Day 20: Update

It’s been several days since our last update, and we wanted to let you know all is going very well!  Since we last wrote, Idan’s counts have went from 50 to 262!  We are more than halfway to 500, the magic number we need to exceed for two days before Idan can be discharged.  His rash is significantly better, and we hope it will disappear altogether.

The last few days have been a bit of a blur – in a good way.  Idan’s aunts Sabrina and Elisabeth came to visit, and we all had such a fun time.  They gave us much needed breaks throughout the weekend, including to run back home to get the apartment ready for Idan.  The IdaniWonderland is now filled with fun toys and the walls are all decorated.  We can’t wait to see his face when he gets to play untethered to Johnny Five (his IV stand) for the first time in over a month!  This room is a product of Team Idan.  So many of you have sent toys and wall decals to help make his stay in Seattle fun, and we’ve brought many of them to the hospital to entertain him while he’s hospitalized.  Thank you for bringing so many smiles to his beautiful face.

As we start to approach discharge, we’ve had some time to reflect on our stay here at Seattle Children’s Hospital.  It’s truly a place of healing.  The staff here are cheerful and extremely accommodating to crazy NYC parents, and the rooms are spacious, allowing for all sorts of play and activities.  Despite Seattle’s reputation for being a cloudy/rainy city, we’ve been fortunate to see many sunny days (and a few sun showers), and on those days we can see Lake Washington from our window.  Perhaps one of the most unexpected sources of healing has been the widescreen TV that is hooked up to the internet.  A “toy” that we initially thought would be more fun for us has actually become a wonderful way for Idan to keep in touch with his extended family.  Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents alike have sent Idan videos which we play off a private Youtube playlist on the big screen.  He excitedly dances along to grandparent’s nursery rhymes and his uncles’ lullaby’s, and sweetly listens to his aunts read his favorite books to him.  He especially squeals when he sees his cousins on the big screen.  When we chose Seattle Children’s Hospital, our main reason was the chemotherapy protocol, but looking back on this overwhelmingly positive experience, we’d choose Seattle again even if they were using the same chemo as every other hospital.