PBT Kicks Off Fundraiser To Send Kids, Who Survived Cancer, to Camp Esperanza
- If you would like to donate online CLICK HERE
- If you would like to contribute with a check:
One Father's Perspective-
Our daughter underwent a bone marrow transplant when she was five years old. There are things about that journey that we still do not discuss. My daughter and my wife moved into Children's medical facility on December 6th and did not return home until 3-4 months later. The staff at Children's raised the possibility of our daughter going to camp early in the bone marrow process. Right away our daughter told us she wanted to go to camp. As our daughter got more and more sick from the chemo, the idea of going to this camp signified "hope." It was almost the promise that she would be okay and she would get through this very stressful and awful process. I kept a blog/journal during our experience and I will share just a few of our stories over the next few weeks.
Story Number 1- December 6th- Move-In Day
"We left this morning at around 8:00 a.m. to head to Dallas. My wife and I took separate cars. Also, I took our other daughter to school and my wife and our five year old went ahead and left. I told my wife not to worry about me, I would catch up. I was on a conference call during the drive and my wife called me but I could not switch over. I called her back and she asked me if I knew that I had flown by them on the interstate? I started laughing saying that I thought I was still behind her and I was trying to catch up quickly. My wife proceeded to tell me that she looked in her rearview mirror and saw this white blur driving rapidly and her first thought was that she hoped that was not her husband. I told her that I was certain that it was not me and that I must still be somewhere between her and our home town. (I was laughing at this point). My wife said that she was certain that there were not two white car’s with stickers for our oldest daughter's school and driven by a guy with dark hair. I assured her that there were two such cars in our town and that I had just seen the other one earlier (and then I slowed down). (I may have been just a little stressed already).
We met at North Park Mall for story time with Santa because our little girl wanted to make sure Santa knew she would not be home this year. We got to see Santa for a little one on one time. Our five year old was very cute with Santa. She told Santa that she wanted a doll for Christmas. She also told him that she would not be home, but would be in the hospital in Dallas.
When we went to order pictures of our little girl with Santa, the cashier asked us if we knew the photographer and we responded no. He excused himself and when he returned he told us that the photographer was giving us complimentary pictures of whatever we wanted. It was very nice.
We ate lunch and then went to see some train exhibit our little one wanted to see. Our daughter was in a very good mood all day. She was very excited about going to the hospital. We were laughing and joking all day.
We got to the hospital at around 2:00 p.m. Going from the mall to the hospital once again I told my wife that I would catch up with her and yes once again I blew by her without even realizing it. This time I was on the phone with her and she even said “Is that you blowing by me?” Once again I told her it must be that other joker from our home town and he must be following us. Once again I slowed down.
We got checked in to the hospital and learned that our little one would not be allowed to leave her room for the next few days until they made sure she did not bring any infection on to the transplant floor. Thereafter, she could leave the room and go to the game room, but she could not leave the unit. They brought us a Wii and our daughter was very happy for a long time until it came time to start the IV. They tried to put the IV in her right arm, in her one good vein, but they could not get it started so they had to put it in her left hand. Our daughter was so mad at the nurse when she realized what the nurse had done. She asked the nurse, “Why did you put it in my hand?” She brooded for a few minutes as we were talking to the nurse and then out of the blue she added, “You know I am left handed.” She was mad because it was going to interfere with her Wii playing. The nurse was very apologetic, but we all could not keep from laughing about it. It hit me for the first time that kids just want to be kids.
Our daughter's platelets came back at 7,000. She needed to be over 100,000 for surgery (normal is around 400,000 parts per whatever). She would receive a transfusion in the middle of the night and surgery was scheduled for the next day at 9:00 a.m. to insert a central line to make giving our little one her medications and chemo easier over the extended time we would be in the facility.
Our daughter was very very cute that day. She was very talkative interacting with all the staff. She was stealing hearts right and left. At one point, I was cuddling with her and I asked her if she knew that she had stolen my heart?
She asked me if I wanted her to give it back and I said she could keep it a little longer."
(To be continued . . .)
Fundraiser Status-
To see how we are doing, we have created a Dashboard to check on the status of all the different ways to give.
To see the PBT Dashboard of Contributions raised since October 11, 2023- CLICK HERE.
Please give to this very worthy cause.
Comments
Post a Comment