The year 2022 had a lot to offer Suzan. She celebrated the 15-year anniversary of her business, she finished an exercise and wellness program, and she rang the bell at the Cancer Centre at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, indicating she completed her cancer treatment.

Back in 2020, Suzan had her routine breast screening mammogram. When she received the results, she was informed that her breast tissue was more dense than normal and that she would have to have another mammogram in a year. In 2021, her mammogram results indicated there was a suspicious spot in one of her breasts. After further testing, she received a phone call – she had stage 1 breast cancer. Her treatment began shortly thereafter with chemotherapy, followed by surgery and then radiation.

“It seemed ironic in a way; I was a bra lady, who owns a specialty lingerie shop often helping individuals that were going through cancer treatment,” explained Suzan. “I never thought it would happen to me.”

Throughout her treatment, she continued to work. She would take days off when she was feeling unwell, but she tried to fill her days with her regular activities. Suzan had great support from family and friends, and her positivity helped push through the hard days. She liked to surround herself with positive people and made it known to others that she did not want to hear any sad stories. She tried to be optimistic and looking for humour in each situation. For instance, if it wasn’t for her cancer, she wouldn’t be able to embrace the perks of wearing a wig. “I couldn’t be around hot steam or extreme heat when wearing my wig. It was the perfect excuse to get away from cooking and doing dishes,” Suzan joked. “Also, I had coloured my hair dark brown for years and thanks to my wig, I didn’t have to go through the process of growing out white roots. I wore a wig for almost a year, took it off and presto – all
white hair!”

When going for treatment, Suzan would get dressed up and do her make-up as if she was going into work. For Suzan, her treatment appointment was another task to check off on her ‘to do’ list for the day. She would bring her iPad with her favourite Netflix shows and sit in her chemo chair with her heated blanket, coffee and social cookies. When her friends would ask what she was doing, she would tell them that she was just at the spa for the day. “In my mind, I had to put myself in a place that was calm and relaxing,” shared Suzan. “That really helped me get through the treatment sessions.”

Although she admits that like many people, she still worries about her cancer reoccurring, she uses her lived experiences to help support others. Whether it is helping one of her customers pick out a postsurgical bra or just listening to her clients, she ensures that she takes the time to be her best self every day and continues to have a positive outlook on life.

If you are looking for cancer-related resources, a good place to start is the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Cancer Centre website.

Shared on behalf of Dawna Perry, Director Nursing, Academics & Practice Excellence

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I am pleased to announce that Andrea Raynak has accepted the position of Director, Nursing Practice beginning January 3, 2023. Reporting to the Director Nursing, Academics & Practice Excellence, Andrea’s primary responsibility will be the development and maintenance of programs and practices that support, promote and evaluate nursing practice and facilitate the integration of research into practice.

Andrea began working at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre in 2008 in the staff nurse role first on 1A then in the Emergency Department. In 2014 Andrea completed her Masters of Public Health with Nursing Specialization and took on the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist, Medicine. In the CNS, Medicine role Andrea identified vascular access practices as an area of concern. She complete a literature search, assessed best/leading practices and tracked our hospital data resulting in a proposal to our Senior Leadership Team to create a new position to support vascular access practices at the Hospital. Her proposal was accepted and she transitioned to the CNS, Vascular Access position.

Andrea has a passion for research and knowledge translation. She has published a number of research articles, contributes as a reviewer of journals and has served as a member of the Research Ethics Board at the Hospital.

Andrea is in the second year of a PhD in Health Sciences focusing on identifying knowledge/health system gaps and proposing sustainable solutions to enhance the nursing profession and further, guide organizational and academic policy.

Please join me in welcoming Andrea to her new role!

The Occupational Health and Safety Department is pleased to be offering the Pfizer COVID-19 bivalent vaccine to all staff, physicians and volunteers of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre by appointment only.

The COVID-19 vaccine clinic will be held every Friday during the month of January.

Hours of operation are:  0800-1600hrs.

Appointments can be booked by calling the OHS department at 684-6212

To be eligible for the vaccine, you must be a health care worker 18 yrs of age and a minimum of 3 months (84 days) since your last COVID-19 vaccine dose or testing positive for COVID.

Staff must bring a piece of government issued Identification in order to obtain the vaccine.  Your Health Card or Driver’s License is acceptable.

It did not take long for Thunder Bay’s first baby of 2023 to arrive.

It’s a boy! Bowtig Beardy was born to mother Kaya Beardy at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre at 1:04 a.m. on January 1st.

Kaya Beardy welcomed her first son weighing 8 pounds. The baby and mother are doing well.

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) has introduced a new parking system for patients, families and visitors. Instead of a chip coin, people will now receive a paper parking ticket when entering parking lots. Parking equipment will be upgraded in D – Deer Lot, C2 – Coyote Lot, I – Turtle Lot, B – Bear Lot, B2 – Moose Lot, and A1 – Eagle Lot. We wanted to take this opportunity to answer some of our most frequently asked questions.

What is the new parking process?

To get a ticket, simply press the yellow button on the front of the terminal entering the parking lot (see photo 1). Take the ticket, and the gate will open up. Our existing pay stations, located inside the Hospital, have been upgraded to include a barcode reader (installation of new pay stations is planned for the end of January 2023). Scan your ticket on the new reader installed on the pay station (see photo 2) and follow the directions to complete payment. When exiting, you will scan that paid ticket on the barcode reader (see photo 3). The gate will open and you can exit.

If you require frequent parking at TBRHSC, there are multi-pass options available, including seven- and 30-day passes. Please check the parking kiosks at TBRHSC for options and rates. 

Why is the Hospital upgrading the parking system?

Our equipment is aging, and Northwestern Ontario weather has taken its toll on the parking system components. Replacement parts are no longer being produced, and the vendor is no longer supporting chip coins and the associated technology.

Additionally, the old parking machines can quickly run out of chip coins during peak times, leading to congestion at parking lot entrances. The upgraded system can hold 4,000 tickets and will alert our team when we have less than 2,000 available so that we can top up well before we run out.

What are the benefits of this new system?

The upgraded system is built for cold, Northwestern Ontario weather. There is less maintenance required and fewer components that can fail. We anticipate less downtime resulting from jams and components needing repair and fewer delays for patients and visitors needing to call security to be buzzed into the parking lot.

Once the full upgrade is complete, patients and visitors will have the ability to pay with a wide variety of options (i.e. credit, debit, cash and Apple pay) and will have the option to pay at the gate as well.

What do the parking fees cover?

The costs associated with parking lots are not covered by government funding. The Hospital uses parking fees collected to cover the cost of providing, maintaining and administering the parking facilities (such as lighting, asphalt and equipment maintenance, line painting and snow removal) and to support operational costs related to patient care.

At TBRHSC, onsite parking is available in an equitable way to all users of the Hospital. This upgraded, modern, easy to use parking system will ensure that patients, families and visitors have convenient and timely access to the Hospital with fewer delays. 

To learn more about parking at TBRHSC, please visit https://bit.ly/TBRHSC-Parking.

Please be advised that the COVID-19 outbreak on the Forensic Mental Health Inpatient Unit has been declared over as of January 3, 2023. All restrictions have been lifted.

Please share this information with the appropriate staff.

For more information, please contact Infection Prevention and Control at extension 6094.

(via TBNewswatch.com)

The Pace family won the record-setting December hospital 50/50 prize of $2.5 million and said they have bought tickets since the beginning to help support the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation.

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Every holiday the Pace family has purchased tickets in the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation monthly 50/50 draw, and now it has paid off in a big way, not only for them, but the entire community.

“Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, today, yesterday,” said Nick Pace on buying tickets.

“Sometimes there was no reason,” added Natalie Pace. “Just because we knew we were hopefully helping someone else at the hospital.”

The Pace family are the latest winners of the Hospital’s 50/50 draw, taking home a record setting $2.5 million.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, honestly,” Natalie said. “I am standing here with my family and holding the cheque, but it hasn’t sunk in yet.”

The jackpot is the largest since last December, when it topped out at $2.3 million.

Just yesterday, Natalie and her family were walking past the 50/50 ticket pop-up store at the Intercity Shopping Centre saying how nice it would be if they were able to return to collect the prize the next day.

Lo and behold, on Friday they were back to be presented with the cheque. And while the money is a welcomed shock to the family, the Pace family participate every month in order to give back to the hospital.

“It’s nice that the money is matched and it goes to a good cause and we are happy to be a part of it,” Nick said.  

“I purchased the tickets just to give back to the hospital, they have been so wonderful to our family,” Natalie added. “It was something I wanted to donate to. I never ever thought in a million years I would actually win the money. I was just trying to be a good person to give to the hospital.”

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation president and CEO Glenn Craig said hearing the Pace family’s story moved him to tears.   

“Her genuine desire to give back to the hospital and not about winning, how her family has been impacted and used the facilities here, and a little bit of her intuition and walking by the pop-up store yesterday and just saying to themselves: wouldn’t it be great if we are back her tomorrow winning the money and lo and behold, here they are winning $2.5 million,” he said.

According to Craig, the monthly 50/50 draw has generated more than $15 million being invested into hospital facilities and services.

“When we started this we had no aspirations for that,” he said. “We have invested millions extra into our hospital and we have been able to do things we would never have even dreamed about.”

Money from the December draw will be invested into the hospital’s emergency department and Craig said all the donations have had a tremendous impact.

And that is all thanks to the people who continually support the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation and purchase tickets in the monthly 50/50 draw.

“It’s really heartening to see this is a community that is pulling together to improve our health care and we’ve also changed one family’s life,” Craig said. “The success of the 50/50 has been entirely because of the community of Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario. There are real changes happening because of it.”

Shared on behalf of Wayne Taylor, Director, Cardiovascular, Medicine and Renal Programs

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I am pleased to announce that Taylor Mackenzie has accepted the full-time permanent position of Manager – 2A Medicine & Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP). Taylor has been the Interim Manager of 2A and HELP since June 2022 and effective Monday, January 2, 2023, will officially take on the role in a permanent capacity. Taylor has worked at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre since 2010 and has gained broad experiences across medical inpatient units as a staff nurse on 2B Medicine, the Nursing Resource Team (NRT) as well as specialty areas of 1A Oncology & Medicine, 2C Cardiovascular & Regional Stroke Unit and Diagnostic Imaging (DI) Recovery.

Taylor further enhanced his abilities by taking on the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) for 1A Oncology & Medicine for over three years where he gained the additional experiences of applying adult learning principles in the development, implementation and delivery of clinical education in the acute care environment.

In addition to his certifications in Oncology, Stroke and Cardiology, Taylor has displayed a strong interest and aptitude in caring for our elderly patients in acute care. As such, he and his team play a key role in the delivery of quality patient care within this setting. Taylor’s continued focus on accountability and commitment to quality care will be a valuable asset to the team he continues to lead and support while staying true to our vision, mission and values.

Please join us in welcoming Taylor to his new role.

Shared on behalf of Peter Myllymaa, Vice President, Operations, Clinical and Support Services and Chief Financial Officer

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