Spinning Donuts - Round 2, Day 2

There's a certain fraternity that grows up amongst the families on the HOT (Hematology-Oncology-Transplant) Unit. Many of us are long-termers, with month-long stays common amongst families with AML. And then there are other types of diseases and syndromes that cause various stays of various lengths.

On the one hand, it's a little comforting to know that behind the doors of the other rooms, battles are waging over walks and mouthwashes and taking pills. On the other hand, I wish we could all just go home. Behind the doors of the other rooms, there are kids feeling pain and sorrow, families hurting.

Every kid has a different diagnosis and every kid has a story.

But sometimes the stories are irrelevant.

Sometimes two bald heads spinning donuts with their remote control cars around the nurses' station is just right.

Meet B, another 6-year-old on the floor (in blue...Sam is in red, if you can't quite see him) and their cars. Their birthdays are just 6 days apart - almost exactly the same age. He's only here Tuesday-Friday this week.)

As we went into our room to eat our lunch, Sam remarked, "who knew that I would find a friend here?"

Our chemo is done in the afternoon, so this morning Sam was pole-free and totally interested in getting out and about. He decided to take on the task of 100 laps of the floor (the current record in one day is 85, held by a 13-year-old patient who spends an hour and a half walking each night) while driving the remote control car. We did about 13 laps before it got a little boring. (Then we changed the goal to see how many days it would take us to get to 100...22 is a mile.)

So we went downstairs to play catch. It was too hot outside in the Healing Garden, so we found a quiet-ish corner of the lobby and spent about a half hour tossing the ball back and forth.

(Vanessa gave Sam the ball, so we sent her this little video thank you since we were having so much fun.)

We blew bubbles and I satisfied Sam's craving for a donut with sprinkles by heading out to Krispy Kreme. The nurses benefited from this too, since how could I come back without a dozen or so for them as well? They say that they eat well when we are here, and anyone who knows my penchant for feeding people would not be surprised by this.

Chemo left Sam a little queasy but visitors brightened the afternoon....

And FaceTime. Wow, video-chatting on the fly seemed like science fiction once upon a time but what a life-changer. To have a window into the world of so many people that Sam loves is an amazing blessing. I can't imagine going through this journey without this technology

Sam and cousin Jack

As I write this, he is talking to a beloved friend and using that as a stall tactic for avoiding bedtime. Ah...some things never change!