In the spring of 2019, I was diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer. The cancerous growth was surgically removed but reappeared nine months later and removed again. My surgeon suggested follow-up treatment at Edmonton’s Cross Cancer Clinic for BCG immunotherapy. BCG stands for Bacillis-Calmette-Guerin. BCG was developed by French doctors Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin in…
From January 2016 to March 2021, 22,828 people died in Canada’s “other” pandemic: drug overdose deaths. This total does not include the numbers since March, which are reportedly high but not yet available. By contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic, which has profoundly affected us all, has caused a similar number of Canadian deaths (27,500 through September)….
Monday morning and there’s another sad story: a person who vocally opposed vaccinations for COVID-19 has died from the disease. Before dying, the patient tells loved ones, “Get vaccinated.” I doubt that these stories do much to change the minds of people who are firmly against COVID vaccinations. What does bother me, however, is the…
Eight students died last year at the University of Waterloo. I should clarify that: eight students in the Engineering department alone. I don’t know the total number across campus. I don’t know much about the cause of death, either, though I understand only one of the eight was by suicide. It feels strange to say…
This pandemic has been a roller coaster. Don’t wear masks – no, wear masks. Sanitize everything – no, that’s just hygiene theatre. Get this vaccine – no, get this other one. Welcome to science in real time, with knowledge changing seemingly every day. Each new study gives us a new window on the SARS-CoV-2 virus,…
Another hour ticks by. I am still not sleeping. I wander dark hallways and watch my children sleep. I sigh and groan and toss and turn. Every hour of lost sleep is a subtraction from the energy and fortitude I will need for the following day. I am not a stranger to insomnia. Over the…
At the age of 12 I got my dream pet: a tortoise, who required a specific herbivore diet. I knew nothing about plants. I researched vigorously, learning what safe plants I could feed him and what I could plant in his enclosure. At the local nursery they affectionately called me “Tortoise Boy” as I came…
When South African documentary filmmaker Craig Foster fell into a personal Slough of Despond, he came close to drowning emotionally and mentally. Netflix’s 85-minute My Octopus Teacher records his year-long recovery with daily baptisms in the eight-degree Centigrade sea off Cape Town. There he discovered he was not alone. As baptism declares, he died to…
Who catches your eye first – the boy or the man? Brian Liu put himself in this design twice, though his adult outline is almost eclipsed by his serious six-year-old face. That photo was used on his passport when he immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada in 1993. Adult Brian, partially obscured by the collage…
Mental Health Week is May 3 – 9, and a new art exhibit is highlighting the intersection of race, faith and mental health. Healing in Colour features “Black, Indigenous, and peoples of colour artists from around the world, [and] the show highlights their experiences, wounds, and journeys of healing,” as stated on the event’s website….
One year and one month. Fifty-six weeks; 396 days; 9,504 hours. That’s roughly how long we’ve been deep in the COVID-19 pandemic. Depending on where you live this timeline may be longer or shorter. I still recall where I was when I received the news. I was co-leading an “alternative spring break” trip with a…
Airports were finally opening and COVID testing was now available to Canadians. Should our family return to Malawi? In the months I spent fighting COVID alongside other nurses in Canada, it seemed Malawi had been relatively spared. So we boarded a plane back to Malawi, arriving January 6, 2021, after 10 months in Canada. I…
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