Couple Things

Things here are stable and good - Lizzie is doing well. I feel like I'm in the funny farm this week because all I hear all day long is, "Mom, I'm hungry, Mom, when can I have a snack, Mom, I'm starving, Mom, when do I get to eat again?"

Holy cow! I am not quite sure how we're going to live our lives with any semblance of normalcy if we are constantly being food police. I have to continually remind Lizzie, "Yes, you can eat, just not right now" or other reminders that her brain is not sending her stomach correct signals, etc.

Ben and I feel sad about her condition - it just stinks! She has gained noticeable weight since she's been home and we just feel helpless because we are feeding her healthy foods, trying to get her exercise, but with her condition, it just seems to not really matter what we do. We meet with our endocrinologists later this month and we are hoping they can give us some direction and refer us to the Dr. in SF who specializes with kids like Liz.

Speaking of our appointment later this month. We are going to start giving back to Primary Children's Hospital - they really are great to the parents and take such good care of the kids, so before each of our appointments (roughly every few months) we are going to start collecting donations of items for people that would like to help support the families down there. I just can't explain the hollow-eyes that you see when you walk the halls. The parents there are under such stress and agony that even the littlest gesture means so much. So here's what we are going to collect if anyone is interested:

1. Good used or new books for kids and young adults-they have a great reading program for kids where you can read books in the hospital and also keep them if you really liked the book.

2. Food for the parents center - boxes of granola bars, individually wrapped cracker packages, juice boxes - anything that's individually wrapped - many of the parents are in extreme poverty and can't afford to eat at the cafeteria - they live out off the parents center and eat all their meals there from donated items.

3. Bingo prizes for the kids - every Wednesday the hospital plays bingo via the TV and every kid gets a prize - we never played b/c Lizzie was so out of it, but she got a prize every time! Anything from dollar store stuff, coloring books, barbies, new blankets - anything goes. One thing we were surprised at is how many teenagers and even young adults that were 20 years old and older, so maybe keep that in mind that prizes can be for older kids too.

Thanks for your support - we will be taking stuff down on April 24th, so just drop anything off at our house that you might want to donate for the parents & kids - I can't tell you how appreciated it will be for the sweet families - many families are from out of state and don't have the support system that we had.

I can't wait to take Lizzie shopping for stuff - she has a huge interest in helping other sick kids, so this will be a fun project for her.

Thanks!!