A Week Off/A Week In

You know, some people might be jealous at first glance. My home is 16 stories with about 20 rooms on each. Someone brings our food three times a day. And if you don't like that food we have a nice food court down stairs filled with junk food but hey, it's so convenient. Cross the street you get to have the world's greatest coffee. I have, not one, but two gifts shops, valet parking and if anything is wrong we are surrounded by doctors! What a nice home to have. Roommates sharing all the same challenging experiences and struggles. We do tend to confine ourselves to our own rooms but with a spectacular view of the medical center! Many people come by to hand out gifts and do crafts. Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday they have a radio station randomly select winners on each floor getting yet another gift! And we don't even have to listen to the radio station to even get selected! Yousuf won today! We have a play room filled with cool toys, a lounge with a kitchen to have coffee or bottled water anytime you want. Sometimes if you get bored the nurses will actually have great conversations with you. Although alone in the room there are always guests coming in; either to clean our room, check vitals and sometimes to actually just see how we are doing. A nice home with nice workers in constant service for our care.

Yousuf will be in for at least three more days. They found an abscess in the MRI. They are not sure if it's blood or pus. We will have another day of fasting for yet another procedure. They will be draining the fluid while being put on antibiotics in order to prevent any infection (IF any) to spread to other parts of the body. They have to wait 48 hours after draining it to make sure, if there is bacteria, they know for sure and what kind. This abscess has been putting pressure on a major vein causing Yousuf a lot of pain and is the reason for lack of movement for that part of his body. We have to stay long enough to see Yousuf up and moving pain free. We're not sure how long that will be. It might be long enough to interfere with his chemo on Wednesday, which in that case, we will just stay in the hosptial for. If he does have an infection for sure they will postpone his chemo. Until then Texas Children's Hospital is our home. A place I once used to come visit when I was kid, sneaking sugar cubes from the jars in the workers break area while visiting my stepdad. Holding onto those childhood feelings of excitement, I now embrace it as my home.