The View from Here

(post by Tammy)
We are finally getting back into the swing of living at the hospital. Here are some views from our room. We can see the water from the bay and the big ships sailing by. We can also see the bright lights from the city at night.

Sometimes I can't believe that we are actually living in the city. We've tried the chicken that everyone raves about at San Tung Restaurant on 9th and Irving. We've gotten cheese bread and cookies from Arizmendi, tried the yummy mango sticky rice from Marni Thai, tried the flaming hot curry from Naan and Curry, and also have visited Peasant Pies many times. Yes, our family loves food. Natalie loves the udon at You See Sushi. When we were at home, she asked if we could drive all the way to the city to get udon there. We tried getting her udon from other Japanese restaurants, but they are no match for the udon at You See Sushi. Since it's just 2 blocks away from the hospital, the owners know my voice now when I call in for take out. They ask me how Natalie is doing and give me their wishes for her to get better. If it wasn't for Natalie's situation, I actually would enjoy the adventure of being here.There's so much good food to eat and so many things to do.

Natalie is doing good. I have to admit that she impressed me so much with how well she took the eye drops. Even at 4 am, she would get up and cooperate without a fuss. I almost got her another elephant as a reward for doing so well, but I don't think there is any room on her bed for another one. We're definitely all glad that whole ordeal is over for this round though! We can actually sleep.

Natalie finished her chemo treatment on Tuesday morning so now we are waiting again. Waiting for her counts to go down and then recover. Her ANC is at 1200 today so we have a long way to go since it has to drop really low, and then go up again.

Christina, one of the nutritionists, stops by almost every day to do some kind of craft activity with Natalie. She has become part of our family and we are so grateful that she loves Natalie. She also watches Sean too. This past Saturday, both Christina and Yolanda stopped by at the same time and watched both Natalie and Sean while Grant and I walked around the area. Christina went to Cal too. She is so creative. We think she should be a child life specialist instead of a nutritionist because she is so good with children.

Natalie also met Becky this week. Becky is a young woman from our church who is a childhood cancer survivor. She came to visit with her husband Zach. Natalie wouldn't let Zach in the room at first. After talking to Becky and seeing some pictures of Becky's journey with cancer, she eventually let Zach in to the room. I guess she figured it was okay since he was by Becky's side in most of the pictures (as her boyfriend) when Becky was going through cancer treatments. Becky is going to be Natalie's email buddy as she goes through this, and also will visit whenever Natalie is up for it. We are happy for that.

We are busy with arts and crafts as usual here. Natalie is enjoying her time with the nurses. She is also learning a big lesson in life that there is a downside of being popular, which is that she can't spend time with her favorite nurses all the time if everyone wants a piece of her time. The nurses with seniority have no problem being her nurse, but the new nurses have to fight more. The nurses tell her that there is a long wait list to be Natalie's nurse and it's almost a miracle if they end up getting assigned to her.

Today is Thursday Bingo here at the hospital. It's one of the days Natalie really looks forward to when she gets up!