BY JENNIFER HOEGG
Kings County Advertiser/Register
The Oakes family travelled from northern New Brunswick’s “church and potato belt” for Camp Brigadoon, combining it with a trip to the IWK for seven-year-old Garrett’s twice-a-year checkup.
Garrett said the long drive was worth it, because he “didn’t want to miss one minute” of the “great” camp and “all of the activities.”
“I’m making a lot of friends here,” he said.
His little brother Landon, almost six, is a big fan of the chocolate milk in the dining hall at the “awesome” camp.
The boys are soaked and happy. Wrapped in towels, they sit with their parents for a quick chat before running off to the next activity.
Garrett is proud he can now lie still for the MRI without sedation and the “pictures” show no spots on his brain. “I was brave and I didn’t even say a word when I got my needles.”
The Oakes made the same trip in 2010, but the pictures weren’t good.
“A year ago this week, Garrett was re-diagnosed,” his dad, Scott Oakes, recalled. “It was the week of camp. The kids were looking forward to camp and mom and dad are trying to deal.”
Garrett’s mother Sarah wasn’t sure she wanted to be with other people, but “decided to come so we could feel that support.
“There’s an extra pull to be with other people who have been there. It gives you hope.”
When Garrett was 27 months old, Sarah, who was on maternity leave with baby Landon, noticed he was behaving strangely: falling, sleeping more and throwing up. “He said ‘Mom, what is wrong with my head?’ ” she remembers.
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Medical test showed the toddler had ependymoma - a rare tumour of central nervous tissue - on his brain stem, requiring surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
“We were told after the first surgery, he wouldn’t be able to eat, breathe or speak,” Sarah said. But he woke up breathing “by some miracle,” and talking and only needed help eating for a few months.
The Oakes praise the “world-class care at the IWK hospital.” Scott said they looked at big name facilities in the United States when Garrett was first diagnosed, but were told doctors Howse and MacNeely in Halifax were second to none.
Dr. MacNeely did the most recent surgery, Scott said. “When he came out and said ‘I got it, I think I got it all’ you could have knocked me over with a feather.”
Camp is a treat for Landon, too, who doesn’t remember a life without hospital trips with his brother. He had his first birthday at the IWK while Garrett was a patient.
“I don’t think he understands the depth” of the experience, Sarah said of her youngest son. “You try to keep it as normal as you can.
“We take it one checkup at a time.”
In the meantime, support of the family camp is “immeasurable,” both parents agree.
“Even your best friends don’t get it when you have had a child that close to death,” Scott said.
“You can imagine, but you don’t know,” Sarah added.
She said she enjoys the opportunity to support other parents, at annual camps and online through the year.
