Make a Wish (and other organizations!) - Wish Trippers...UNITE!! Volume 2!

[queengonzo]

No offense taken. I agree with you ten fold.

Nothing to do with my pre- wish trip but I know there will be those here who will understand. A close friend of mine's son was born with a heart condition. He was due to have a surgery in March but it was cancelled because they feared he would not survive the surgery. My friend has just been notified that her son will need a heart transplant. This poor little boy has already had 3 surgeries and is not yet 4. I would appriciate everyone keeping him in their thoughts so that he to will be able to go on a wish trip.

Thanks for your time.

MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS are with this family....

 

[maroo]

Many of you guys have been around for all of the ups and downs in Lauren's family...

For the new folks - I am a good family friend, sometimes nurse, to Lauren. Lauren is 15, severe CP (quad), normal to high intellect. Needs help with all ADLs.

William, her younger brother, is 9 and has lots of health problems too...some stress induced, lots of GI problems, etc.

Lauren's dad is a brittle Type I diabetic and has chronic fatigue issues.

Lisa has had cataract surgery and other random things since I have known them.

Today Lisa had an MRI. It showed a "stress fracture" in her tibia. It was a "big" stress fracture associated with a lot of swelling. Could be the result of a destructive process of some kind, so more tests are in order.

She is on crutches with no weight bearing. Which means taking care of Lauren is going to be quite difficult for her, if not impossible.

So, please pray for all of us!!! And I will keep you guys posted.

 

[ndloewen]

Many of you guys have been around for all of the ups and downs in Lauren's family...

For the new folks - I am a good family friend, sometimes nurse, to Lauren. Lauren is 15, severe CP (quad), normal to high intellect. Needs help with all ADLs.

William, her younger brother, is 9 and has lots of health problems too...some stress induced, lots of GI problems, etc.

Lauren's dad is a brittle Type I diabetic and has chronic fatigue issues.

Lisa has had cataract surgery and other random things since I have known them.

Today Lisa had an MRI. It showed a "stress fracture" in her tibia. It was a "big" stress fracture associated with a lot of swelling. Could be the result of a destructive process of some kind, so more tests are in order.

She is on crutches with no weight bearing. Which means taking care of Lauren is going to be quite difficult for her, if not impossible.

So, please pray for all of us!!! And I will keep you guys posted.

Oh no!!! I'm SO sorry to hear this. Many prayers for Lisa!!!

 

[tbelfonti]

My friend has just been notified that her son will need a heart transplant. This poor little boy has already had 3 surgeries and is not yet 4. I would appriciate everyone keeping him in their thoughts so that he to will be able to go on a wish trip.

Thanks for your time.

Corrine - your friend's son is in my prayers along with her entire family. There is nothing scarier

Today Lisa had an MRI. It showed a "stress fracture" in her tibia. It was a "big" stress fracture associated with a lot of swelling. Could be the result of a destructive process of some kind, so more tests are in order.

She is on crutches with no weight bearing. Which means taking care of Lauren is going to be quite difficult for her, if not impossible.

Mary - your friends are in my prayers - I know they are so blessed to have you as their friend in their lives.

 

[rwrocksme]

Woo HOO!!! We are headed to Disney on Easter Sunday - 28 days from today. My girls are so excited. We got a visit from our WishGranters last night and they brought our travel packet, tshirts, and pins for the girls. They are so excited. Now, I've got to find the time to shop for spring clothes that fit and get us all packed and ready to leave. The girls are both in princess costumes now and having a Disney Movie Mania on this rainy Saturday afternoon. Hard to believe, we're under a month now. YEAH! Her wish is to meet Cinderella, and she is about to EXPLODE!!!! They are singing WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR right now at the TOP of their lungs!!!! I'm committing to read more here in the next month... and not let my regular job rule every free second I get between now and then!

Awww! I love that! It's so cool that they are so happy just thinking about it. Can you spell M-A-G-I-C?

Anyway, MY Wish Trip got approved today!!! I am going to do an Adventures By Disney trip to California to see the Jim Henson Studios, the Walt Disney Studios, and Disneyland. I also get to meet Donna, my "Disney friend" for the first time. I am so excited!!!! This is a year and a half in the making, ( ) so I am happy to be getting this show on the road!

 

[Khalana]

Many of you guys have been around for all of the ups and downs in Lauren's family...

For the new folks - I am a good family friend, sometimes nurse, to Lauren. Lauren is 15, severe CP (quad), normal to high intellect. Needs help with all ADLs.

William, her younger brother, is 9 and has lots of health problems too...some stress induced, lots of GI problems, etc.

Lauren's dad is a brittle Type I diabetic and has chronic fatigue issues.

Lisa has had cataract surgery and other random things since I have known them.

Today Lisa had an MRI. It showed a "stress fracture" in her tibia. It was a "big" stress fracture associated with a lot of swelling. Could be the result of a destructive process of some kind, so more tests are in order.

She is on crutches with no weight bearing. Which means taking care of Lauren is going to be quite difficult for her, if not impossible.

So, please pray for all of us!!! And I will keep you guys posted.

Oh, I'm so sorry!!! Poor Lisa! Praying for you.

 

[BeckySob]

Many of you guys have been around for all of the ups and downs in Lauren's family...

For the new folks - I am a good family friend, sometimes nurse, to Lauren. Lauren is 15, severe CP (quad), normal to high intellect. Needs help with all ADLs.

William, her younger brother, is 9 and has lots of health problems too...some stress induced, lots of GI problems, etc.

Lauren's dad is a brittle Type I diabetic and has chronic fatigue issues.

Lisa has had cataract surgery and other random things since I have known them.

Today Lisa had an MRI. It showed a "stress fracture" in her tibia. It was a "big" stress fracture associated with a lot of swelling. Could be the result of a destructive process of some kind, so more tests are in order.

She is on crutches with no weight bearing. Which means taking care of Lauren is going to be quite difficult for her, if not impossible.

So, please pray for all of us!!! And I will keep you guys posted.

Done.

 

[BeckySob]

Woo HOO!!! We are headed to Disney on Easter Sunday - 28 days from today. My girls are so excited. We got a visit from our WishGranters last night and they brought our travel packet, tshirts, and pins for the girls. They are so excited. Now, I've got to find the time to shop for spring clothes that fit and get us all packed and ready to leave. The girls are both in princess costumes now and having a Disney Movie Mania on this rainy Saturday afternoon. Hard to believe, we're under a month now. YEAH! Her wish is to meet Cinderella, and she is about to EXPLODE!!!! They are singing WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR right now at the TOP of their lungs!!!! I'm committing to read more here in the next month... and not let my regular job rule every free second I get between now and then!

Maybe we'll see you there, assuming you mean DisneyWorld? Staying at the GKTW? We will be there from the 9th-15th.

 

[maroo]

I finally updated Post 1 on this thread to include all of the current Wish Trip pre-trip reports that I am aware of...

Please let me know if you are not on there!!!

Happy planning, everyone!!!

 

[maroo]

I promised I would update about Lisa...

She went to the Dr today. They called her to come in right then. They explained that this could be a simple stress fracture, but the swelling and such involves 2/3 of her tibia. It could be an infection, some sort of chemical (vitamin, I guess?) deficiency causing her to break a bone or it could be a cancer/leukemia.

They ran a bunch of tests today and they should call her later today, tonight or tomorrow with any results.

The bad stuff should be much easier to rule out...and then they can focus on the other stuff it could be. For now, though, no weight bearing on that leg - so we are still out of luck on her helping take care of Lauren. As she can't lift her and with the crutches, and she has a hard time carrying things (like books for homework, etc). She is probably going to get some sort of rolling chair to try to get around. She can't use one of those one leg things because her knee is so messed up, too, and she can't bend it and put pressure on her knee. (Double torn meniscus.)

 

[BeckySob]

I finally updated Post 1 on this thread to include all of the current Wish Trip pre-trip reports that I am aware of...

Please let me know if you are not on there!!!

Happy planning, everyone!!!

I am not on there. ;(
Thats ok though, because I can't figure out this darn thing, although, I have figured out the quoting part! yay me! I have enjoyed reading 5dwarves pre-tip and live feed of her trip! Amazing!

We will be going April 9th-15th. I would love to vent, I mean, share my story, but am just too computer illiterate. ha ha

 

[maroo]

I am not on there. ;(
Thats ok though, because I can't figure out this darn thing, although, I have figured out the quoting part! yay me! I have enjoyed reading 5dwarves pre-tip and live feed of her trip! Amazing!

We will be going April 9th-15th. I would love to vent, I mean, share my story, but am just too computer illiterate. ha ha

aww....

oh no!!

Have you started a pre-trip report?? Did I miss it??

Oh...you haven't done a pre-trip report, right? That list is not an exhaustive list of all Wish Children...just the ones with pre-trippies...


But you can vent here anytime you would like!!!

Or if you want to do a pretrippie, you can go to post #2 on this thread (on page 1) and see the info on there about how to start one! We would love to help you plan, etc on there!!

 

[Momto2redheads]

...and we are sooo sad... It has been a fabulous week. I couldn't have asked for things to go better; Sami stayed well; everyone had a blast...we were all this close (-) to bursting into tears as we pulled away from GKTW.
I have missed a lot of posts in the past week or so, but I just wanted to check back in. I plan on sticking around a while to answer any questions that I can, since you 'all have been so great to me. While it is fresh on my mind, here are a few things that I wish I had known before I left:

1. The airport went much smoother than I thought. I was prepared for huge waits, but we slid on through and ended up having too much time to wait for the plane. Having said that, make sure you ask for "wheelchair service" at the boarding gate (assuming you need a wheelchair). Even though it was printed on our reservation confirmation, we didn't have it going down, but we did coming back. It made a huge difference in how fast we got out of the plane.

2. Orientation is much longer than I expected. No biggee, but make sure the kiddos are off playing somewhere and not waiting for you. I think it ended up being close to an hour long. (Maybe our guy just liked to talk. )

3. This has been said, but bears repeating. Make sure you stay and eat breakfast at GKTW. You will have PLENTY of time to ride/see most everything that you want to see. We never were at a park from open to close and still saw/did most everything that we wanted to do. I did mess up my timing on our first day. I did Epcot first and then AK. I would switch those around because Epcot closes later than AK. We ended up missing a couple of things at AK because we went there last. (By the way, if time is a problem, skip Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,(really bad) but do Soarin', at all costs. Most of the days we were able to eat dinner at either the Gingerbread House or Katie's Kitchen. The House runs from 6 to 8, but Katie's Kitchen (which is Boston Market food) closes at 10:30 and they deliver if you come back too pooped.

4. Do not miss the dolphin feeding at Sea World. One of my favorite memories is of Sami touching the dolphins. Her face lit up and we have a great picture. I will try and post it in a few days. We also loved Believe (Shamu show).

5. Don't miss Philharmagic at MK. Skip Stitche's Great Escape (awful).

6. Universal was absolutely fabulous to us. It ended up being one of our favorite places. Quite honestly, even though no one was ever rude and did whatever they were asked, most of the Disney staff were fairly blah about the WISH kids. However, at Universal, THEY WILL HUNT YOU DOWN. seriously...we had some chase us to get us in to meet the characters. But oh I am so glad they did. I just about burst into tears when Sami saw the characters of Madagascar. That moment alone was well worth the work of it all. Speaking of which....

7. NO MATTER WHAT YOU READ ANYWHERE, WISH KIDS DO NOT STAND IN LINE TO MEET CHARACTERS.....EVER... I thought we had to and stood in line to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. The staff at HS apologized up and down for not seeing us standing in line. (It actually worked out fine, because they have little settings through the line area where you can get pictures of the kids in Andy's room, in Sid's room, etc. One of my favorite shots is of Sami in the Prospector's toy box. (The exception to the blah rule (see number 6) was Buzz and Woody. They were literally jumping up and down when they saw Sami. Sami really believes they were very excited to meet her!

8. Most of the food at GKTW is really great. Do not miss the waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. The volunteers were beyond belief. I wanted to put a couple of the oldsters in our pocket and bring them home with us. k:

9. If you get a wheelchair van from Wheelchair Gateways, before you pull off, make sure that the tank is full. Also, per the instructions, you are supposed to fill the tank back up at a BP gas station right by Wheelchair Gateways when you return the van. We did that and paid .30 cents more a gallon than if we filled up a few blocks earlier. If we did it over, I would have filled up closer to the Village and just topped off a bit at the BP.

10. Not having to pay for most of your meals makes your money stretch far.

11. Do not worry about "skipping lines". I didn't know if I had it in me to waltz past the line, bumping and "excusing me" all the way. This is so not how it works. For 95% of the rides, you will just use the fast pass lane. You go to the worker in front of the ride, show your GAC and away you go. For the few that don't work that way, never was I made to feel odd. I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of people had no idea what was happening. THe only exception to this was the character greet. However the worker always asked the person in front if it was okay to slip in a WISH kid and never one time, did anybody do anything other to smile and say sure!

Those are the thoughts that are on top of my head. I just can't say enough about the trip, the Village, the parks.... Normally, by the end of vacation, I am ready to return home. This is the first vacation that they had to practically drag me kicking and screaming on to the plane.

Anyway, if you have any questions that I might be able to answer since everything is so "fresh", just let me know.

Tammy B

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

The hard drive on my laptop died. Completely, nothing can be resuscitated.

No, I hadn't backed it up.

My 10 page document of Disney notes, the careful work of going through hours of Disboard messages ... gone!

So ... um, if there's any "This Is Really Important" stuff you can think of, please let me know!

 

[Momto2redheads]

Post edited

 

[WishMom09]

Tammy B.....those are AWESOME pointers! I was wondering how long the orientation at GKTW would last! Can't wait to see your pictures!!

I am still wondering if you can bring the Sea World tickets home with you...since we have a Sea World here in Texas...and use them here at our Sea World??

 

[ndloewen]

Tammy B.....those are AWESOME pointers! I was wondering how long the orientation at GKTW would last! Can't wait to see your pictures!!

I am still wondering if you can bring the Sea World tickets home with you...since we have a Sea World here in Texas...and use them here at our Sea World??

Our sea world tickets stated Sea World Orlando, so I'm assuming they couldn't be used at any other Sea World.

 

[WishMom09]

Our sea world tickets stated Sea World Orlando, so I'm assuming they couldn't be used at any other Sea World.

Thanks so much for the info! We might can squeeze it in one day....we will have to play it by ear!

 

[ndloewen]

We thought Universal was fantastic too and more aware of wish kids than Disney!! We were amazed at how they would pick us out of the crowd and drag us to a ride or to a private character meet! One ride we didn't see someone to show the button to, so we just got in the regular line. It was a short line, and not a big deal at all, but we got in trouble at the end and were told "under NO circumstances, were we EVER to wait in any lines!!". They felt SO bad that we'd went through a line, it was actually quite humorous!!

 

[maroo]

The hard drive on my laptop died. Completely, nothing can be resuscitated.

No, I hadn't backed it up.

My 10 page document of Disney notes, the careful work of going through hours of Disboard messages ... gone!

So ... um, if there's any "This Is Really Important" stuff you can think of, please let me know!

Oh no!!!!



First...I would go read Tammy's Ten Plus One Hints above...That is about all you need to know, really!!



Seriously...if you think of a question, feel free to post it!!

oh yea... the other thing that was on my mind...do not worry about "skipping lines". I didn't know if I had it in me to waltz past the line, bumping and "excusing me" all the way. This is so not how it works. For 95% of the rides, you will just use the fast pass lane. You go to the worker in front of the ride, show your GAC and away you go. For the few that don't work that way, never was I made to feel odd. I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of people had no idea what was happening. THe only exception to this was the character greet. However the worker always asked the person in front if it was okay to slip in a WISH kid and never one time, did anybody do anything other to smile and say sure!

Tammy B

Will you please do me a huge favor? Do you mind editing that first post so that you add this last hint? I am going to completely quote this post as a MUST READ for all future Wish Families! These are incredible hints!!

Way to go!!!!!!


And...from the vantage point of a person standing in line in my last trip to meet characters...it was a JOY to watch a Wish Child take pictures with the characters! I was actually glad when they "broke" in line.

Tammy B.....those are AWESOME pointers! I was wondering how long the orientation at GKTW would last! Can't wait to see your pictures!!

I am still wondering if you can bring the Sea World tickets home with you...since we have a Sea World here in Texas...and use them here at our Sea World??

Sea World...Does anyone have access to your book that we all got when we left? Doesn't it have Sea World as a free park to go to once next year? I can't find Laurens...and it is CRAZY here right now (can you say sitcom?!?!?!?!)