Wednesday, August 11

My Mom flew home to Houston today, so Bill, Neya, and my Mom stopped by the hospital this morning on their way to the airport. Since Collin walked yesterday using the push toy, I asked them to bring in his walker. The minute he saw my Mom carry it into the room this morning, he was pointing to the door-he wanted to get out into the hallway to walk. I put his sneakers on him, and then since his immune system is back down to zero, I put a mask on him. He resisted the mask since he's never worn one before, but I told him he had to wear the mask if he wanted to go out in the hall to walk. He stopped resisting, so I got the mask tied and out the door we went. He walked from our door to the end of the hall and back a few times-he just wanted to keep going. Even though I could tell he was getting tired, he didn't want to stop. His knees were starting to buckle, and when I picked him up, he wouldn't let go of the walker! We finally got him back into the room to take a break. Luckily his Occupational Therapist came in; he's always happy to see her. He played with the OT and Neya for a while. Then his PT came in, so we went back into the hallway and walked some more. Collin worked very hard on walking this morning, and he never gave up!

Neya lost a tooth Monday night, and on Tuesday morning when I talked to her on the phone, she was so excited that the tooth fairy had come because she wanted to use her money to buy something for Collin. So today she brought her money with her, and went to the gift shop where she picked out a balloon for Collin. It was very sweet, and I was so proud of her. Tonight when Bill and Neya came back to the hospital, Collin had been fussing for a while, but the minute he saw Neya, he sat up, pointed to her, and kept saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" He is always very excited to see his sister, and I've told her-only half kidding-that she needs to move in to the hospital with Collin and me! I'm in awe of the bond Collin and Neya have; it's very heartwarming to see!

As I mentioned, Collin's immune system is back down to nothing. He sounds congested at times because the mucositis is starting, and because of the mucus in his throat, he gags easily on food which causes him to throw up what he eats. He has started sneezing, so his nose was swabbed and a culture was sent to see if he has a virus. Because of his sneezing, he is now on droplet isolation as a precaution, which means that the hospital staff now have to wear masks when they come into the room so they don't carry anything from Collin to another patient. This is all on top of the contact isolation that he is always on whenever he comes to the hospital. Since he acquired MRSA when he was in the PICU in April, staff have to wear a gown and gloves when they enter the room, also to prevent them from spreading anything from patient to patient. It will take a few days for the culture to grow if there is a virus, so we won't know until then if he has a cold, some other bug, or nothing.