I am so sorry for all the bland text-only posts of late. With time limited and internet access limited when I was blogging, I didn’t put any in what I was writing. So here’s a makeup post with pictures from our trip.
Here is Patrick with a Penguin at the Omaha Zoo. Because he was tired and cold, Patrick insisted on staying bundled under a blanket with his coat on and my gloves on, even inside warm buildings.
He wouldn’t even come out for the faux desert.
But he did come out for this friendly orangutan. Sadly, that is also where he dropped his paci that we didn’t miss for 3 more buildings.
Here he is competing for position as silliest monkey. Moments later, these monkeys got angry and charged the glass, baring their teeth.
That night, we stopped at a European bakery for dinner.
Brian and I ordered soup and sandwiches. Patrick tried to order a banana. We told him they didn’t have bananas and sat down. Then we saw the bananas and had to go back to buy him one. Bananas are his only safe fruit.
Then I lost my camera for the whole next day and didn’t take any pictures. Thankfully, I found it right before taking him for his liver biopsy. Brian has some sad pictures of recovery on his phone that I haven’t gotten a hold of yet. This one’s more happy. This is daddy and Patrick playing on the bed during the mandatory evening of rest. (So his liver wouldn’t just open up and start bleeding.)
The next morning, because there hadn’t been time to be discharged, we got to go for his upper GI in fluoro while inpatient. That meant Patrick got the chance to ride in the kid-sized wheelchair. That made his day. He feels just fine, but sure did dress the part of a sick kid well.
Here he is waiting in x-ray for the contrast to move through his belly. It took a long time and he definitely made us work to keep him entertained.
One of the better features of this hospital, in Patrick’s opinion, were the escalators.
After 3 consecutive days of mandatory fasting, we broke free from the hospital and went out for dinner. We ended up at Old Chicago where Patrick fell in love with the marinara sauce. (Which made a belly full of barium wake up, requiring a full wardrobe change.. But it was worth it.)
This was Patrick’s room at the Lied. We arrived to find the air mattress pump batteries had fallen out before I packed them. So we let him sleep on the twin bed.. By rearranging the headboard pillows a bit, we were able to make a decent bumper and he slept there all week. Alas, that means, so did I.
These are the valentines Patrick and I made.
And this is what breakfast looks like with a bored kid who’s not allowed to eat.
We kind of liked flying home through the Omaha airport. Security screens so much TPN that it was an almost painless procedure. We had plenty of time to play in a small but mostly empty terminal.
And then, because Patrick had gotten up at 4 and then refused a nap all the rest of the day, we slipped him some Benadryl as we got on the flight. He told me “Mommy, no sleep.” over and over again. Then the plane started to move, he mumbled, “Mommy. Yes sleep.” and drifted right off.
Patrick Hoopes 