Wednesday September 24, 2008

We finally made it outside today. It is a beautiful Fall day in DC, so I was not going to miss this opportunity to get outside with Nicholas. It is important for him to do some of the things he is used to doing. Our original intention was to attend an event at the entrance of the Cancer Center where Hyndai (sp?) was presenting Nicholas's doctor with a huge grant for her clinic and Hope For Henry Foundation. On the way out we were stopped by the nurse and told not to come as one of the other children attending the event was sick and they didn't want to chance Nicholas being infected.

But, we were dressed and ready to roll, so we decided to get outside anyway. Nicholas even agreed to wear his mask, so I new he was ready too. Our first stop was the snack machine in the basement (snacks are all he is interested in eating) and when he got back in his stroller I noticed blood filling up in his central line. Freaked out, I bee-lined it back to our room, where the nurses told me this is fine and it will sometimes do that. I guess where I picked him up so he could put the money in the machine, it forced some blood out of the valve. Won't do that again!

Assured, we went out to the front of the building and found a crane statue to admire. Nicholas wanted to take some pictures, so we did. We then found a quiet area right in the front of the main building with some tables, so we sat there and had a little snack and climbed on the benches and watched the cars and buses go by. Nicholas found some ants to terrorize, but to him this was great fun.

We stayed out for about an hour and hope to get back out later this afternoon. When we got back, we were told that there had been a miscommunication and that they were expecting Nicholas at the Hyndai event, but by then it was too late to participate. No problem, we had our own fun.

Nicholas just finished receiving some more platelets and is taking a nap in the recliner chair. I think he is avoids his crib in the day thinking that he will just stay up, because he knows that when he sleeps they come to do something to him - mostly just vitals, but he really doesn't want to do that anymore either. He is getting better with that though too.