A day later

A day later, and the wall is gone! The fridge is set back where the stairs used to be . . .

Tearing down the walls

Today, Paul started to take apart the kitchen. This is the wall behind the fridge - more lath and plaster! Behind this wall is the old stairway upstairs. The door you see to the left used to be the entrance to the suite up there. At one point, the doorway from the kitchen was actually a full wall and there was one on the other side as well, so the door was the only way to get into and out of the upstairs suite.

Disney on Ice

Tonight we took Holly to see Disney on Ice's "Let's Celebrate" show.  She decided to dress as Belle this year.


There wasn't much of a storyline, but a lot of characters were packed into the show, and Holly enjoyed it. Here is David from Lilo & Stitch, complete with flames!


And Stitch, everyone's favourite Hawaiian alien . . .


Minnie Mouse in her Japanese outfit.


Chinese Mickey with some lion skaters!


Here's a video of Mickey, Mulan, and Captain Li Shang.

Birthday Tea

One benefit of not being able to work - I can go out with the girls for lunch! This is our "JK Mom's Group" from last year. We all have girls and they (and we) became good friends over the course of the year. We went to the Urban Tea Merchant at the Village in Park Royal for high tea to celebrate Trish and Ruby's birthdays.

Trish (Katie's mom), me, Ash (Mehr's mom), Ruby (Sienna's mom), and Mimi (Cassie's mom). It was a lot of fun - we then raced back to school to see the girls get their first term report cards in their little report card ceremony.

Train Day Story

Family pitches in for Burnaby Hospital

By Janaya Fuller-Evans, Burnaby Now November 17, 2010

All aboard: The Luksun family rides the Metropolis Express to promote the Burnaby Hospital's fundraiser on Nov. 20.
Photograph by: Courtesy of Mits Naga Photography, SPECIAL TO THE BURNABY NOW

Meet the Luksuns.

The family has 26 members, most located in Burnaby, and all have a special attachment to Burnaby Hospital.

On Nov. 9, 11 family members took part in a photo shoot on the Metropolis Express to help promote the hospital's current fundraising campaign.

"We've always been really happy with the care we received there," says Miranda McNamara, the granddaughter of Ellen and Ford Luksun, who helped organize the photo session.

McNamara currently lives with her family in New Westminster, while the majority of the Luksuns live in Burnaby. A few family members live in Vancouver, she adds, and one in Port Moody.

Ellen and Ford brought the family to Burnaby in 1969 from Krugersdorp, South Africa. The couple had four daughters - Ivy, Gloria, Grace and Pearl - and a son, Basil Luksun, who is the city's planning and building director. There are now 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren in the family.

"The hospital has always been really good to our family," says McNamara, eldest of the grandchildren. Her daughter was born at the hospital, and McNamara went to the diabetes clinic when she was pregnant, she adds.

Hospital staff also provided additional care to the family when Ellen was hospitalized over Christmas in 2008, after suffering a heart attack.

The family was very distressed, as they always spent Christmas dinner together, Ivy Chan, Ellen and Ford's daughter, says in a phone interview from Boston, Massachusetts. Chan, who lives in Burnaby, was visiting her son who is studying in Boston. The family spoke with Dr. John Martyn, who was covering for Ellen's regular doctor, about holding a family Christmas in the cafeteria.

However, Ellen was on heart monitors, which made this impossible. So Dr. Martyn offered the family use of a conference room in the cardiac unit instead.

"Dad was really touched," Chan says. "They'd been married 72 years, and he told her (Ellen), I didn't want a Christmas dinner without you beside me."

About 20 family members, and any nurses that were away from their own family Christmases that night, gathered for what would be Ellen's last Christmas. She passed away the following summer.

The hospital has cared for both of her parents, Chan says.

"The hospital means a lot to us."

The family made a donation to the hospital in 2009 and also took part in the hospital foundation's most recent fundraiser.

The foundation is taking part in Metropolis at Metrotown's new fundraising program this fall, which has four local non-profits each receiving the profits from the train at the mall for a month.

Each organization has a special day within its month for a fundraising challenge. Whichever group raises the most money on its Train Day will receive an additional $10,000.

Burnaby Hospital Foundation's Train Day is on Saturday, Nov. 20.

The money would go towards critical hospital equipment, according to a media release from the foundation.

To donate to the foundation's efforts, ride the train on Nov. 20. Each dollar donation will go to the hospital and add to the foundation's chances of receiving the additional $10,000 grant.

This is the first year that Metropolis at Metrotown has held the Train Your Charity: The Metropolis Express Fall 2010 Challenge.

The Progressive Society raised funds during September, and the Stream of Dreams Murals Society took its turn in October. The Adoptive Families Association of B.C. has the month of December, and its Train Day is Dec. 11.

The train runs from the atrium near the Bay to the area near the bus loop, in front of Lenscrafters.

The Metropolis Express donates money raised by rides on the trackless train to non-profits in Burnaby, New Westminster and East Vancouver throughout the year.

jfuller-evans@burnabynow.com

© Copyright (c) Burnaby Now

4 days later . . .

Still not pretty! Nice bruising and bloodshot eye - and lovely indentation mark from the plastic eye patch I wear at night!

Cute school girl!

Day after surgery

The day after - not too pretty! Luckily, my mom is available to stay with me - I have to relax and not do too much. No driving, no grocery shopping, no doing laundry or vacuuming - darn! It is a bit frustrating because I'm not in any pain, but am not allowed to do anything except watch TV and go on the computer!

Eye surgery

Last week (on November 3rd to be precise), I had a retinal detachment in my right eye. Because my eyes are quite myopic (near-sighted), I was told many years ago to be wary of seeing flashes of light, as this could mean my retina was detaching. If the retina detaches and is not caught in time, this could lead to permanent loss of vision! I had noticed flashes of light for a couple of evenings when I was taking Holly to bed - it was like seeing the lights of a car flash through a window, go across a wall - except there was no window where I was seeing the flashes.

On November 3rd, I went to work and noticed a small spot that appeared in my vision like a dirty spot on your eyeglasses (but I wasn't wearing glasses!). I called the optometrist and went in right away. She diagnosed a retinal detachment and sent me right over to the eye surgeon (who was luckily just across the street). He numbed my eye and injected a gas bubble in to hold the detachment in place. I had to sleep sitting up on the couch with my head angled towards my right shoulder - highly uncomfortable after 3 nights, but better than going blind! Luckily (or maybe not!), this didn't happen in Hawaii, or I wouldn't have been able to fly home. . .  the gas bubble can expand and cause damage if you fly when it is in place - so no trips to Whistler for the next 4 weeks, either!

The next day (Thursday) I went in, and the bubble appeared to be holding the retina in place - good news! On Friday, I saw the surgeon again, and he lasered my eye to create scar tissue around where the detachment had occurred. The scar tissues acts like glue to hold the retina together. It seemed to be fine, but last night at the photo shoot, I was noticing the lights were a bit brighter. I passed this off as the lighting in the mall being different from at home, but this morning, when I woke up there was a rather large blind spot in the middle of my vision! Scary!

To top it all off, Paul left yesterday to attend a friend's wedding Taiwan! I called the surgeon's office when I got to school and told them what was happening. They told me to go to Surrey Memorial to meet the doctor there as he was in surgery today - I had a bad feeling when I heard that. . .   so I called my mom and she drove me out. I saw him in between surgeries and he agreed that my retina was detaching again. He recommended we do surgery and insert a scleral buckle.

I had to wait a couple more hours for surgery because he had other patients and also because I had had a cup of coffee and a cereal bar for breakfast . . .  luckily it wasn't a big breakfast or I'd have had to wait even longer.

Don't be fooled by the smile in this picture - I'm only laughing because my mom thought she'd take a picture of the heart on my forehead (it's so they know which eye to operate on!).


Because I had to wait for surgery anyway, I sent my mom back to school to see Holly at the Remembrance Day Assembly. I was really disappointed I wouldn't be there, and at the same time I didn't want her to worry because I wasn't there - and I didn't have time to tell her what was happening before I left work.




The surgery took about an hour to complete - it didn't seem that long while I was on the table - and YES I was conscious during the entire process! It's definitely a bit strange to be lying on the operating table with a cloth draped over your face (there is just an opening around the eye they are operating on). I admit to getting a bit nervous after the 4th person asked me if they were operating on my RIGHT eye, but better safe than sorry! You can feel some pressure on the eyeball, but can't see anything because the lidocaine paralyzes the eye and blocks vision.

I found this video, which I watched AFTER the surgery, which is good, because if I'd seen this before, the doctor would have had to knock me out! If you are NOT squeamish, check this out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YftCbXIw11k.

Post-surgery at home. There is some gauze and a plastic eye patch to protect my eye. Tomorrow I see the surgeon again and the patch will come off.

Train Day

Tonight we went to Metrotown Mall for a photo shoot. Our family was asked by the Burnaby Hospital Foundation if we would help them advertise for an upcoming fundraiser they are participating in . . .  there is a train you can ride at Metrotown. The money the mall collects from the train is donated to different charities throughout the year.

In the next few months, they are having a competition - 4 charity organizations each get a date and have to get as many people as possible to ride the train that day. They get to keep all the money they raise on the day and at the end of the 4 months, the charity that had the most riders will get an additional $10,000 from Metrotown for their cause!

Burnaby Hospital Foundation's Train Day is November 20th and they are trying to get some press for the event, so we gathered as many of the family who were in town and available to come down for the ride. . .

Owen & Holly =)


Owen with Kong Kong.


Alison, Owen, Darryl, and Holly.




This is fuuuunnnnn!


Who's cute?!


All of us!

ANOTHER Halloween party!

Owen wasn't able to make it to Sunday dinner last week, so we asked a few people to dress up again. Holly decided to be Tinkerbell instead of the Tooth Fairy this time and Owie was a little monkey!

Good Night, Daddy!

Tonight, Holly put on a new pair of pj's and wanted me to braid her hair. We then had to take a picture and short video for Daddy because he was at work until late and wouldn't see her until morning!