It hasn’t ALL been bad…..

I took Parker on a grand adventure today.  Something I’ve never done even with all of the hospital stays our Brave Hero has endured.

I loaded him up in a red wagon and we went exploring.

I don’t usually take Parker out of his hospital room for fear of him bringing home something way worse than he was admitted with.

But Reed and I have been talking and  he has helped me to see that quality of life is also important.

It also helped that this place was pretty much a ghost town today, so running into lots of people wasn’t too big of a concern.

Before we could begin our grand adventure the nurse insisted that we add an emergency ambu bag to our preps.  Because the oxygen bottles, tubes, leads, bandages and an iv weren’t enough fun already.

I did choose to make a hasty exit before anyone could remember to throw a suction machine into the mix.

Parker had no problems with that executive decision.

We made the rounds and stopped to admire the Christmas trees that adorn each and every floor.

Parker blew a few kisses to others stuck in this joint. He totally gets how they feel.

And only a few moments thought were given to things like the itch of a newly revised trach stoma.

I believe it takes a man firmly secure in his own identity to rock pink Dora blankets and purple butterfly coban.

Best of all, there were so many smiles and such happiness. It makes me think that I need to invest in one of these Radio Flyer wagons so we can extend our grand adventure around our own neighborhood.

Cause I’d really love to see a lot more of those smiles.

ps: Parker could use some prayers as we figure out the right way to up his daytime bolus feeds. His sats have been sinking this evening as he’s experienced more pain between doses of his oxy. Pain can really wreck havoc with a guy’s oxygen saturations.

pss: And while I’m kinda on the topic, Parker will be in need of a lot of prayer and fasting the next six months. Prayers for his lungs to do a lot of healing. Prayers for his lungs to be able to generate new, healthy lung tissue with which to compensate for the diseased tissue.