OLIVIA’S JOURNEY BY WENDY BEAUDOIN
My name is Wendy, and I am the nurse practitioner for pediatric neurosurgery at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and a co-founder of the Neurosurgery Kids Fund. More importantly I am the mother of Olivia, my 10-year-old daughter who has had 29 surgeries, most of them on her brain or spine. On January 7th she will undergo her 30th surgery. In talking to my good friend Melissa, a mother of a neurosurgical patient, we thought this section might be helpful in many ways. For some of you, it may provide comfort to know others are struggling, thinking or feeling things that you may have thought but were afraid to say out loud. For others, it may be your first insight into the daily struggles of having a chronically ill child. Whereever you are in your journey or whatever your relationship is with the Neurosurgery Kids Fund, I hope you find this blog informative as we travel together through the next few weeks.
