I can’t even begin to express the pride and joy we felt from yesterday as Daniel graciously and proudly became the OFFICIAL CHILDREN’S COLORADO DENVER BRONCOS AMBASSADOR. It is a mouthful but that is the actual title. He actually has cards being printed. Isn’t that ridiculous. The partnership between the hospital and the Denver Broncos has been a year in the making and Daniel was asked for for this position by none other than the President of the Broncos himself Mr. Joe Ellis. I don’t mean to name drop, but since I know so few in football please grant me some leeway. I have a feeling I best be starting to take notes. I have been joking that I am just the mom and I just carry the bags and drive for the kid, but it looks like he is moving up and if I want him to take me along I better keep up. Anyway the wheels were put in motion long ago with his Broncos Go song and his hard work and persistence with this football fascination is paying off in spades. We were called in yesterday morning to a planning meeting for how the morning would go. ( I held Daniel’s bags) As Daniel was whisked to various meetings an prelims to finalize the plans he has been working on with the higher ups all week. I have been out of the loop and he has been emailing and texting and he is meeting and greeting and shaking hands and they already all know my boy. I am watching with eyebrows raised as he confidently manouvers through this adult crowd of hospital CEOS and Bronco PR people. The moment comes and the Bronco players and cheerleaders arrive and in a fast and furious moment off they all go into the bowels of the hospital offices for what I presume are some private talks that the mothers are not privy to. I stand outside the door and continue to hold his bag. They emerge and rush into the studio with game faces on. I take my place on the sidelines. I am in awe of how stealthily Daniel hosts a game of ‘Football Family Feud’ and his comfort level is higher than I have ever seen it. There are some glitches in the preplan and his ability to punt is fantastic. I look out of the studio and realize there are hundreds and hundreds of fans awaiting for the team to emerge, but he has a captured audience in the studio and throughout the screens of the hospital however it is the players and cheerleaders that are eating out of the palms of his hands. He can command them and yet has managed to put them at ease at the same time and these people he has idolized are eating out of the palm of his hand as he asks them questions with his Steve Harvey moustache on his mask. Although it is rushed for time constraints it is obvious that he has done his job. He made the kids all laugh and the Broncos have a great time. One of his goals was to make them want to come back and you can tell that this has happened. I will try to see if I can find video of the game but a definite highlight was this: as one player and one cheerleader stepped up to answer a question Daniel Asked the cheerleader what has been their favorite game and asked each player a relevant question pertaining to their charity or background…until Brandon Marshall stepped up. Daniel very seriously asked Brandon Marshall, what is the best part about being on my fantasy football team. It cracked him up and the entire audience. This kid is a natural. And with the close of the game as Miles the Mascot won it with a strange goat noise (don’t ask) they all rushed into a packed atrium 4 floors high. Probably more adults than children. More staff than patients. It is truly evident the people love their home team. They were ushered through the crowd and as I tried to follow them up to the stage, I was lost in a sea of orange (and blue) and couldn’t get anywhere close to Daniel. I had to trust he would be fine, all the while completely freaked out by the crowd, knowing he should not be anywhere near this many people but seriously, how in the world could I deny him this. In my mind there is a bath of Purell awaiting him when we get home. Although I can barely see him through the crowd I start to hear his voice in the crowd. He is now sharing introduction duties of the players in front of 4 maybe 500 screaming fans. I think he needs to work on amplifying his voice but I know this is certainly not due to nerves. After the introductions and pictures the crowd swarms for autographs and I freak again about too many people and germs. At this point I realize it is a great time to use his new position and maximize. I grab him and we head to the back of the autograph tables for no wait signing. I don’t know why he didn’t think of this sooner. When the players leave the crowd disperses pretty quickly . They were all so fun and so gracious and I can’t imagine how overwhelming the day was for them. They brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people today and so, so much to Daniel . We met several of the Bronco staff and many of them already knew of Daniel before even meeting him. Rob and I were so proud. He is laying a beautiful foundation for where he wants to go with his life and this is just the beginning of his introductions to all of these people. We went home and showered our germs away and had a relaxing couple hours talking about how fun the morning was as Daniel programmed all the news channels to watch afternoon and evening coverage.
He finished the night by going to his friends house with his group of friends he hasn’t seen since New Year’s Eve. They did silly boy things I don’t even want to know about but when I picked him up at 11 pm ha had almost no voice and was beyond exhausted. He rode all the way home saying that today was definatly in his top 10 of all days ever. What’s better than that? He said he was ready to go back now to the hospital because today was so great.
Since I took the last night home to go out for dinner and a movie with some girlfriend (I am not saying which one but it rhymes with Tragic Bike) I was beyond exhausted as well from the day but morning came and we were on our way back to the hospital.
I knew coming in that the 7th floor is swamped. I have been told that they have 15 kids coming to transplant this summer and they are busting at the seams. I personally think this is a great thing because that means 15 kids have the chance at a full cure of disease and this should not be seen as anything but hopeful. But the bad part is that 7th East is only so big and there is no room for us. Since I knew we have been coming back I have been fishing for info about rooms and availability. I know this is not a hotel and I can’t just make a reservation at will nor can I bribe my way in…believe me I tried that as well already. The other good news is that we are so far out post transplant that we are not high priority for BMT isolation when there are very infectious kiddos in dire need. So we became overflow. We were pushed to the right to the West side of 7th and I felt like I was going to a black hole. I had never travelled to this side before. I had always gone left or to the clinic. I didn’t know what was to the right. It is other blood cancers /hemotology , sometimes surgical but right now Oncology and BMT is so overflowing that both East and West are Oncology and BMT and I learned that the far rooms on the west side used to be the first BMT rooms. So we were told to check into room 711 and when we walked in I swear we hit the jackpot. High rollers baby!! Woot woot. Maybe this Ambassador position brings it’s perks. Nah, just kidding, but this is the brightest , loveliest room we have had yet. We are on the far corner room with an anti/outer room, large bathroom and corner wrap around high ceiling windows. I don’t want to or plan to be here long, but if this is our room, I am glad it is nice and spacious. We have certainly tried enough of them. I think this our 6th or 7th not including the one terrible night in ICU. We are very inconspicuously in the very far corner and it seems to be very, very quiet and I like it that way. There is no BMT kitchen and there is no where to keep our own food clean and fresh enough for my liking so we will have to figure something out with eating and meals. Daniel does not like the room service so it may be a challenge but this should be the worst of our problems. We will figure it out, probably just in time to be out of here. We have new lego sets to keep busy (including a 4000+ London Bridge), we have summer homework, some binge watching and movie franchise sets to get through. Plus it is shark week coming up. I hope for nothing exciting to happen with this treatment and to just keep exercising every day and just do our time. He will also be working on his Ambassador duties and claiming all the fame of yesterday and I will hold his bags as long as he will allow me to.
He finished the night by going to his friends house with his group of friends he hasn’t seen since New Year’s Eve. They did silly boy things I don’t even want to know about but when I picked him up at 11 pm ha had almost no voice and was beyond exhausted. He rode all the way home saying that today was definatly in his top 10 of all days ever. What’s better than that? He said he was ready to go back now to the hospital because today was so great.
Since I took the last night home to go out for dinner and a movie with some girlfriend (I am not saying which one but it rhymes with Tragic Bike) I was beyond exhausted as well from the day but morning came and we were on our way back to the hospital.
I knew coming in that the 7th floor is swamped. I have been told that they have 15 kids coming to transplant this summer and they are busting at the seams. I personally think this is a great thing because that means 15 kids have the chance at a full cure of disease and this should not be seen as anything but hopeful. But the bad part is that 7th East is only so big and there is no room for us. Since I knew we have been coming back I have been fishing for info about rooms and availability. I know this is not a hotel and I can’t just make a reservation at will nor can I bribe my way in…believe me I tried that as well already. The other good news is that we are so far out post transplant that we are not high priority for BMT isolation when there are very infectious kiddos in dire need. So we became overflow. We were pushed to the right to the West side of 7th and I felt like I was going to a black hole. I had never travelled to this side before. I had always gone left or to the clinic. I didn’t know what was to the right. It is other blood cancers /hemotology , sometimes surgical but right now Oncology and BMT is so overflowing that both East and West are Oncology and BMT and I learned that the far rooms on the west side used to be the first BMT rooms. So we were told to check into room 711 and when we walked in I swear we hit the jackpot. High rollers baby!! Woot woot. Maybe this Ambassador position brings it’s perks. Nah, just kidding, but this is the brightest , loveliest room we have had yet. We are on the far corner room with an anti/outer room, large bathroom and corner wrap around high ceiling windows. I don’t want to or plan to be here long, but if this is our room, I am glad it is nice and spacious. We have certainly tried enough of them. I think this our 6th or 7th not including the one terrible night in ICU. We are very inconspicuously in the very far corner and it seems to be very, very quiet and I like it that way. There is no BMT kitchen and there is no where to keep our own food clean and fresh enough for my liking so we will have to figure something out with eating and meals. Daniel does not like the room service so it may be a challenge but this should be the worst of our problems. We will figure it out, probably just in time to be out of here. We have new lego sets to keep busy (including a 4000+ London Bridge), we have summer homework, some binge watching and movie franchise sets to get through. Plus it is shark week coming up. I hope for nothing exciting to happen with this treatment and to just keep exercising every day and just do our time. He will also be working on his Ambassador duties and claiming all the fame of yesterday and I will hold his bags as long as he will allow me to.