I barely slept that night- all these thoughts and answers to the potential questions they had given me were swirling around in my head. When the alarm rang at 5:30 I could barely get out of bed... but then the nerves took over. We got ready and jumped in the car at 6:15. We drove from Marine Drive all the way to Burnaby and it only took us 1/2 an hour! I was worried about the traffic, but it wasn't bad at all!
We arrived and the security guard signed us in, gave us our passes, and brought us down to the green room to wait until it was time. Richard Pass, the CEO of Ronald Mc Donald House met us there and went in with us to the studio. I wasn't sure if he was going to be on air or not, but he was, and boy, was I ever glad!
The studio is just one big green screen! I didn't expect that at all. There was the desk where they sit on one side of the room, then beside that is a big space where the weather person (Wesla Wong) was doing the weather while we were being seated on the circular red couch across from the desk and having our mics put on, etc. Between the desk and the couch were two big monitors and three cameras, mounted on tracks on the ceiling and moving on these robotic looking arms. Attached to the cameras were teleprompters which told Sophie Lui and Steve Darling what to say. I don't know what y'all could see, but behind the couch was just a green wall.
They introduced themselves, asked us a couple of questions and then we got started. It is a bit of a blur, but what I do remember is that all of the time I spent preparing and rehearsing answers to questions was for naught. They didn't ask me even one of those questions, lol! The one they did ask was one that Richard had kind of prepared me for in advance but what came out of my mouth was NOT what he wanted me to say ( I felt like a bit of an idiot....) but it was ok, because he jumped in with the right answer, lol. Like I said, I was really glad he was there! They asked Noah about what he likes to do at RMH and the topic turned to foosball. Both Steve and Sophie told him they were really good at it, but five seconds later, when the camera turned off, Sophie turned to Noah and said, 'I've never played foosball in my life.' it was funny....
So yeah, it was fun. We had to go to the hospital later that morning and so many people said, "hey! I saw you on TV this morning!" It was cool - we felt famous! The next morning, Noah had an LP and just as he was going under I mentioned something about our hotel and the doctor said, "I thought you were staying at RMH?" and Noah, (who was under the influence) said, "If you had watched us on TV yesterday, you would have known that....!" It was hilarious. None of them had seen it and were totally surprised. I am still laughing about it as I write this... it was so funny...
The doctors and nurses LOVE it when Noah is going under for his LPs. He is absolutely hilarious. He says the craziest things. He often talks about his wish, where his first idea was to ask to go the International Space Station. In space. He blames me for not being able to do that. He actually wrote it on the form: I wanted to go to the International Space Station, but my mom said no." LOL
Anyway, as a thank you for going on TV, the hospital gave us tickets to the Canucks game last night that someone had donated. It was amazing. Apparently there is a section of the arena where they have WAITERS. We had a waiter. And a menu. Again, no big deal. We were in section 104, in row 7. It was great, we were just up from the face off circle to the left of Luongo. Noah kept his promise to Dan Hamhuis and cheered for Vancouver. When Dan took Noah into the dressing room, he made a deal with Noah, that as long as they weren't playing the Oilers, he would cheer for the Canucks. It was cute. So, Noah now feels like it might be ok to cheer for Vancouver without compromising his commitment to the Oilers.
Today we are at the hospital. This week has been a bit of a write-off as far as school work is concerned. Monday was ok, Tuesday Noah had to come here for blood work at 9:30, where they determined that he needed a platelet transfusion before he could have his LP on Wednesday. They took a long time to arrive and because he reacts to platelets, he gets Benedryl beforehand. It is just 35 mg, but before he even got the platelets, he couldn't even focus, so he laid down on the bed and conked out. He was out until about 4:00! I finally got so bored, I pretty well carried him out of there.
It was too bad he was so affected by the Benedryl, because we had a visit from the Willistons, Wren's family. They were there for a ceremony- complete with a trophy- because Wren is now officially finished her treatment. I absolutely love the idea of a trophy to end off treatment, like it is a race to be won. In Noah's case, it is more like a marathon, but the analogy still works.
On Wednesday, his LP was quick and as soon as he was allowed to sit up, an hour after the procedure, I rushed him out. I did NOT want to sit here all day again. Unfortunately, I may have rushed him a little too soon; he was stumbling a little while we walked to the car, lol. It was funny. To be honest, I felt a little bad...but it was still funny. At least he also saw the humour in it. He did spend the entire afternoon reading a novel for his next novel study and he finished it, too, so it wasn't a total write-off.
Yesterday (Thursday) we had a great visit from our good friend Aleeda!! She came with us to Noah's appointment, saw how a chemo treatment goes, then we showed her all around the hospital, and RMH. It was great. We had a lot of time to visit and drink tea. : ) Then we went to the game after Aleeda left.
This morning, we had to come for chemo and blood work because they thought he might need a red cell transfusion. Our appointment was at 9:30. It is now 5pm, and we are still here, and not leaving anytime soon. Well, probably within the hour, but still... Anyway, they did the bloodwork and his platelets were at 11(!!!!) 20 is the critical level. He just had platelets on Tuesday! They dropped like crazy. I did notice he had a funny mark on his neck, like a bruise, which only happens when his platelets are low, but I thought, he just had some, so he was ok. Yikes. He also needed red cells, so first he had benedryl (made him too tired to do anything) then platelets, then red cells. Platelets take one hour and red cells take three hours. Another looooong day. It looks like we are the only ones left in the clinic, too, lol.
Oh, they just came to start the flush, so it looks like we will be outta here soon! Yay! We are going to Dan and Sarah Hamhuis' house for dinner and my good friend Elaine will also be there (Double Yay!!)
I hope everyone has a good weekend and for all you Smithereens, enjoy the snow!!!
Hey Noah I saw on the news you did great
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