Make a Wish (and other organizations) - Wish Trippers UNITE! Volume THREE! :)

[xanphylus]

My hopes thoughts and especially prayers go out to Lauren, Hayley, thier friends and family. *hugssss hugsss hugssss


I tried to do an update on TR tonight but some reason it keeps telling me to log in and refuses to let me do so :/ I will just try again tomorrow.

My son's school has been a pain in the rear these past couple of weeks. It;s almost as though they are punishing him for having a wish trip and have stressed him out to the point I had to go pick him up from school today and bring him home. After losingmy cool with the super's office and being extremely firm with the 504 coordinater i only wanted to scream more. they said they have no paperwork on his illnesses or my daughters illnesses. UGH GRR they have given my son 6 detentions which he did not stay for due to me telling him to make sure he comes straight home. He has to eat directly after school or he will feel ill. and detentions are 3 hours long. he recieved the detentions for not making his gym classes up from being 1. out sick with flu(1 week) 2. being out for his remicade treatments ( that was 1/2 week) then his Dream Trip which was a week. so they literally are punishing him. since he did not stay. they are suspending him. and Gym class is suppose to be a secondary. ... Anywho there are much worse things then this I know. Just fustrating and well i decided to vent for a moment LOL TY anyhow crazy how schools can be. They are taking the word remission and running with it forgetting that he has alt issues beyond crohn's and stress will reactivate a new flairup in crohn;s So I am seriously considering homeschool for this year. but we will see what happens. One plus. We are going to try and go back to disney next fall !!!! atm it's just a possibility. I am learning now that where there is a will there is a way. I read somewhere on the disboard that someone saved to go to disney by useing coupons and rounding $ amounts up on bills and taking the coupon value and change from rounding bills up and saving. That is my new goal. I will also try to sell a few more poems and take 1000. out of income tax. soooo crossing fingers , we will go back. and no will not be as magical as it was while staying at gktw, but having the ability to go spend a day there will be amazing ! wonder if alumni kiddos can have icecream while there??? Hard part will be flying. I am so SCARED of flying. Like anything I am scared of though, I wont let my fear stop me. Never have, Never will so heres Hoping for a possible new trip.

Sorry about all the crappy school issues. I have several friends who do homeschooling too. I guess it is just easier sometimes. As long as they still get to see their friends, teenagers seem to do pretty well with it.

And if you go next fall- go sept 29!!!! That's when we are going!!! lol Free dining baby!

 

[Happy Dreams1]

I have a park question...How big is the Magic Kingodom Park? How many hours does it take to complete the major rides? If anyone's also been to the Disneyland park, how do you compare it that?(not ride # wise)

 

[tinytreasures]

hugs and prayers for Hayley and Lauren
J'sMum that is crazy about school I would be making some phone calls if I were you

 

[Mom2mitokids]

We got a load of bad news about Lauren today.

Went to see her orthopedic surgeon that put in the rods in her back - the surgery that nearly killed her and one of the reasons she was granted a wish...

They fixed her back, but the curve has now moved to her neck.

Here is a picture of the top of the xray. Obviously Lauren doesn't want people seeing the whole thing.

She has a 50 degree curve in her neck. The xray looked simply terrible. She "compensates" by having a 10 degree curve in her lower pelvis area, but not enough. Her side has been leaning against her wheelchair and has pressed so hard against her side that the ribs have moved (her muscles have atrophied a lot) and now her lung is severely pressed against her side. You can see it above...it is more narrow on the left side of the xray (which is actually the right side of her body) than the left - which looks more normal. It looks like she has about 10% of one lung. The other lung is fine, but due to her size, her maximum lung capacity before this development was already only 50%.

The next step is to possibly get her a whole new wheelchair with new seating and new stuff to possibly keep her straight. The first attempt at this failed, but they are sending her to a new place to get it worked on.

The following step is surgery ... a big bad surgery where they will fuse her neck and fuse her back all the way to her pelvis. Hopefully that will keep her straight.

I had heard that they were not going to try this surgery because the risks are so high that she would lose all function below her neck. And I don't think they would even attempt it except that the rest of her health is good right now...It is almost like they decided it was worth doing so they could save her from pain for the years she has left this side of heaven.

But the whole thing was a huge blow to her Mom - she does radiology for a living, so she can spot a bad xray a mile away. Please pray for her whole family as they try to make some decisions and digest all of this.

Mary...I will be keeping Lauren and family in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

My hopes thoughts and especially prayers go out to Lauren, Hayley, thier friends and family. *hugssss hugsss hugssss


I tried to do an update on TR tonight but some reason it keeps telling me to log in and refuses to let me do so :/ I will just try again tomorrow.

My son's school has been a pain in the rear these past couple of weeks. It;s almost as though they are punishing him for having a wish trip and have stressed him out to the point I had to go pick him up from school today and bring him home. After losingmy cool with the super's office and being extremely firm with the 504 coordinater i only wanted to scream more. they said they have no paperwork on his illnesses or my daughters illnesses. UGH GRR they have given my son 6 detentions which he did not stay for due to me telling him to make sure he comes straight home. He has to eat directly after school or he will feel ill. and detentions are 3 hours long. he recieved the detentions for not making his gym classes up from being 1. out sick with flu(1 week) 2. being out for his remicade treatments ( that was 1/2 week) then his Dream Trip which was a week. so they literally are punishing him. since he did not stay. they are suspending him. and Gym class is suppose to be a secondary. ... Anywho there are much worse things then this I know. Just fustrating and well i decided to vent for a moment LOL TY anyhow crazy how schools can be. They are taking the word remission and running with it forgetting that he has alt issues beyond crohn's and stress will reactivate a new flairup in crohn;s So I am seriously considering homeschool for this year. but we will see what happens. One plus. We are going to try and go back to disney next fall !!!! atm it's just a possibility. I am learning now that where there is a will there is a way. I read somewhere on the disboard that someone saved to go to disney by useing coupons and rounding $ amounts up on bills and taking the coupon value and change from rounding bills up and saving. That is my new goal. I will also try to sell a few more poems and take 1000. out of income tax. soooo crossing fingers , we will go back. and no will not be as magical as it was while staying at gktw, but having the ability to go spend a day there will be amazing ! wonder if alumni kiddos can have icecream while there??? Hard part will be flying. I am so SCARED of flying. Like anything I am scared of though, I wont let my fear stop me. Never have, Never will so heres Hoping for a possible new trip.

((HUGS)) Trisha. This is so wrong. Not sure I could home school, but I guess if I needed too I could.
I hope you all can get to DW in the fall. That would be awesome. Yes...you can still all eat all the ice cream you want. You can even eat there. The flying....I can so relate. I kept swearing on the flight home last time that I would never get back on an aircraft and here I'm going again. It was such a rough ride home. I'm so scared to get back on and it's halfly why I can wait to go to DW.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

A little back ground...When the wish granter came for Kylees wish they told the kids that a limo would be picking us up and take us to the airport. The kids were on cloud nine. When we got our itinerary they got us a shuttle would be picking us up and not a limo(more on this in a sec as we ended up not using it). Korissa has been praying that a limo will be picking us up this time. Should I call and ask if we can get a limo? Out of all the PTR and TR I have read(minus one) everyone gets a limo. Is it because we have a large family? Would we all fit in one with all our stuff?

On too the shuttle.. The day before we were to leave on Kylees trip we had wild fires all around us. All the freeways we needed to take to get to the airport were closed. Talk about stress. The shuttle was suppose to come pick us up at 5am on Sunday morning. as the day wore on the fires were getting bad. I called up the MAW chapter and talked with them. We didn't want to chance that the freeways will still be closed in the morning. Try to make a long story short...they said they will cancel the shuttle service and we can use that money for a hotel so we can be down there for the early morning takeoff. Since it was a short notice and no one was in the office they said to use our money and that they will pay us back when we return. This was $200(the cost for the hotel..what they would spend on the shuttle) we had to fork out and not to mention keeping my SUV at LAX for 8 days. When we got back we called them and they said they would send a check. We never got it. We didn't want to call them again because for all they did. Would you say something now? We really had to pinch on the trip because that was $300 out of our fund. BTW... Some how we made it to our hotel(right next to LAX) with no problems. It was that little pixie dust. Literally..the freeway opened up for 15 min and they closed it again 5 min after we passed. Flames and smoke all arond us. Kind of scary.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have a park question...How big is the Magic Kingdom Park? How many hours does it take to complete the major rides? If anyone's also been to the Disneyland park, how do you compare it that?(not ride # wise)

MK is physically about twice the size of DL.

Several of the attractions including Space, Splash and Pirates are definitely different but similar. Some attractions that are in DL are in different Parks at WDW and some just do not exist.

Many people consider that it takes two days to do MK properly.

 

[jen-y]

My hopes thoughts and especially prayers go out to Lauren, Hayley, thier friends and family. *hugssss hugsss hugssss


I tried to do an update on TR tonight but some reason it keeps telling me to log in and refuses to let me do so :/ I will just try again tomorrow.

My son's school has been a pain in the rear these past couple of weeks. It;s almost as though they are punishing him for having a wish trip and have stressed him out to the point I had to go pick him up from school today and bring him home. After losingmy cool with the super's office and being extremely firm with the 504 coordinater i only wanted to scream more. they said they have no paperwork on his illnesses or my daughters illnesses. UGH GRR they have given my son 6 detentions which he did not stay for due to me telling him to make sure he comes straight home. He has to eat directly after school or he will feel ill. and detentions are 3 hours long. he recieved the detentions for not making his gym classes up from being 1. out sick with flu(1 week) 2. being out for his remicade treatments ( that was 1/2 week) then his Dream Trip which was a week. so they literally are punishing him. since he did not stay. they are suspending him. and Gym class is suppose to be a secondary. ... Anywho there are much worse things then this I know. Just fustrating and well i decided to vent for a moment LOL TY anyhow crazy how schools can be. They are taking the word remission and running with it forgetting that he has alt issues beyond crohn's and stress will reactivate a new flairup in crohn;s So I am seriously considering homeschool for this year. but we will see what happens. One plus. We are going to try and go back to disney next fall !!!! atm it's just a possibility. I am learning now that where there is a will there is a way. I read somewhere on the disboard that someone saved to go to disney by useing coupons and rounding $ amounts up on bills and taking the coupon value and change from rounding bills up and saving. That is my new goal. I will also try to sell a few more poems and take 1000. out of income tax. soooo crossing fingers , we will go back. and no will not be as magical as it was while staying at gktw, but having the ability to go spend a day there will be amazing ! wonder if alumni kiddos can have icecream while there??? Hard part will be flying. I am so SCARED of flying. Like anything I am scared of though, I wont let my fear stop me. Never have, Never will so heres Hoping for a possible new trip.

I can't believe the school is being like that. Even w/doctors notes? Yeah, if it continues, I would homeschool. You don't need that @*&%.
GKTW told us we could have 1 meal (as a retunring alumni) I suppose that includes ice cream.
I am not a fan of flying either. I used to literaly have panic attacks. But once I started flying with the kids, I did not want them to see me upset, so I got perscription chill pills and they did help. And then they also came in handy when Nicky was diagnosed, and I had a panic attack in the ambulance, but anywho....thats a whole other story. I am sure all you moms with sick kids know the toll the stress and worry takes.

 

[jen-y]

I have a park question...How big is the Magic Kingodom Park? How many hours does it take to complete the major rides? If anyone's also been to the Disneyland park, how do you compare it that?(not ride # wise)

My friend who has been to both parks says Magic Kingdom is bigger than Disneyland.
If you are talking about going to Magic Kingdom on a wish trip (and therefore you will have a Guest Assistance Card) then you will get on all the rides and be able to see the park in 1 day w/no problem because you will not have to wait in any lines. I would still recomend that you map out a plan or route in advance.

If you are going (but not as part of a wish trip) then you will have to wait in the lines like everyone else, and it depends on what time of the year you go, as certain times of the year are busier than others. Usually Space Mountain and Splash Mountain has a line, and for some reason Peter Pan usually has a line, but I ususally walk right on Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. Does that help?

 

[slotshot]

(also posted a copy of this to the Pre-Trip Reports section...was a little unclear on where to post)

Hi all!

Well, we are really looking forward to our upcoming stay at GTTW and Disney! Our first trip!

About us...

Wish Kid = 7 YO Jackson (more about him in a bit)
Sister = 5 YO Taryn
DW = Jeanne
me = Craig


When Jackson was born we were quite suprised to find that he was a Down Syndrome person. Another suprise cropped up on 9/8/09 when we were told that he had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We are blessed to have such great facilities to treat him locally (Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth). He is an awesome, energetic and smart little boy that also happens to be tough as nails (also had reconstructive heart surgery at 4 months old).

Well, we are looking for some hints and tips regarding out upcoming adventure...which will also take place over Thanksgiving, which might present some unusual opportunities and challenges. So far I have looked through the following excellent links obtained from the beginning of the MAW thread...

general tips
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31717106&postcount=1741
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34304868&postcount=3226

wheelchair/stroller info
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34304868&postcount=3226

Any other great lists of hints/tips, etc...?

We would love to hear about the easiest/best ways to have a GREAT time next month. I was also wondering about the need and timing for restaurant reservations.

Thanks all,

Jackson and Family,
Euless, Texas

 

[Walker's Mom]

Hey there Slotshot - I'm Marshana, Walker's Mom.

Walker's a DS kid too AND we are going to be at GKTW 11/20 - 11/26 How cool! I'm a little slack and dont have a PTR or anything yet. just wanted to say "Hi" and hopefully we will run into each other at GKTW

 

[slotshot]

Hey there Slotshot - I'm Marshana, Walker's Mom.

Walker's a DS kid too AND we are going to be at GKTW 11/20 - 11/26 How cool! I'm a little slack and dont have a PTR or anything yet. just wanted to say "Hi" and hopefully we will run into each other at GKTW

Small world (or GKTW acutally)! Should be an interesting time to be there huh?

 

[Walker's Mom]

Interesting....Yes! I would never in a million years thought about going to Disney the week of Thanksgiving. (Can you say CROWDED or CRAZY) But I think this trip will be like nothing we could have ever done on our own. I am sooooo very excited

 

[slotshot]

Hmmm....hope you guys got reservations somewhere. Just finished searching and looks like anything with American cuisine is locked up on Thanksgiving. Anyone know if GKTW offers this type of fare at Thanksgiving? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Craig

 

[rcq925]

Just wanted to give an update on Hayley.

She is still in the hospital and not improving. Still on oxygen and still coughing like crazy!

The doctor is going to give her until tomorrow to improve and then switch to two more powerful IV medications, which she will have to do a full 14 days off! So we are going to be cutting it close to our trip!!

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes! Keep them coming, Hayley needs them!

 

[Walker's Mom]

Hmmm....hope you guys got reservations somewhere. Just finished searching and looks like anything with American cuisine is locked up on Thanksgiving. Anyone know if GKTW offers this type of fare at Thanksgiving? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Craig

I PM's you but in case you havent gotten it make sure to check the "Dsiney Resturant" forum and look at "Nov 2010 cancellation" thread. It may give you a heads up when someone cancels something

 

[wishin' on a star]

Hmmm....hope you guys got reservations somewhere. Just finished searching and looks like anything with American cuisine is locked up on Thanksgiving. Anyone know if GKTW offers this type of fare at Thanksgiving? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Craig

I couldn't say for sure, but every week at GKTW Thursday is Christmas, and they do a traditional dinner at the Gingerbread House then. I would be totally shocked if they didn't do the same for Thanksgiving.

 

[slotshot]

I PM's you but in case you havent gotten it make sure to check the "Dsiney Resturant" forum and look at "Nov 2010 cancellation" thread. It may give you a heads up when someone cancels something

Didn't even know that existed...thanks!

 

[slotshot]

I couldn't say for sure, but every week at GKTW Thursday is Christmas, and they do a traditional dinner at the Gingerbread House then. I would be totally shocked if they didn't do the same for Thanksgiving.

THAT is a stroke of luck...I really appreciate the info!!

Craig

 

[Happy Dreams1]

My friend who has been to both parks says Magic Kingdom is bigger than Disneyland.
If you are talking about going to Magic Kingdom on a wish trip (and therefore you will have a Guest Assistance Card) then you will get on all the rides and be able to see the park in 1 day w/no problem because you will not have to wait in any lines. I would still recomend that you map out a plan or route in advance.

If you are going (but not as part of a wish trip) then you will have to wait in the lines like everyone else, and it depends on what time of the year you go, as certain times of the year are busier than others. Usually Space Mountain and Splash Mountain has a line, and for some reason Peter Pan usually has a line, but I ususally walk right on Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. Does that help?

Yes, it does help!! I'm talking about going on a wish trip. I have been to disneyland but don't remember Disneyworld. At Disneyland, Peter Pan also always has a huge line...so when we get our MM hour, we head straight to Peter Pan. My family and I are waiting for MAW to call.