Hi Everyone, Dylan was discharged from hospital today at 5pm. So far so good, he vomited 3 times today but seems well and happy in himself, although he is tired. As most of you are aware, our campaign to raise the money to get to New York is well underway. We were on the channel 10 news on Thursday and the Herald took a photo of Dylan on Friday which should be published on Monday. We are astounded at the enormous effort my work (Australia Post) has put in already. They are all just so amazing. I am so exhausted already but must continue on, to get Dylan treated. I am doubtful that we will come up with such a ridiculous amount of money but we will give it our best shot, that’s all we can do. We cannot express our gratitude enough, to the people who have already donated money towards Dylan’s fund. It makes me so outraged that Dylan’s continued treatment to save his life, has come down to having enough money, what a sad world we live in.
Tim and I visited a boy in ICU on Thursday night, it was a scary experience. This little boy had been treated on our ward for about 3 months and we had grown to know him and his mother and spent many nights consoling him as his mother had to wait a month to get a visa into the country to be by his side. He came good for about a month and got to go home, but now he was back and in a serious condition. He did not have cancer but was treated with chemo on our ward for a rare blood disorder. I saw his mother in the lift and she said “Doctor say he will die soon, he in coma and you come see him. I felt so bad for this lady as she could not speak much English, but no matter what language barriers we had, we share the same pain and love for our children and that's a bond we all share. It was so hard to see his lifeless body hooked up to a machine, but we wanted to let him and his mother know that we cared and we would never forget him. I told his mother that now he is in no pain and he can start his new journey. She showed me photos of what he looked like before he was sick, and he was the most adorable 10 year old boy I had ever seen. Being in the hospital is like being in another world, I see the rest of the world through a window and wonder how many people just have no idea of the pain and suffering that goes on in here.
Another little 3 year old boy got his wings from ALL after just 5 weeks from diagnosis. He was opposite us on our last hospital stay, he was their only child. His mother was the one that told us about “Santa’s Kingdom” tickets. While I was at “Santa’s Kingdom” today with Cain, I thought how awful she must be feeling, having those tickets at home, with no child to take. I don’t know what happened but the rumor is that he got a bad infection or had a bad reaction to the chemo. Another parent in the ward was there at the time, and told me about how unexpected it was, and how his bed was rushed into the treatment room, with his drip crashing to the floor and the MET (Medical Emergency Team) was called straight away, while his mother stood in the hallway hysterical.
Donna had a rough time with her gastric peg over the past few months, causing her so much pain that she could not walk without being hunched over and causing her to be confined to her wheelchair most of the time. Thankfully she had her peg removed this week and to their horror the procedure revealed that it had come away from inside her stomach and had lodged itself in the wrong place. The surgeon said if she had not had it out, she would have died. But I saw Donna at “Santa’s Kingdom” today and for the first time, I saw her standing straight and walking well without her wheelchair. She had a smile from ear to ear and it was so fantastic to see.
