I have been asked why I feature a dragonfly on my website…
Dragonflies symbolize “Hope” to me. Shortly after Cailyn’s diagnosis and first surgeries, a visiting friend noted that there was a dragonfly circling me. My friend commented that the dragonfly was bringing us good luck. I held onto that idea like a drowning person hangs on to a life preserver.
A few weeks later, we arrived at a hospital for an appointment with a neurosurgeon who was offering to do his best to remove as much of the tumour in her brain-stem as possible. Cailyn’s situation had worsened to the point that we needed to intervene quickly. I opened the back door of my SUV and into the cargo area flew 4 (FOUR!!) dragonflies. I couldn’t believe my eyes. As I opened up the bag I was going to take into the hospital with us, two of the dragonflies flew out. I actually said to my Mom… “they are bringing us good luck, and this is where we’re going to get our answer!!”
We actually weren’t expecting our “ultimate” answer here. We had been pointed in another direction by experts in both Canada and the United States. But, this neurosurgeon was offering to help us and we had travelled to see him to become wiser about the whole process and its risks.
Through our conversation, and after asking some pivotal questions, we learned about a neuro-surgeon in New York who had a significant amount of experience with the same tumour in the same location in the brain-stem as Cailyn’s tumour. At this time, our neuro-surgeon, who was actively helping us coordinate consults with other neuro-surgeons, had never operated in this location in the brain, and the surgeon we were consulting with had only operated in this location 10 to 12 times across his 28 year career.
Ultimately, the information and support provided by this doctor initiated our consult with the neuro-surgeon in New York, who successfully removed between 80% and 90% of Cailyn’s tumour. From my conversations with Cailyn’s medical team, I am confident that this appointment, beginning with a colourful visit from 4 dragonflies, resulted in us getting the information we required for her to be here today.
Since this experience, I celebrate each and every moment that we have dragonflies flitting about us. We’ll take all the good luck we can get!!