Our Blog About Our Travels With Our Kids: 2008

Thank you for checking in on Zeke's Caringbridge site, and for praying for us today. We certainly felt The Lord's awesome presence with us. I put a link to this blog on the Caringbridge site because I much prefer to tell stories with pictures, and that seems to have been passed on to our kids. Even Zeke has a small totally functional Fisher-Price digital camera and he loves to carry around his little photo albums. When Owen was Zeke's age we learned (through his speech therapist) that taking pictures of the places we go and looking at them later was a great way to practice vocabulary, its also a great comfort measure when preparing for an event that might make them nervous. So ever since Owen was Zeke's age we have made many little photo books of places we go and of big events. Then the kids can retell the story of their day or their event.

Here is the picture story book we are making for Zeke about being at Children's Hospital, it just so happens to fit well on a blog, too :-) And we thought you might like to read about it from his perspective:

Today I got up early to go see some doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital. Its a very big place, with lots of strange stuff and some strange sounds too, but all the doctors and nurses are very nice and they like to give out stickers!

Our first stop after getting signed in was to get my IV. It goes in my hand, it only hurts a little and it gets lots of tape. I sat in Mommy's lap in a rocking chair while two nurses worked on getting the IV into the top of my hand. One nurse gave my arm a tight hug, the other put all the stuff in my skin. Mommy hugged me tight, too. She could still kiss me, hug me and sing to me if I got upset or scared, but today I was fine. I was a big boy and just watched the tv show they put in for me to watch. It felt a little funny, so I would not talk to or smile for the nurses, but I never cried.

And after the nurses left the room I giggled with Mommy again

Then we went down the hall the the pre-op room. They have a nice playroom and rocking chairs in each room.

My Marcia came by to play with me. I told her all about my IV and the toys.

I found a truck to play with and ride in

and then a Thomas the Train to ride. I liked running over Daddy's toes.

I sat in mommy's lap to get "my med-shin" all started. They told me the first stuff they squirted in my IV was called benadryl and zertech so I would not react to the other drugs, but I just called it "my med-shin". Then I showed them my very own stethoscope and my Turtle Blue. I got Turtle Blue when we were in Hawaii. The nurse got Turtle Blue got a hospital bracelet too, and told me they would do a shell scan on him while they did a bone scan on me, but both Turtle and I had to fall asleep before they could do scans.

That "med-shin" really made me sleepy, so Daddy and I cuddled up to read Curious George Books

Then we fell asleep ... well, Daddy was just pretending, but I fell asleep very hard and snored a bit too.

I slept so hard that I did not even wake up when Daddy carried me to the Induction Room (thats the room you fall asleep in). I opened my eyes when Daddy laid me down, but was closing them again right away. Then an oxygen container started to leak and made a very loud noise, I jumped and woke up, even cried a little, but the Dr. was already putting more "sleepy med-shins" in my IV, so I only cried for a minute or two then fell right back to sleep. Mommy was so relieved I did not cry long.

Mommy and Daddy and our friend Marcia went to wait for me in the waiting room and they ate lunch while I napped. The doctors and nurses stayed busy using their machines to look at my bones and my blood, cause that's their job. My blankie and Turtle Blue slept right with me the whole time.

After my scans and biopsies were all done I woke up in a strange room with a very nice nurse. She said I never made a peep, just looked around, I was so groggy, it was hard to keep my eyes open, but then the nice nurse took me to find my mommy.

I was really sleepy, but glad to see mommy

And I really started waking up when the nurse offered to get me apple juice and a popsicle ...

mmm mmm....

Marcia and I snuggled and watched Dora (I asked for a Diego show but they didn't have a Diego show, but Dora was fine)

I also got a cup of ice chips, they made me giggle

And after a little while my nice nurse took off my IV and tape ... she put a band aid on my hand and gave me Dora stickers. Then we got to go home!