Support For Christi Thomas

This blog is to help offer support to the Thomas Family and their daughter, Christi, in her battle against cancer. Please visit Christi's website at www.ChristiThomas.com to learn more. There, you'll find journals, photos and a lots of other information about this amazing child and her family.

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Saturday, March 25, 2006

Thomas Team Together



With my van having over 159,000 miles on it, I never expected Shayne to venture to drive it all the way to Philadelphia, but when I entered the garage in the middle of the night that's what I saw pulling in. THEY MADE IT! I couldn't get Shayla's door opened and her seatbelt off fast enough. Shayne is the most amazing man. And with God as the Thomas team's "Unseen Captain" they arrived safely.

Mom told me that Christi borrowed a train set from the playroom and put it together on her (huge) hospital room floor so that Shayla would have something to play with when she arrived, so thoughtful. Her IV fluids needed to be hooked back up because she was not drinking enough, yet she felt so well that she kept my mother up until 1:00 AM playing and eating. (She seems to slip into "teenager mode" when she's at the hospital-staying up late and sleeping in.)

Because my mom hadn't seen Shayla since mid-December, she whisked her out of Christi's room and off for fun as soon as we arrived in Christi's room where she was soundly sleeping this morning.

This morning's blood counts showed the drop that's already taken place, hgb. now down to 8.2. (We expect the worse set in next week.) Because we wanted to venture out today they agreed to transfuse her with blood at midnight and then gave us a six hour pass. When we returned tonight, her hgb. was down to 7.8 which explained why she occassionally said at the museum, "It feels like I can't get enough air." (Amazingly enough, she was actually RUNNING around despite needing a blood transfusion.) All day today we cringed each time we'd observe her bending her neck. When asked, she'll tell you that it hurts - but not bad.

Please Touch Museum Even though designed for little kids, Christi had been wanting to return to the Please Touch Museum she remembered from a couple of years ago. The wonderful people at the Ronald House provided our family with free admittance passes and we drove downtown where the girls had a ball playing together at "Please Touch". Explaining that we had a few hours left on our pass, we asked the girls if they wanted to go back to the hospital, or to the Ronald House and without a doubt you all know where they decided.

Shayne dropped us off at Ronald and drove my wonderful mom back to the train station to get to the airport. (Thanks, Mom!!) Back at the Ronald McDonald House there were about 15 high school volunteers in to play with the kids and to make ice cream sundaes. Imagine Christi & Shayla's delight to find out that they were the ONLY Ronald kids to be played with. For hours they were treated and spoiled by these great students doing crafts and playing games. (So much for the six hour pass.........eight hours later we snuck back into CHOP where the sweet doctor chuckled and said, "I didn't see a thing.......Do you think my kids would enjoy that museum too?")

3 Comments:

At 26/3/06 8:12 AM, Blogger HeatherB said...

YIPEE for the arrival of Shayne and Shayla and Thomas Team togetherness! :) Shayla and Christi look great together and how sweet of Christi to put together the train for Shayla.

I hope and pray that today is a good day and that you enjoy your precious time together.

Christi- What a sweetheart you are to want to do nice things for the other kids- and reading to a little one, I'm sure she loved that!!

Shayla- The best little sister around! I'll bet you were so glad to see Christi and play with her. :)

I love you all!

Lots of love and prayers,
Heather

 
At 26/3/06 5:30 PM, Blogger thonmom06 said...

Hello Thomas Team! Happy Sunday! Thank you Guardian Angels for going along for the ride to Philly and we ask you to be sure to ride along back to Ohio. So nice to see the picture of you together. I've always wanted to go to the Please Touch Museum...looks like fun! We had a safe trip up and back to our cousins' in CT for Kristi's Confirmation yesterday which was beautiful. Our Central Catholic girls were outbeaten during the State Finals in Hershey last night. My friends kept calling me from there and I begged for them to take the phone down to court side for me to give a pep talk.... oh well. Victor did find the game live on-line for me to watch... but it was a little difficult as it was a small 3x3" square on the screen. This team never expected to even make it this far, so it was just neat for them to be there...hard for them to understand that right now though.

I hope you're having a good day today. The sun was playing hide and seek the whole way home and now it's very cloudy, with a few sprinkles!

Keep that most beautiful smile Christi! You are an amazing young lady...when mom shares the stories of YOU reaching out to others I just get goosebumps....you mom talks about the angels on earth who have reached out to you, but YOU my dear are touching the lives of so many. Thank you. love, sylvia xoxox

 
At 27/3/06 12:36 AM, Blogger Melinda Auld said...

Dear Thomas team - I am so glad you are getting to spend time together. Christi looks like she's s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g up and up in height in those lovely photos! She even seems similar in height to those high school students. I do so hope that the "neck issue" resolves itself in a day or two - you never know...maybe she just put it out of joint? My thoughts and prayers are with you all - may your time together be joyous.

 

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