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.

Last 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.

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 dropped 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.