. It's funny how much you feel like you can get to know someone in such a short time. There were a few faces that we missed, which I suppose comes with the territory. The staff at Camp Okizu are really terrific. Most of them were campers themselves, either as cancer patients or as siblings, so they have a ful understanding of what these kids are going through, and they really go all out to make the kids feel special. Mina got a lot of attention all weekend, of course. Everyone was remarking how cute or how beautiful or how sweet she is. It's funny, I'm so used to her getting attention for more normal reasons, I could almost forget why she would get the extra attention at Camp Okizu. She really is doing amazingly well when you consider all that she's been through.
Saturday the kids napped through all of the afternoon activities, but they woke up in time for dinner and after dinner there was a campfire with lots of singing. The kids got up in their age groups and sang songs. Mina and Isaac's group sang a song about Tadger, a creature that lives at Camp Okizu and helps take care of things. He's part tiger, part badger and part leopard, and he lives in a little house on the top of a tree and only comes out at night after everyone has gone to bed. The kids write him letters and he sometimes writes back. I have a video of the kids singing the Tadger song that I'll post soon.
Isaac napped again on Sunday, but Mina was awake so I took her down to the lake to swim. She had a ball, of course, but got a bit cold after a while. It was in the low 80s, but a bit breezy and the water was cold. Sunday night there was a dance. Mina saved her pretty long dress to wear to the dance, and she danced with a lot of the counselors before finally coming to find me. Isaac was kind of out of it, so he and Keri went to bed early. I finally took Mina to bed about 9:00, and she fell asleep in about five minutes with no fussing.
Isaac was really fussy on Monday morning, crying hysterically about the tiniest things. It wasn't until we got home that we realized he had a slight fever. He threw up Monday night in bed, but was doing better Tuesday morning. He got bit by mosquitos all weekend and has red welts all over his face and neck. He looks a bit thrashed, actually. I seem to recall him looking thrashed at the end of camp last year too. He was very sad to be home, though. He keeps saying "I want to go back to Camp Okizu!" and I think he's serious. We played a lot of "bat the ball" while we were there, which is one of his favorite games. Mina was excited to be home. She went straight to the back room and spent the next couple of hours taking care of her babies. It's kind of what she does when she's been overly social and needs to unwind. Isaac stopped being upset after I put on some music (Bob Dylan), and he finally went and found his guitar and played that for a while.
Unfortunately, for the second straight year we did not have a working camera. I'm not sure how many pictures we would have anyway, because the magic of Camp Okizu is really in the human spirit and can't be captured on film. One of the staff promised to email me a picture she took of Mina and me, so I'll post that when I get it.
Mina was very happy to go back to school on Tuesday. Isaac couldn't go because he'd been sick, but Teacher Julie had called and asked if we would trade his Tuesday for Friday because some inspectors from the accreditation agency were going to be there and she was worried there were too many two-year-olds. Then she said "Mina has to come!" Julie said she had a great day, best she's had in weeks. Mina's friend Maddie wasn't there Tuesday, and Julie thinks the Maddie/Riley/Mina triangle has been a source of stress for Mina. I'm glad she's finally taking that seriously.
Funny things that the kids have said recently:
I was telling Mina a story, and she had to go and do something else in the middle of it, so she asked me to "pause the story."
As we were driving the backroads up to Camp Okizu, Isaac kept asking why there were no sidewalks.
When we were driving back from Camp Okizu and were approaching the Coast Range, Isaac was looking up at the mountains and remarked that "the mountains are cracked."
And last and maybe most telling: Mina asked me to read "Curious George Goes to the Hospital" the other day. Partly to be funny and partly to test her, I said the book was "Curious George Goes to the Pole House". Mina looked at me kind of funny and said "Pole House? What's the Pole House?" I had to stop suddenly and clear my throat because something got caught in it.
posted by Arne Olson @ 11:43 PM
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