Isabella’s Art Work To Be On Display!

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of sitting around and waiting at the hospital.  During that time, Isabella spends some time drawing.  One of her drawings will be on display in a New York City art show that will exhibit art work from sick children.  The exhibit will be on March 13.  Details in the announcement below.  If you’re in the area, stop on by and meet a famous artist!

http://www.artworksfoundation.org/express.shtml

Express Yourself is a creative and performing art exhibition that features the works of children and young adults suffering from chronic and life-threatening illnesses and their siblings.

Express Yourself provides children with the opportunity to be publicly acknowledged for both their struggles and their strengths. In a safe environment, filled with families, friends, healthcare specialists and art therapy patrons, these children sing, dance, recite poetry, play instruments and stand proudly by their works of art.

The process of preparing for the Express Yourself event provides these children with a much needed creative outlet that serves to reduce their stress and anxiety, decrease attention to their pain and normalize their hospital experience.

The exhibition provides all participants with something to look forward to and work towards, taking the focus away from the pain and sorrow of the illness. The event also provides patients and families with social opportunities to interact with other children and families in similar situations and take comfort in shared experiences.

 
Express Yourself - New York
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Kimmel Center for University Life
New York University
60 Washington Square South
(between La Guardia Place and Thompson Street)
New York, NY 10012
Directions
1:30-5:00 p.m.
Performances begin at 3:00 p.m.
Participating Agencies:

• Bellevue Hospital Center
• Blythedale Children’s Hospital
• Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center
• The Children's Hospital at Montefiore
• Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center
• Incarnation Children's Center
• Initiative for Women with Disabilities: Young Women's Program at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases
• Komansky Center for Children's Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Maimonides Infants and Children's Hospital of Brooklyn
• The Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital
• New Alternatives for Children
• NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases
• NYU Langone Medical Center
• Raymond Naftali Ambulatory Center
• Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York

If you are a healthcare agency interested in participating in Express Yourself, please call us at (201) 608-0146.

If you would like to submit artwork or perform in our next show, please call us at (201) 608-0146 or submit a contact form.

Home Today!

We got the go ahead to go home and are all now home and resting.  Isabella is still neutropenic (low white cells), but since the counts are rising and she hasn’t had a fever in a few days, they said we could go home.  Of course, we have the normal precautions such as very limited visitors and frequent hand washing, and we have to administer antibiotics for a couple more days.  But, it’ll be especially nice to have everyone home and sleeping in our own bed without tubes and monitors beeping and nurses running around.

Quick Update

The first couple of days Isabella was in the hospital, she had a pretty rough time.  Besides generally feeling bad with the fevers, she also felt a good amount of pain, from what we suspect is some gastrointestinal infection.  The pain had actually gotten to the point where we had to give Isabella morphine to ease the pain.  The doctors have not been able to pin down exactly what might be causing the infection, but they are hitting her with a bunch of different antibiotics.

Isabella has improved pretty well over the last couple of days.  She has not had a fever in a couple days and her blood counts have crept up.  She has also eaten and drunk (or is it drank?) much better than when she was first admitted to the hospital and her pain has subsided a bit.  So our doctors say that if her blood counts keep improving, she may be able to go home on Wednesday.  (Coincidentally, we’re expecting yet another snowstorm here in the NYC area when we hope she’ll be discharged!)  We’ll continue the antibiotics at home, but that’s better than being in the hospital.

So we hope that her immune system continues to improve so that we’ll be able to go home on Wednesday, even if it means going home through the snow.  But in the ultimate act of confidence, I brought all my stuff home today when Julianne came to relieve me of hospital duty.  I hope I don’t jinx us!

The picture below shows Roneil trying to catch some rest while Isabella and Nathaniel play.