Monthly Archives: September 2015

September 15, 2015 · 10:34 pm

First Day of School


20150915_075202cZayne woke up this morning and told me “First day of school with a new heart!”

Preschool has been in session for nearly 1 month, and Zayne is ready to join her friends.  She will start out by attending for a few hours in the morning.  Eventually, I hope to get her back to a full day.  When I last brought Zayne to school on June 29th, I  had to carry her from the car into the school.   This time, it was a different story – she ran!

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Not only did she run to the school, but she ran around the playground and climbed on equipment. While walking back to my car, I saw Zayne running with a couple of friends trailing behind her.  With her old heart, the playground was a place where she just stood and waiting for playtime to end (unless she was on a swing).   Not only is she running in the playground, but she played on equipment and played with friends.  Her new heart has changed her both physically and socially.  I’m glad that she is no longer standing by herself in the playground.  Her new found energy also resulted in her first incident report for the year on Day 1.  I hope that isn’t a trend.

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Climbing at a different playground (not at the school)

 

Zayne really wanted to wear a backpack when we went on a hike.  After 10 minutes, I got hook her pack onto mine for the rest of the day.  At least she had fun packing it with band-aids and snacks.

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September 1, 2015 · 10:40 pm

Mamma Mia

Taking bad tasting medicine twice each day is meeting more resistance.  Sometimes the meds hurt her stomach, sometimes they make her gag, sometimes she just doesn’t want to take them.  We have been playing Rocket Ship for the past 2 months, but the rockets are flying all over the place and keep getting ‘lost in space’ – these syringe rockets are taking longer and longer to fly in the mouth shuttle bay at space station Zayne.  This evening I came up with a new weapon to get Zayne to take meds:  singing and dancing to the Abba song “Mamma Mia”.  Since there are now 3 meds at night, we also danced to Dancing Queen to get the final syringe finished.  I don’t think singing and dancing will work when I have to wake her to take meds, so it will probably just be an evening event.

20150826_160006cLast week, Zayne attended her first swim class since transplant.  I didn’t recognize this kid.  She was so happy, excited, and yelling that she wanted to be the first to go out with the instructor.  Before her new heart, I had to bribe her to participate in class.  She would often tell the instructor “no thank you” when asked to demonstrate a skill.  She is on the road to learning to swim!
Zayne could barely squeeze into her bathing suite since gaining 4 lbs since the last time she last wore it 2 months ago.

 

 

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Zayne received a pair of custom decorated Converse sneakers from Peach’s Neet Feet.  This organization creates custom, hand-painted shoes to celebrate children who are fighting cancer and living with disabilities.  Zayne picked the decorations on her shoes:  stegosaurus, woolly mammoth, shark, and her name.  Zayne tells me she can run really fast with her new shoes (close-up pics on Facebook ).

She is still not cooperating during her twice each week clinic appointments.  I think she is getting tired of 7 am hospital visits which involve blood draws, echo, EKG, height, weight, and physical exam.  At least the blood letting has 20150827_081519dropped to just once each week.  I like the idea of the EKG stickers over her mouth, since she can’t complain when her lips are stuck together.

Zayne is thrilled that her cousin, Liza, is back after being away all summer.

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