A roller coaster - part 2

What a difference a couple hours and a change of scenery makes...

When I signed off of the last blog posting, I was expecting to enter a war zone. What I found was an excited boy playing froggy (ribbit, ribbit), and a husband with a big grin on his face. The nurse had given Alex the OK to keep his IV off as long as he had 4 tablespoons of liquid per hour. She had also told him that there was an outside playground downstairs, and that Alex was cleared to go play for about 1/2 hour.

We got him dressed, we put on our jackets, and Alex went outside for the first time since Monday evening (a whole week - can you imagine!) The play structure was great - with a rock wall to climb, slides to go down, ladders to go up, and fireman poles to go down. Alex decided we were going to play firemen - he was captain (hmmm...who was it that told me our son was a natural leader?), and Eric and I were his crew. We scaled the rock wall, zoomed down the slides, climbed up the ladders, and slid down the fireman's pole for the full 30 minutes. This was our son - this was the little boy we hadn't seen for the last few days. He was laughing, running, climbing, and just being a 3 1/2 year old - it was pure joy for all of us! We then walked through the hospital "hamster tube" A really long enclosed pedestrian suspension bridge between OHSU and the Veterans Hospital - I'm putting a link to Google maps here: <http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3181+SW+Sam+Jackson+Park+Rd,+Portland+OR&sll=45.504772,-122.685571&sspn=0.000825,0.001717&ie=UTF8&ll=45.49815,-122.684798&spn=0.001651,0.003433&t=h&z=18>
That long white line in the middle of the map is the tube high above the trees. Alex really enjoyed his freedom, and came back to the hospital room riding on Eric's shoulders. We were just two parents and their child enjoying some time together - we savored every minute.

When we came back, the nurse was ready to change his PICC dressing (he got it wet when we tried to do a bath today - I'm gonna have to do sponge baths for a while - it *can't* get wet...) Alex fell asleep while the nurse finished the dressing change, and that's where he is right now.

Quiet time...I can't wait to go home...