{"id":179,"date":"2018-05-26T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/?p=179"},"modified":"2018-06-06T22:13:03","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T22:13:03","slug":"outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/outreach\/","title":{"rendered":"a story of finding peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou think it\u2019s over when the treatments are finished, but it\u2019s not. There\u2019s so much going on in my brain, so many doctors\u2019 appointments, blood tests, urine tests, kidney tests and hearing tests. Yoga helps to still my mind. And our teacher Allison shares such amazing perspectives.\u201d\u2013 Fowzieh<\/em> Mohammadi<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sitara was busy four-year-old girl. A little on the bossy side and very athletic. \u201cShe would go, go, go all day long, from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning until the moment she closed them at night,\u201d says her mother Fowzieh.<\/p>\n

All of this changed suddenly in 2017, when Sitara started slowing down. \u201cShe was favouring one side when she walked,\u201d Fowzieh says. \u201cShe would walk towards the right all the time and run into walls. She was nauseous and dizzy a lot and even had double vision, but she couldn\u2019t really say what was happening because she was so young.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitara\u2019s balance issues were particularly troublesome when she was walking up stairs, \u201cShe would lean backwards when going upstairs, so I would walk behind her to catch her and guide her back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day, Fowzieh wasn\u2019t able to catch Sitara because she had run ahead to open the stairwell door. In those few seconds, Sitara had tumbled backwards. She fell down the stairs and hit her head on the metal railing. Frightened that she may have suffered a concussion, Fowzieh and her husband Ahmed took Sitara to emergency that night.<\/p>\n

Over the next two weeks, Sitara saw seven different doctors and they were no closer to understanding her bizarre symptoms. One night, Fowzieh finally put her foot down: \u201cI\u2019m not taking Sitara home until she has a CT scan or an MRI.\u201d Sitara had a CT scan that night.<\/p>\n

As the doctor walked towards them with the results of the CT scan, Fowzieh whispered:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Whatever it is, it\u2019s something serious.\u2019 I could tell just by looking at him.\u201d That\u2019s the moment time stood still for Sitara\u2019s parents: \u201cI was just catching the big words, like tumour and MRI. I wasn\u2019t taking it all in,\u201d Fowzieh says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
In the chaos of her daughter’s cancer, Fowzieh finds peace and perspective through yoga.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An MRI the next day revealed a tumour the size of a golf ball, growing at the back of Sitara\u2019s head. What followed was a whirlwind of tests, surgeries and procedures for little Sitara, including 30 days of radiation and seven cycles of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think it\u2019s over when the treatments are finished, but it\u2019s not,\u201d says Fowzieh. \u201cThere\u2019s so much going on in my brain, so many doctors\u2019 appointments, blood tests, urine tests, kidney tests and hearing tests. Yoga helps to still my mind. And our teacher Allison shares such amazing perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

With your help, Fowzieh is finding her inner balance during weekly yoga classes, while her daughter Sitara rebuilds her strength during weekly exercise sessions at PEER<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a year of medical procedures, physiotherapy and constant worry, Sitara is on the road to recovery and Fowzieh is finally able to sleep again. \u201cBefore I was like a zombie. I wasn\u2019t sleeping at night and, in the day, I was caring for Sitara,\u201d she says. \u201cHow did we survive this? How are we still surviving this?\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to quieting her mind and calming her body during weekly yoga classes, Fowzieh is also benefitting from a healing and supportive community of other parents<\/a> \u2014 thanks to you.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(L-R) Fowzieh with her daughter Sitara and her yoga teacher Allison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so good to see the other mommies every week and just talk. Every time I talk about our story, I feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mohammadi family has come a long way since last spring and the journey is far from over. Sitara is growing stronger every day and her parents are finding ways to support themselves, so they are better able to care for Sitara during this challenging time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, when Sitara was first diagnosed with cancer, I used to cry a lot,\u201d says Fowzieh. \u201cBut after a while I noticed that when I was happy my little girl was happy. Sitara\u2019s face would light up and her eyes would shine whenever I was happy, so I\u2019ve learned how to stay positive and how to take care of myself, so I can be strong for my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you! With your support, Sitara and her mom are building their reserves for the long journey ahead.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou think it\u2019s over when the treatments are finished, but it\u2019s not. There\u2019s so much going on in my brain, so many doctors\u2019 appointments, blood tests, urine tests, kidney tests and hearing tests. Yoga helps to still my mind. And our teacher Allison shares such amazing perspectives.\u201d\u2013 Fowzieh Mohammadi Sitara was busy four-year-old girl. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outreach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}