Back on February 5th of this year we were completely blind-sided when doctors told us that our youngest child, Cali, had Type 1 Diabetes.  She is just 6 years old and until a few weeks before this she was very healthy.  We also learned during her admission and 3 week stay at McMaster Children's Hospital that she has a heart condition and it's been quite a medical and emotional journey for us this past 6 months.  The support from the Diabetic Team at McMaster has been incredibly helpful, informative and uplifting.  Heather, a Child Life Specialist, has been spending a lot of time with Cali and really focusses on making her feel like Diabetes isn't such a big deal.  From practicing needle pokes on fabric dolls to games and activities that allow her to express her concerns and feelings we've all been so impressed with how our lives have adjusted to manage this disease.  Last week Heather called to say that on behalf of Bayer, The Jonas Brothers and McMaster Cali was chosen to receive two tickets to the Camp Rock Concert Tour in Toronto last night.  The news made her very excited and we felt this was the perfect time to create a short musical documentary to capture this moment in her life so she'll never forget it.  We know there are copyright issues around using Nick's song "who I am" and recording live concerts, but we wanted to have just a few short clips to tie this piece all together.  We hope the Jonas brothers and their management team understand.

On February 5th we took our youngest daughter to the family doctor for what we thought was a bladder infection.   Within an hour we were in the ER at McMaster Children's Hospital, she had IVs inserted into both arms and we were being told she has type 1 diabetes and a heart condition.  From there we spent the next few days in pediatric ICU and then another 2 weeks in the regular pediatric ward as we awaited word from Sick Kids hospital in Toronto.  We managed to get her diabetes under control fairly quickly but the heart problem (LQTS) is a bit trickier to sort out because she has a very low heart rate as well as a long QT wave. 
This Tuesday afternoon we brought her home and the first thing she wanted to do was build a snowman... Brian helped her make "Snowy" the snowperson.  As we await our appointment at Sick Kids in a couple of weeks we are optimistic that they will be able to give us some answers/solutions.  In the meantime we're making happy memories ... like this one below.