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Thursday, August 30th, 2007

By Margot | August 30, 2007

We are home from Texas – got in about midnight last night. Everything went very smoothly. Sam was a champ in the hospital and the Texas Childrens staff was great. Sam’s tummy hurt after he ate for the four days in-patient and he threw up some on the night of the off day but otherwise was in good spirits the whole time. Andy and Charlie came and played with im every day and went back and forth to the Hannons (who were only five minutes away) with either Neil or I for hospital breaks. We hung out at Herman park some, the boys ran through the little water spray park they have there the first night and Andy and Charlie went back and did it again with the Hannons and I later in the week. Andy and I rode the train around the park with Charlie one afternoon and got rained on. It rained quite a bit while we were there and the boys loved watching the lightning. It’s a good thing California is dry because Andy stepped in every single puddle there was. Ann nicely washed and dried his red Converse at least three times while we were there. On our off day from the hospital we met the Buengers http://www.erinbuenger.blogspot.com, our now no longer virtual NB friends, and my dear and most longtime friend Nicole and her son Wyatt for lunch. Erin Buenger is about the cutest little red-headed girl I’ve ever seen. She just sparkles and you can tell she’s smart as a whip. It was great to meet them in person. It’s a small world. Their son Davis goes to Rice and has Jim Hannon as his physics professor this symester. Neil told him not to worry, we’d make sure he gets an “A” :-). After lunch Neil got some work done and Nicole and I took the kids to Houston Children’s Museum. I’m becoming quite the connoisseur of Children’s Museums having taken the kids to at least six different ones now. This one was great. We closed the place down and the kids could have stayed hours longer. Wyatt is about six months older than Charlie (though they are roughly the same size) and he’s so cute (they’ll be buddies when they get older). We had dinner with Nicole and Wyatt and it was great to get to spend the day with Nicole. I almost forgive her for looking so young and well put together. That night as we were all going to bed at the Hannons Sam said. “I like this bed much more than a hospital bed.&quot As we were going home on the plane he said, “I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed.” Something I might say. He and I watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark one night in the hospital and are now cracking each other up quoting the line from Indy, “Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?” and then his friend says in his Indian accent, “Asps -vedy dangerous, you go first.”
 
The boys watched the lightning storm from the plane window leaving Houston last night and they were so cute (they each had a window seat – Andy in front Sam in back and they were yelling to each other “Sam, I saw it did you see it?” “Yeah, that was a big one!” I’m not sure how cute the other passengers thought it was but I don’t care. Dear Charlie slept the entire two- and -a-half hour flight to Pheonix, woke up and ran around the Phoenix terminal for an hour and a half chasing his brothers, looking at airplanes, dancing with whichever brother was putting on a show for the other looking through the binoculars meant to look at the airplanes but turned inwards at the terminal on the dancing brother. Andrew’s great line looking through the binoculars at dancing Sam, “Oh I see a dancing dufus.” It wasn’t all roses of course -they fought like bearcats at times and Charlie has discovered that biting people is an effective way to counter his frustration if they are not doing exactly as he’d like them to when he is tired and cranky. Sam had a spectacular throw up in the middle of the terminal right before our San Diego flight took off. He and I were trying to make it to the bathroom but didn’t quite get there. If we could have been any more in the middle of things I don’t know how. It’s funny how that doesn’t phase me at all. Sam wasn’t phased either and said, “Sorry I think it was the chicken taco.” All three boys slept the entire short flight from Phoenix.
 
Neil and I really debated on whether or not to do this vaccine because we had to stop even oral chemo for six weeks and since we got such great scans we weren’t sure we should tinker with what is working. We were able to stay on Nifurtimox though whichis a big comfort and Dr. Meyers was awesome answering all of our questions and concerns. We are very glad we did the trial and if there was a good time for us to take the risk, this was it, having just gotten clean scans. Also, for NB parents who might be considering it, the nausea doesn’t seem to be a common side effect. Sam’s poor stomach is so shot. I think of his tummy enzymes like the rabbits in Watership Down (I’m reading it to the boys at bedtime -not sure how much they are catching but it sure is effective at getting them to sleep 😉 Little Fiver enzyme (who always senses danger) says to his brother Hazel enzyme, “I don’t feel good about this. They are putting something into the blood.” Hazel says, “Fiver don’t worry, it’s not chemo – that should be great news right.” Fiver answers, “No. no. We must warn the lining of stomach -it’s not in good shape as it is and something doesn’t feel right about this”….
 
We cannot thank the Hannons enough. The week could have and would have been so much harder without them and their awesome support. To have such a comforting place to land was just fantasitc. Next up Labor Day Weekend and Sam’s first day of school the following Tuesday. I’ll stop promising pictures since I never seem to get them up when I say I will and I’ll just surprise you.
 
Margot

Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on Thursday, August 30th, 2007

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