In my last post, I blogged about the website Changing Vancouver and learned it is written by Andy Coupland and well-known civic historian, John Atkin . I corresponded a bit with Andy and he has updated the entry about Sweeney Cooperage and the former site in False Creek in great detail. I learned a lot from it and I’m grateful to him for his thorough history. I have a few more things to look up the next time I go to visit the City of Vancouver archives .

The other day I did a Google search for Sweeney Cooperage and came across this blog . The blogger is unidentified, otherwise, I would have just sent an e-mail with the information below. He or she is more likely to find it if I post something.

While I may not be a Sweeney by blood, I am a Sweeney by name and grew up in this large family, with lots of cousins. My childhood was full of memories spending time at the cooperage on weekends when Dad went to work in the office. I’ll blog more about that another day.

The person who wrote the blog relied on sources from the archives.

Initially Michael Sweeney’s cooperage was in Victoria; in 1921 it moved to Vancouver on False Creek (or 1914 depending on which source you read – although there’s no sign of them in the street directories that early).

The full story can be found in the Sweeney Christmas card of 1956 where ‘the old man’ (my grandfather M.Leo Sweeney) — another meticulous historian — wrote the story. I scanned it and it’s available here in pdf.

After the Facial Pain conference in Richmond, Virginia, I drove up to Washington, D.C., where Daniel was flying in to join me. Our plan was for me to check into our Bed and Breakfast, then drop off the car rental and meet him at baggage claim so we could take the subway back to the B&B together. I gave myself lots of time but had no idea that the traffic could be so bad on a Sunday. Daniel’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 5:35 pm and I checked in and connected to the wireless at 5:10. I was convinced I was going to miss him as the traffic in the city was so congested. I sent him a message that he would be able to pick up on his Blackberry after getting off the plane telling him to meet me at the car rental return. Then I jumped in the car and headed in the general direction of Reagan National Airport. Within a few minutes, I was on Rock Creek Parkway and shortly after a sign appeared directing me to I-395 and Reagan. I dropped off the car, ran like OJ Simpson through the airport to get to the Air Canada baggage claim by 5:45. Surely, he’d be there if the flight was on time. The arrival board said it was on time. But nobody I asked who was standing at the carousel had flown in from Toronto.

This is when the MS fatigue hit me. I broke down crying in the terminal. I looked for a sign to help me get back to the car rentals but didn’t see one. There was nobody at the information booth. A man stopped to help me but he was unable to think of a solution other than to go to the Air Canada desk and ask about the flight. I went over but there was a long line . . . I melted down again. I went over to the information desk hoping to find a phone or some way I could get in contact with somebody to help me.

It was at the information booth that three women from Minnesota decided to help me get connected with my husband. They had been in D.C. to demonstrate making their award-winning strudel. The called themselves the Strudel Sisters. One of them let me use her cell phone to leave a message for my husband on his cell phone. Another one gave me a medallion of the Virgin Mary to keep with me. They encouraged me to go over to the Air Canada counter again and that’s when we learned that my husband’s flight had been delayed and had just landed. I breathed a big sigh of relief. As we talked, I told them what Daniel looked like and then proceeded to tell them how much I liked Minnesota, as I visited Minneapolis several time when I lived in Wisconsin. After a few minutes, one of them asked if a man behind me was my husband and yes, it was! He had no idea what I had been going through. We did have a back-up plan which was to meet at the B&B if we didn’t meet up at the airport. But I was reaching a level of exhaustion that would have made it a bit challenging to do it on my own.

As we said good-bye, I learned that they really were sisters, even though they didn’t look that much alike. But I could start to see it in two of them. The third one said that she takes after their father . . . at least I think that’s what she said. I wanted to write about them because it was so reassuring to meet such nice women who decided to ‘take care’ of me when I was in distress. I took their e-mail addresses as I wanted to thank them. I thought it would make a nice blog post. As soon as we left them, I realized I hadn’t taken a photo! So, I googled them and came across some information about them and their trip to D.C. as guests at the embassy of the Republic of Slovenia for the EU Open House.

Thank you, Strudel Sisters — Nadi, Albina, and Rose — for helping me when I needed some friends.

On Friday, June 7, the City of Vancouver Archives hosted a celebration and open house at Vancouver City Hall. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted with a smile and a wave from Jeffrey, the young man who works with film at the archives. It was nice to be remembered and greeted so warmly. Jeffrey and I spent some time together last fall when I donated some 16mm and 8 mm films that my dad had saved from Sweeney Cooperage . Jeffrey was an intern with Colin Preston, film and media archivist at CBC , and a while later I managed to get a couple of nice photos of the two of them together.

There were gorgeous old photos available to the early arrivals. Each one of us could take five. They were all copies of the originals that are stored at the archives. The digital images are now available for public viewing and this was a way for them to make space in their storage. It was an unexpected treat for me to come home with some treasures.

There were a lot of interesting displays — old maps, plans, books, films — all sorts of goodies that history buffs love. It was great to get a chance to talk with the staff and volunteers. Even though I’ve eliminated wheat and dairy from my diet, I couldn’t say ‘no’ to a very small piece of the special carrot cake, made by The Lazy Gourmet, with a recipe from The Expo 86 Cookbook.

I mentioned in my last post that Dr. Perry had invited me to an event hosted by the Therapeutics Initiative , an internationally renowned and unique program, featuring Dr. John Yudkin, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and former Director, International Health and Medical Education Centre, University College London. The topic was Ten Commandments for the New Therapeutics and was designed to stimulate discussion among health care providers and government funders on engaging in critical thinking and best use of pharmaceuticals.

Also in attendance were, MP Joyce Murray and her husband, Dirk Brinkman, Leader of the Opposition, MLA Adrian Dix, MLAs Vicki Huntington and Lana Popham and a representative from the Office of the Premier, Christy Clark. In addition there were lots of medical people and patient advocates. I had a chance to speak with most of them.

When I arrived, Dr. Perry greeted me and introduced me to his wife, Beth. She knew my name because she worked on intake in Vancouver Community Health. I had covered for a maternity leave for that position for adults. It was an impossible job as it was a single position to cover all of the speech, language and swallowing problems for all adults in Vancouver who were not in hospitals. I told her about the ethical/professional dilemma I was in while advocating for appropriate care for a man with aphasia in extended care. I quit that job and walked away from the health care system.

After the dinner, all of the attendees were assigned to different discussion groups to discuss one of the 10 Commandments. It was interesting to hear input and perspectives from so many different angles and experiences. The intellectual rigour for thinking about appropriate medications that should be funded is beyond most of us and certainly beyond the capacity for individual physicians to evaluate the drugs amidst the marketing of the pharmaceutical companies. The tragedy for all of us in BC is that this program had its funding cut last year and will be wrapped up shortly unless something changes.

Even though I’m eager to try the new drug for MS, Tecfidera, I’d feel more confident knowing it had been evaluated by the experts at Therapeutics Initiative.

Thank you for the invitation, Dr. Perry. I had a nice time. Six months ago I never would have believed I could attend an event like that again.

Daina and I went to UBC this morning for a session on medications for MS provided by one of the nurses at the MS Clinic. It provided me with some answers to questions but ultimately the choice is mine with what I choose or whether or not I go on the drugs. They like to say that MS is ‘manageable’ now and that people can live long and full lives with it. The key is to find what works to stop the progression of the disease. Ideally, I should have been in this position several years earlier . . .

Later in the afternoon I went to meet with the MS neurologist. While I was in the waiting room, Dr. Perry came out to the reception area with a medical student. I said ‘hi’ and the next thing I knew, he was inviting me to an event on Thursday evening for the Therapeutics Initiative program.

Neurologist #5, my MS neurologist, reviewed my MRI in detail with me. He identified the lesions, described several of the older lesions that were ‘cavitated’, and pointed out the lesion in the pons that caused my trigeminal pain. I blogged about the MRI in a previous post and had correctly identified the location of that lesion.

We also took a look at the major arteries in my brain and he described them as ‘pristine’ with no signs of arteriosclerosis or malformations. So, my risk for stroke is minimal. Kind of ironic as I don’t want to live a long life any more. The major ‘take-home message’ for me was the fact that my MS lesions don’t show evidence of healing, as some other people’s do. So, my best defence is to prevent new lesions. That will be an important factor in the choice of medications.