HE DID IT, 13.1 miles with Short Gut!!!

Dave Vermette ran a half marathon yesterday. Remember this is the man that is missing most of his small bowel due to Crohn's Disease and he is on TPN.

Check out his blog for pictures: http://thriverx.wordpress.com/

One picture you will not see is this one of his jersey. Check out the third name down. I have been saying that Dave is an inspiration to me and will be an inspiration to Ellie when she is older. But it seems that Ellie has been an inspiration to Dave the whole time.

It is so good to see someone defying the odds and refusing to settle for a life that the doctors told him he would have to live. The training was not easy, and not always fun. But the smile on his face yesterday was amazing.

I also think some of the other runners were a bit jealous of the IV bag he hooked up to after the race.

GO DAVE, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

NSTAR walk for Children's hospital

We just finished the NSTAR Walk for Boston Children's Hospital. We walked 2 miles with team Blaise! The team was made up of Blaise and her family, and Faith and her mom, and some great friend's of Blaise's. As a team we raised just over 3,200$. No to shabby.

Ellie and Faith

We couldn't help but think of the last time we walked and how different Ellie was this time. Other than the fact that she is 3 older. Differences: No ostomy, potty trained, finishing her first year of pre-school, off of TPN and back on, and she is starting to read. Gib and I hoped during the last walk that 3 year later she would not still be on TPN, but hey, things are pretty good and we are not complaining. Ellie had a great time this time and walked a fair amount of the walk. She really liked looking at all the duck and geese along the way. She also loved all the after race festivities. Like getting her face painted, getting metal for finishing and the Blue's Clues moon bounce. She also love collecting all the swag from the vendors.

It was also fun to catch up with Blaise's parents and Faith's mom. We had dinner on Friday with everyone and as always it is so nice to talk to people that have been through what you have been through. We hadn't meet Blaise's parents in person before, we had emailed and talked on the phone but that is it. We also hadn't seen Faith's mom since right before they went home last year after coming out here for Omegaven. It was amazing how big both girls were and how great they are both doing.

During the walk today we ran into a bunch of the nurses from 10 East and the child life specialist. It was good to see them outside of the hospital. I don't think we say thank you to them all enough. They all always do so much for us to make our stays at the "inn" as pleasant as possible.

To all the nurses on 10 East and Lakeisha (the toy lady as Ellie calls her) .....Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

It was a vary fun day followed by Ellie not taking a nap