Day 21 - Dreaming of Walls of People

Last night I had a migraine that made me nauseous, and then I got the chills and could not make myself warm. Nurse Todd brought me the Tylenol / Ibuprofen concoction and I fell asleep seeing walls of people in my dream. Yep, went to the Olympics I am still debating whether the pros outweighed the cons or not. As much as I enjoyed being down town and taking in the sights it was rather challenging being there and trying to get Kourtney through the crowds in her electric wheelchair. On the Skytrain one guy was standing so close to Kourtney that his butt was literally in the poor girl's face. I let him know that there was extremely precious cargo "behind" him and he needed to watch his moves. Todd eventually "assumed" (punny) the position and the girls thought it would be funny to pull out the iFart on the Ipod. Thankfully the sound of the Skytrain drowned out the "Jack the Ripper fart".

As we made our way to see the Olympic Cauldron the crowds of people literally came to a standstill as we tried to move against people moving in opposite directions. Kourtney was unseen in her wheelchair and people would walk right in front of her. I "encouraged" to take no prisoners and keep the wheelchair moving and if she ran into somebody they would move out of her way rather quickly (is that what defensive driving is?) The wheelchair did come in handy though as we were able to avoid the lineups to have an unobstructed view of the Cauldron by taking the elevator to the viewing area. We did manage to lose Shaelyn in the sea of people as she did not want to hold our hands and for you who know her, she is very active. She even managed to do a donkey kick (skipping move) amongst all the people. Of course she wandered away from us and we lost her. Todd yelled for her so loud that the crowd stopped for an instant and all looked at our worried faces. Shaelyn heard it and there was her little face searching for us amidst the crowds. She didn't let go of my hand after that. Mind you at one point she was talking so fast and acting silly that she fell down on the sidewalk and once again stopped a large crowd of people.

We had tickets to short track speed skating, so we planned on taking the bus from downtown Vancouver to the Pacific Coliseum. As we stood and waited in line we started getting worried that we couldn't fit on the bus. One bus driver told us that the buses were crowded and they would not make room for wheelchairs. Instead of getting angry I decided the best thing to do is let Todd get angry (no just kidding) I prayed. I told God that we needed an empty bus and the next bus that came along . . . was empty. Some kind visitors from New York let us go to the front of the line when the bus finally came. Kourtney got on and the bus filled up at that spot.

We ended up getting wheelchair seating for the event and saw some name brand people up close; Josee Chouinard, Kristi Yamaguchi and Evgeni Malkin. Kourtney and I were so cold at the arena that I had to breakdown and buy an Olympic jacket for Kourtney. I was so worried about her because she had been so sick that I did not want her to get sicker. She looked so cute in her over sized jacket (there were none left in her size-my size yes- how convenient for me- much rather have a lulu though!!)

Although the Canadian results were disappointing we had an amazing time and were impressed by the athletes. At one point the USA crowd began their chant but the Canada took over and drowned them out. It was very cool!!

At the end of the Speed skating there was a 2 km lineup for the bus to get back to the Skytrain station, but impressively enough we waited for just 20 minutes. The crowded buses with standing room only brought on visions of overcrowded buses in third wold countries. We got to a very quiet Skytrain station and made our journey home.

I am home sick today, Kourtney is still sleeping. It was exhausting for her. Fighting crowds, the overt stares, the comments - she is my true Olympian. As awesome as it was to be part of the Olympics-I still down deep know and understand what true Olympic spirit is all about our pursuit is not about excellence but about living and fighting a disease that affects not only Kourtney but our whole family. I am thankful for our blog supporters that cheer us on by keeping update on what is going on, that is what keeps us going.

9 days left of the 30 day challenge....still keeping up. Although if you notice Shaelyn has a rash in the pictures- I am beginning to think it is a milk allergy. She is upholding her end of the deal, but unfortunately her body is complaining.