icecreamforbreakfast
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Messages
- 135
Well, I figured it's time to start my trip report before I forget anymore of the details from our amazing Make A Wish trip! It was a trip that created so many wonderful memories and helped erase some of the uglier medically related ones from the past.
Before I go any further, the reason the wish trip was granted, I copied this from his ptr.
I'll start with Joey's story ...
Last September Joey had a cold, he got over it except for the cough, it had been lingering for about a month. Then one weekend he had a high fever and was very lethargic. It was a long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) so I waited until Tuesday to take him to the clinic. He didn't seem all that sick, but I wanted to be sure he didn't have pneumonia or H1N1 which was very active at the time. The doctor sent him for a chest x-ray and after I pointed out that he had bruised eyelids (which I thought were caused by the high fever) and a couple of small bruises on his chest he sent him for blood work as well.
By lunchtime I was done at the lab and picked up my other kids and headed home. When we walked in the door the phone was ringing, it was the doctor and he told me it looked like Joey had leukemia, to go to the local hospital and that we would be flown to the Children's Hospital (about 4 hours away) that day for a stay of about 7-10 days. I tearfully said goodbye to our other kids (who stayed with an amazing friend who would continue to "mother" them while I was away with Joey) and headed to the hospital.
That evening Joey was admitted to the Children's Hospital and by midnight that night he was in the PICU sedated, intubated and a ventilator was breathing for him due to respiratory distress. Joey spent 6 days in the PICU before returning to the oncology ward where he remained an in-patient for the next 5 months.
Joey was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia which is not the typical childhood leukemia and during treatment was further diagnosed with a gene mutation within the leukemia cells that meant he needed to have a stem cell transplant as he wasn't responding to chemo alone. We have 3 other children, but none of them were a match, thankfully a donor was found and after tons of chemo and total body radiation Joey had his transplant on Feb 15/2010.
About a month after transplant Joey was discharged from the hospital, but we were not allowed to return home for another 2 1/2 months. So Joey and I lived at Ronald McDonald House and continued to enjoy visits from my husband and our other kids every weekend they could.
Early on in treatment Joey's oncologist told him that when he was all done he could "make a wish" and that some kids wish to go to Disneyworld and while they are there they stay at a village where you can eat icecream for breakfast! Well, Joey wouldn't consider anything else for his wish as Dr.Rod had told him he could go to Disney. That's fine with us we are all looking forward to a magical week togther!
That's Joey's story (in a nutshell of course) and also explains my username. Our family consists of myself (Lynette), my husband (Kelly), Samantha (12), Isaac (9), Shaelyn (7) and our baby and wish child Joey (4)
Here's Joey celebrating 100 days post stem cell transplant.
And a picture of our family...
Before I go any further, the reason the wish trip was granted, I copied this from his ptr.
I'll start with Joey's story ...
Last September Joey had a cold, he got over it except for the cough, it had been lingering for about a month. Then one weekend he had a high fever and was very lethargic. It was a long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) so I waited until Tuesday to take him to the clinic. He didn't seem all that sick, but I wanted to be sure he didn't have pneumonia or H1N1 which was very active at the time. The doctor sent him for a chest x-ray and after I pointed out that he had bruised eyelids (which I thought were caused by the high fever) and a couple of small bruises on his chest he sent him for blood work as well.
By lunchtime I was done at the lab and picked up my other kids and headed home. When we walked in the door the phone was ringing, it was the doctor and he told me it looked like Joey had leukemia, to go to the local hospital and that we would be flown to the Children's Hospital (about 4 hours away) that day for a stay of about 7-10 days. I tearfully said goodbye to our other kids (who stayed with an amazing friend who would continue to "mother" them while I was away with Joey) and headed to the hospital.
That evening Joey was admitted to the Children's Hospital and by midnight that night he was in the PICU sedated, intubated and a ventilator was breathing for him due to respiratory distress. Joey spent 6 days in the PICU before returning to the oncology ward where he remained an in-patient for the next 5 months.
Joey was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia which is not the typical childhood leukemia and during treatment was further diagnosed with a gene mutation within the leukemia cells that meant he needed to have a stem cell transplant as he wasn't responding to chemo alone. We have 3 other children, but none of them were a match, thankfully a donor was found and after tons of chemo and total body radiation Joey had his transplant on Feb 15/2010.
About a month after transplant Joey was discharged from the hospital, but we were not allowed to return home for another 2 1/2 months. So Joey and I lived at Ronald McDonald House and continued to enjoy visits from my husband and our other kids every weekend they could.
Early on in treatment Joey's oncologist told him that when he was all done he could "make a wish" and that some kids wish to go to Disneyworld and while they are there they stay at a village where you can eat icecream for breakfast! Well, Joey wouldn't consider anything else for his wish as Dr.Rod had told him he could go to Disney. That's fine with us we are all looking forward to a magical week togther!
That's Joey's story (in a nutshell of course) and also explains my username. Our family consists of myself (Lynette), my husband (Kelly), Samantha (12), Isaac (9), Shaelyn (7) and our baby and wish child Joey (4)
Here's Joey celebrating 100 days post stem cell transplant.
And a picture of our family...
. We collected our luggage and proceeded through security again and also customs as we were now headed non-stop to Orlando! As they were doing the pre-flight announcements, they mentioned there was a special little boy on the flight that was on a Wish Trip, Joey just beamed! On this flight we got seats in sets of twos. Kelly and I each sat with one of the younger kids and our older 2 sat together. When we got off the plane Samantha and Isaac told us they were offered (and accepted) snacks about 10 times - they wanted something to eat but not anymore bits and bites!!! The stewardesses were taking extra good care of them I guess. Here's a picture of us in Calgary airport.
I like that you decided to just take it easy and relax. That makes things so much easier for anyone, IMO. 
We had plans to stay until the park closed at 8pm and wanted to be sure Joey would have enough energy to make it.
