Pablo's Play-Doh Day

Play-Doh party in Pablo's room!

One of Pablo's teachers from Walther School, Laryl, came over today. She brought two giant mounds of homemade Play-Doh, and Pablo played with it for two hours! I ran into her when she was leaving, and I was arriving back on our floor after a bunch of meetings at our new building down the street. I loved seeing her, and so did Jo Ann. Pablo clearly loved it, based on how feverishly he played with her gift.

P slept his butt off. Jo Ann had to wake him up at around 10:30 a.m., so they could go down to floor one for and ultrasound. The ultrasound gives the urologists a look at the status of the kidneys since surgery. Dr. Hardy reviewed the scans and liked what he saw. Pablo has been sitting in his giant blue chair since returning to the room. This is a step forward in his surgery recovery–and the gateway to getting him on his feet, and walking the floor later this afternoon. All of that activity will help us along the way to our next mini-goal: to get Pablo's bowel to reboot. With three surgeries in seven days, Pablo's bowel is in 'standby' mode. The surgeons explained to me this morning that the bowel is one of the organs that involuntarily shuts down when the body is in shock (surgery = shock), which I think is common knowledge. But things always sound so much more fascinating when a doctor is explaining.

The first step to this is–you guessed it–passing gas. The best way to get at that elusive goal is walking as many times as possible during the day, sitting in the chair, laying on his side while sleeping. Anything to get the digestive tract out of the stationary position.

Polly is coming soon, and will spend a few hours with Pablo. Jo Ann and I have the new parents' night at St. Francis High School. I have asked Jo Ann so many questions about the function, I think she's ready to punch me. Which only makes me ask more questions. Like any good husband, I think it's hilarious to drive her crazy. The things I am wondering are: what is the general topic of the night? Is is a meeting, or a mixer? Is there food? How long is it going to take? Can we go to dinner on the way? Wow, I guess that is kind of annoying.

After the meeting, I will return to the CHLA to spend the night. With the comfy air mattress bed, it's a joy to sleep here. Last night, just sleeping here, I felt like a father–looking after P, putting that pillow under his head, asking the nurse about every medication she injected into his I.V. line. I enjoy the moments when I actually feel like a father. It's what I signed up for.

Jo Ann will spend the night at home, and relieve me at 7 a.m. so I can meet the guys from my cycling club at the Rose Bowl. There's a two hour ride going down in the morning, and I could use the miles, and the company. Speaking of riding, Hrach and Nevrik, our friends who own Velo Pasadena, stopped by today. They brought coffee and an insaaaaaaane Armenian dessert that Nevrik's mom made. I have no clue what it's called, but the stuff is addictive.

You know, these posts take a while to write. With IM and email and phone all distracting me (plus helping P with whatever he needs), each post can take a while to write. While I've been writing this one, Pablo has eaten both sides of an orange Popsicle, and polished off two movies on VHS. With the room thinned down to just me and Jo Ann, Pablo is talking–er, hollering requests across the room–and is quite loose over in his big blue throne.

At some point over the weekend, I am going to talk a lot about our feelings around Pablo not being able to start Kindergarten at Pasadena Waldorf School next week. I will say just a little today. It's not practical for me to be down in the mouth about this, but I am. Sadness isn't necessarily a practical emotion, yknow? I had this vision of my little boy starting school, and it being a normal, event-free scene. Kindergarten is particularly important to me. But, here we are.... And I'll leave it at that until we have more time.

Awwwright... We are gonna get him into the walking zone. Will check in later.