Posted by Karen
As you may know, our family lives in a suburb city of Vancouver, Canada. And, as you may also know, there’s a teensy little event going on right now in Vancouver – the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Okay… It’s actually not so teensy; it’s rather a very big whopping deal in our fair city! Vancouver is completely consumed by the Olympics at the moment, and our family has gotten right into the thick of it.
Everything Olympic-related these days is glutted with people. Huge, unbelievable crowds… Doesn’t sound so very good for a family with a 5 year old who has Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, does it? Huge crowds pose pushing, bumping and tripping hazards. However, an excellent way to let FOP get the best of you and diminish quality of life is to crumble in the face of all risks and choose not to do things. And so, our family has done a bunch of Olympic stuff.
It all started, of course, with the opening ceremonies. No, we didn’t see those live, just watched on TV. However – 2 days later, on Sunday of last weekend, we went to an Olympic women’s hockey game, which is the one and only event we managed to get tickets for. We had to arrive at the game almost two hours early, as recommended by the Olympic authorites, and had to take the bus onto the UBC campus where the game was held.
Upon arrival on campus for the game, we exited our bus and tried to figure out where to go next. We thought about walking to the venue, but it was close to a kilometre away, and we didn’t think a walk like that would be a good start to our Miranda’s day. Fortunately, they had an “accessibility shuttle” for people with disabilities, and we were able to ride it from the bus stop to the Thunderbird Arena. Next we had to go through security. I was carrying with us a backpack in which I had our ever-present instant cold packs (in case of Miranda falling or otherwise hurting herself), along with a first-aid kit, and I wondered if I’d have to explain that gear to security or if they’d confiscate the first aid kit because it contains scissors. However, none of that happened and we sailed through.
The last bit before the game itself was a lengthy wait in the crowd in front of the arena. We waited there about an hour. To my surprise, Miranda (and her brother as well) handled the wait very well and didn’t gripe. Also, she didn’t get jostled or pushed, which is of course good. Next – the game! We saw the Finnish women’s team play the Russians. As Russia is a traditional hockey rival of Canada, we cheered for the Finns… And Finland won! Miranda and Owen were delighted. We had very good seats, too, as we were right near one of the goal creases and so could see the goals happening up close.
Pete, Owen and Miranda in our seats at the hockey game. Note O & M's Olympic hockey jerseys.
During the game we ate lots of concession food, because they don’t let you bring your own food to Olympic venues. This was the part at which we had our one FOP-related glitch… The games have the goal of being very “green” (ie, environmentally responsible), so you cannot get drinking straws for any beverages you purchase. I thought we had been well-prepared for our event, but we didn’t predict a lack of straws! Straws are a necessity for Miranda to drink independently, because she can’t get either of her arms up high enough to tip the drink container at her mouth. And so, I had to hold Miranda’s milk for her to drink it. Minor inconvenience, true, but I did wish I had thought to bring a straw…
The rest of the week we spent glued to the television watching various events. Miranda had lots of questions about everything. She is particularly interested in skating, which sadly she can’t do herself – that’s one thing which we feel is just too risky for her to try. However, at one point she discovered that the Paralympic Games (which follow the Olympics) have sledge hockey games. Miranda announced that she could do sledge hockey if she couldn’t skate, and she was happy with this conclusion. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her arms wouldn’t be able to manage that sport… But no matter, as this was a passing fancy of hers and she’ll forget all about it after the Olympics.
Anyway, though we didn’t go to any other events, Pete and I decided to take the kids downtown yesterday to see whatever free stuff we could see and absorb some Olympic atmosphere. We had to again take public transit – this time it was via Skytrain. Though we arrived fairly early in the day, around 10:30 AM, there were already hordes and hordes of people in the downtown core. Of course, this is again a tripping/falling/jostling risk for Miranda. But still, we gave it our best shot.
First we went to see the Olympic cauldron. We got close enough to snap a photo, but weren’t interested in standing in line for an hour to get to the “unobstructed” view, hence ours is through the infamous chain link fence (and you can’t even see the lit flame in our pic, but oh well).
Our kids by the cauldron.
Pretty soon after that we decided to get an early lunch because we happened to be close to the “Japadog” stand – if you haven’t heard of this, it’s a hot dog with teriyaki-mayo sauce and seaweed shreds. Interesting… (the kids just had plain dogs though). Then, we bravely set forth to walk onto Granville Street, the heart of the Olympic madness.
On Granville I swear it was wall-to-wall people. Pretty quickly we gave up the idea of actually trying to get into any pavilions, as the lines were SO long. We meandered along the street and just checked out the free stuff there was to see there, such as street performers and a forest made of trees with kids’ artwork as the leaves (I think this forest had an actual name, but I missed it).
In the Olympic forest on Granville Street.
We rounded out our day by walking over to the Robson Square skating rink for a look around. When we were there, we caught a piece of the “Olympic Mascots on Ice” show, which delighted Miranda, who LOVES her Olympic Miga toy and carries it everywhere. 
We went home mid-afternoon, and I was satisfied that we had enjoyed whatever there was to do which was easily accessible. Miranda had really enjoyed it, as evidenced by the fact that she asked when we could go back downtown and “see more stuff” (Owen on the other hand was a limp noodle, having been exhausted by the crowds).
And so, having made it through ginormous loads of people without any FOP-related incidents, we made it home safely… And then a couple of hours later, Miranda tripped on something and fell flat on the floor, causing much howling and tears and necessitating a cold pack to the head. The Olympics didn’t cause any problems, but she fell in her own home. It figures, sigh. But, that’s life with FOP, and we’re used to it.
(PS – I think her head’s OK. Maybe we escaped a big bump this time around.)
