January 31, 2008: My Super Bowels!
Hi this is Haley! I’d like to tell you a bit about my super bowels. No, silly, not bowls, like bowls of yummy cheerios. Bowels, like, digestive tract. Yes, they have been super. By super, I mean, well, I think only Uncle Dave would enjoy the specifics of further description, but suffice to say that they’ve been on overdrive for the past ten days. So much so, that my mom– whose ruffles are very tough to, er, ruffle, called and emailed all my doctors late at night because when she spots something out of the ordinary, she’s supposed to tell people right away in case it’s a larger problem. I went into the hospital (outpatient only), where heartful hematologist was there to check me out. They thought I might have been dehydrated but Mom had been replacing my feeding tube formula with gatorade, so i feel very well hydrated and electrolytically balanced. They drew blood, took, other stuff (no need to go into), oh yeah, and found an ear infection (which largely went unnoticed because I never complained and because I never really had a fever). The PT on call was there to watch me walk too. We’re going to try somethings (more on that later).
My mom keeps telling me to turtle, but I have no idea what that means. I think it’s a surf term, in any event, i just stare at her with my big baby blues, and she ends up smiling at me.
My big sister/budding actress-director, Anna, came to the hospital to keep me company. It was lots of fun. We played in the castle, painted in the art therapy room, and enjoyed the light/bubble display in the lab. Of course, then they “accessed me,” which means they shove a really big needle into my mediport (ouch), and draw blood. I was aprehensive and anxious as always, but Anna was a cool chic! She loved looking and hearing about the blood. And while she was helping the phlebotomist, she was calming me down. If she doesn’t make it as an actress-director, maybe she’ll be a doctor. Then Mom made up a funny ballerina in the hallway game, and we had a ton of fun spinning around until we got to the exit. Yay for Anna, who keeps me, if not sane, at least smiling and silly.
