Three steps in the continuum of Children's

We got an interesting call yesterday from a friend of ours in california who called to tell us that a friend of hers had just had a baby in RI, been transferred to Brown (Women and Infants) and was on the way to Boston (sound familiar???). It turns out that the baby has problems with his heart and digestive system and needed the hlp of Children's where they have specialized programs for the specific abnormalities that the baby was born with. We made contact with them last night and it turns out that they are on the adjoining wing of the hospital. Same floor, same elevator, just go straight instead of turning right to come to see Ellie. small world. Abby has spent some time with them today giving them the lay of the land here and explaining all of the great things that the hospital has done for us over the months that we have been here. Hopefully they will only be here for a few weeks but just in case we are setting them up with all of the tools for being hospital parents.

On the other end of this, we met a mother tonight whose three year old son has a short bowel that is significantly shorter than Ellie's. He is three, eats food, grows and plays. With a super-short gut. Had an ostomy. Lived in the hospital......Lots of things in common. His mother spent some time with us this afternoon explaining what a shock it will be to go home and that it is sometimes equal to the shock of being here.

Hopefully we will see that in the coming months.

It is nice to share information and stories and have them shred with us. It lets us know that we are not alone in this marathon and that there are lots of parents out there who are dealing with situations that are similar to ours, and also some that are much worse.

We see kids every single day that make us grateful that Ellie only has to deal with short gut.

Knock on wood now.

p.s. She continues her stellar recovery. She now walks around her crib and turns both corners at the end.