Madeleine's surgery

Madeleine Murray is a nine-year-old little girl from Victoria, British Columbia. She has a very rare form of arthrogryposis. Her condition is precarious due to two unsuccessful surgery attempts to manage a curvature of her spine known as kyphosis and scoliosis. As a result of these surgeries, shown in the June pictures above, Madeleine's chin is now fixed down to her chest, limiting her vision and making it difficult to look up and forward. Choking is a serious and life threatening concern due to her throat being so collapsed. Unfortunately, the longer she is in this position, the harder it becomes to correct. The emotional toll on her self-esteem has been hard.

Madeleine's parents are desperate to take her to experts in Florida for life saving surgery.

Two surgeries are required and the rehabilitation and counselling that follow will require Madeline to be away from family and friends for up to four months. The estimated cost for this life saving procedure and therapy is roughly $500,000 and that does not include travel, living expenses and lost wages for this family. Dan and Laura, Madeleine's parents, have re-mortgaged their home, sold life insurance policies, and immediate family have helped with money to secure the first surgery she needs. The Murray family can't afford to go and can't afford to stay. On October 8, Thanksgiving weekend, they will be getting on a plane, not knowing how they will raise the additional $350,000 for the second surgery and cost of living while in Florida. They have faith.

There are very few surgeons in Canada who know how to perform the complex corrective surgery now required. Madeleine’s parents have not found a surgeon in Canada who has the necessary experience to deal with the degree of difficulty that is presented by her arthrogryposis. The most specialized surgeon in Canada was unsuccessful. The surgeon who performed the last two spine surgeries had never before seen a case like Madeleine presents. Arthrogryposis is a very complex condition. Specialized skill and experience with this rare disease is absolutely required to operate on a child with this condition. Madeleine has had to endure 10 surgeries thus far in her young life. Four of those were unsuccessful surgeries due in part to the related complexity of her arthrogryposis. 

Because of the uniqueness and complexity of Madeleine’s condition, her parents, with the assistance of medical practitioners, sought advice from across Canada and the United States. They found Dr. David S Feldman, a surgeon in Florida at the Paley Institute. Dr. Feldman is a deformity spine expert and has corrected and worked with many children who, like Madeleine, are living with arthrogryposis presenting in the core of the body. Dr. Feldman has a vast knowledge and understanding of how Madeleine’s underlying disease is affecting her skeletal makeup and overall health. Dr. Feldman’s team has a physical therapist trained to treat Madeleine’s condition. Dr. Feldman's practice is based on a team that works closely with him to help children with arthrogryposis achieve independent, meaningful, and successful lives. 

Madeleine has lost the ability to participate in the activities she once enjoyed before the two spinal surgeries this past year. She is able to attend school only part time because her neck becomes very sore if she doesn’t rest throughout the day. Only corrective surgery and effective post-surgical therapy and care can remedy the condition and help this formerly vivacious nine-year-old girl enjoy the quality of life she once knew.

Trained counselors at the Paley Institute will provide Madeleine with help to process this devastating set back and help her understand how to manage and live with her condition. Madeleine  has never had the opportunity to share her life journey with others. At the Paley Institute, she will finally meet kids like her who also cope with the condition she and her family have dealt with alone. 

Madeleine's family have searched for nine years to find a place for Madeleine to get the care Dr. Feldman offers. His surgical techniques will enable Madeleine to live a thriving, independent and functioning life. Madeleine will no longer need multiple surgeons who only specialize in one area. This disease is connected throughout her body and presents most significantly in her whole core, which is Dr. Feldman’s expertise. Anyone who knows this extremely brave young lady will agree, given the chance, she will do amazing things. Her story has the potential to touch many and help other children living with this condition. Both Madeleine's former and present GPs, who have cared for her throughout her life, strongly support the family’s decision to seek Dr. Feldman’s amazing team. One of the physicians went so far as to donate $1000 to kick-start a fundraising campaign to give her a chance to get the help she so desperately needs.

Madeleine’s father flew to Florida to meet Dr. Feldman and his team at the Paley Institute and presented her case, with x-rays, CT scans, and her life history. After thoroughly researching his credentials, Dan, Madeleine's father, was able to interview and question Dr. Feldman extensively. The family is confident that they have finally found the place tor correct her spine and give her the total care she needs and deserves. 

Dr. Feldman asked Dan if he would like this nightmare to go away and give Madeline the care she deserves. Dan fought tears of joy knowing his daughter had an excellent chance of once again becoming the happy 9-year-old little girl in the red jacket that you see smiling at the camera the morning before her surgery. These surgeries in Florida have a proven track record. They will straighten and preserve Madeleine's spine for the rest of her life. Madeleine prays every night for a doctor to help her. She is so close to having those prayers answered.


If you were able to contribute to Madeleine’s dream, the Murray family would be ever grateful for your help!

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Finally a GoFundMe I can back

This is one of the better gofundme's I've seen in awhile.

I'm not being asked to send someone to school that doesn't need the support, or help a woman move to a different province because she made a bad life for herself here and doesn't want to take care of herself, and it's not asking me to fund a single woman with a part-time job and no education's IVF.

I'm not paying for a dog to get its teeth fixed, or paying for a cats funeral.

I like this one. Therefore, I support it.

A Redditor (spei180 ) had asked "What is the easiest way to convince one million people to give you one dollar? ". So I decided to see if using GoFundMe was a viable way to do that.

Just donate a dollar or more than a dollar...none of the money will go toward myself, however will be donated to the following organizations in 10% increments (after GoFundMe cost).

Doctors Without Borders (Healthcare)
American Red Cross (Emergency Services)
World Wildlife Fund (Conservation Awareness)
AdoptAClassroom (Education)
The Guide Dog Foundation  (Disabled Services)
Breast Cancer Research Foundation  (Healthcare)
American Civil Liberties Union  (Human Rights)
Amnesty International  (Human Rights)
National Alliance to End Homelessness  (Social Services)
Polaris Project  (Human Trafficking)

Even if you don't donate to this campaign  I highly encourage you to donate to the above charities.

The words of Cherish

I've got some rage, and it's coming out. If expletives, radical opinions, or raw emotion make you uncomfortable then I suggest you don't read this post because I am about to unapologetically let it let fly. Consider yourself warned.

First, I have just had it with this society. I've had it with fucking white people who think their shit don't stink, who think they are above everyone else simply because they are white. As if white = right. I'm sick of the social, and blatantly racist hierarchy we have to face every day. I'm so fucking trained by this colonial system (my own personal work in progress, trying to free myself from it) that it I'm afraid to say 'white people' because I don't want to make my white friends uncomfortable or have them think I am directly 'attacking' them or blaming them, I don't say it because I don't want to have my words used against me to keep from being able to obtain employment or housing or other needs, and then I feel guilty because my ancestry is more than just Indigenous and I am proud all of my heritage because it makes me who I am. But the fact is, my skin is brown, and in this society that somehow equates to having no value, no humanity. I've had to put up with some serious bullshit as an Aboriginal person, let me tell you! I can't even count the number of times I have been called squaw, or chug, or dirty. I have been followed in stores and multiple times have been searched on my way out (even if I've made a purchase). If I'm at airport security, you'd better believe that I'm going to be selected for the 'random search'. I have been accused of being a mooch on society, of being lazy, and of contributing nothing (all by total strangers). I've had people see me walking and cross the street to avoid me, and people request not to be seated next to my table at restaurants, and people loudly whisper horrible things about Aboriginal people as if they don't mean for anyone to hear it (but they do). I've had people pull their children closer to them or even hold them with their faces away while they glare at me as if I'm some kind of monster that is undoubtedly there to harm them. And most times I feel like I better not say anything in any of those situations because that will make things so much worse. I'd prefer not to be tased, or shot, or beaten, or blacklisted, or jailed, or any other shitty thing thank you very much. I mean seriously, what the hell is wrong with this society that this shit is still so normalized and accepted? Here is something totally screwed up... I even had a moment this summer where I decided not to take one of my daily tinctures before going to the post office because it happened to be one that lingers on the breath and I didn't want to be judged by the people at the post office for having a scent of alcohol on my breath, I felt like it would just reinforce a terrible stereotype. My beloved herbal medicine, I should not have had reason to feel I couldn't take it, and yet I felt overwhelmingly inclined to protect myself and the reputation of Aboriginal people.

And it's not just Aboriginal people who are subject to this; if you are different in any way, this colonial 'culture' does not support you. Hell, even if you are not that different this culture isn't going to be very good to you - take veterans and seniors for example. Regardless of how well they fit in to the acceptable framework, they still get treated poorly. Oh, and here's something: today while I was out walking (not that this is a one time experience, I have seen it a lot) there was a family walking down the street and they passed a homeless man who was sitting up against a building, and they looked upon him with such disdain, as if he were a terrible blemish on the world. Have you no fucking heart people!?! That is a living being right there! You don't know them, you don't know their story. You are so bothered by them being there, but for all the wrong reasons. It fucking bothers me to see them there, it is a reminder every day that our society doesn't support people equally. If you veer at all from the narrow view of acceptable gender or sexual identity, if your body is not cookie-cuter perfect, if you are foreign - or just coloured, if your world-view falls outside that of the dominant culture, if you have an illness, or a disability (egads, this is especially true if you have an illness or disability is not visibly obvious) then you will likely be subject to a shit-storm of abuse and be pressured to conform as much as possible. I just don't understand, what an idiotic way to see things, life flourishes with diversity - duh!

I abhor this capitalist cesspool that we are living in too. Capitalism is a most profane abuse on humanity and the living world; it needs to end. Look at what it has done to us! Shit is all fucked up, we need to change it - now. The land and other living beings on it need our love and care now more than ever. For the sake of the almighty dollar and unnecessary luxuries this world has been ravaged. Plant and animal species are going extinct on the regular and we just keep trucking along with our pillaging, never satisfied, and putting what remains at further risk. Consume, consume, consume; the government and rich folk really like us to consume, it fills their pockets and empties ours, creating an imbalance of power in their favor. We have companies that are controlling our way of life, that have far more influence than they should ever be allowed. Oh, the CEO of Nestle thinks water shouldn't be a human right? Well then, let's sell him millions of litres of our fresh water for less than the cost of a large cup of coffee so he can realize that dream of his and further entrench the people in the system. And then there is Monsanto, a fucking evil corporation run by tycoons of misery. Monocropping the fuck out of the land and rendering it unusable for growing food in an alarmingly short period of time, using toxic chemicals to keep from having do a little extra work in the area of pest control (but they say it's safe to eat - please!), killing pollinators, producing mutant crops that should not be put in our bodies, and exercising ridiculous control over the farming industry - both their own farmers and others who inadvertently get caught up in the fray. Our government and society tout the importance of getting an education beyond high-school but then they make a student loan system that is so faulty one might expect it to cause an earthquake. Drown students in debt and then crush them with interest and high repayment plans the moment they finish so that what should be a joyous start to a new career and life path becomes overshadowed by their debts, while their entry-level jobs barely pay them enough to get by. Sneaky back-door deals over oil and land and resources are happening all the time; the 'elite' making their lives more luxurious and comfortable and forsaking all else. If you don't have money, this system is near impossible to live in. I think about this a lot when I get pressured about having kids. Sure, I'll probably have children, but I feel wary about it. We cannot sustain with the way things are operating right now, it leaves a bleak outlook for the future. Will there be clean water for them to drink that isn't sold in toxic plastic bottles? Will they be able to walk outside and breath the air, or stand in the sun without fear? Will there be enough healthy soil left for them to be able to grow food and sustain their bodies? Will they be accepted for the wonderful, unique beings they are or will they be treated as pariahs? Will they be owned by a corporation maybe? It's scary shit to think about. Fuck capitalism.

We need fucking change now. We need to stop being shitty to each other and the planet. We need to stand up to those who would jeopardize the future to fill their coffers just a little bit more. Fuck shitty people, I'm sick of 'em.


Cherish