Best Friends Forever!

Cousin's are many, Best friends are few, what a rare delight I find the both in you.

Today, Daniel completed week three of radiation! Daniel did AWESOME! Yahoo, we're half way there!

He had a visitor with him at radiation, Mae, his best friend and cousin (my daughter). The ride in was smooth, transition from car to playroom...smooth. Everything was smooth, maybe it was because of his visitor or he is just in a routine.

Daniel was excited to show Mae the place he visits everyday. He took control of the situation, like a true warrior, and held her hand as we walked into the hospital. Together, hand and hand, they ran to the elevators, knocking over everyone in their path (my apologies again to the poor old guy that had to jump out of the way). Five year old's are hard to contain. He pushed the button and helped her move to the back of the elevator. The doors opened and off they ran down the hallway to the playroom. He jumped on the couch and started playing the Wii. Mae sat at the table and started doing arts and crafts. They giggled and joked as the nurses did his vitals. Daniel cracks Mae up. He is the funniest person she knows. I know this because he is the only person that can get her to belly laugh (a nervous; I can not believe he is doing that laugh). When Daniel left for treatment, Mae wanted to go with him. I explained that Daniel had to take a nap while the doctors fixed his boo boo. She had a job to do while he slept. She delivered a bunch of toys to the Jimmy Fund Clinic, thanks to Mamas Move.

Afterwards, we walked to the cafeteria to grab Mae a snack. She would not eat breakfast because of Daniel. She wanted to wait for him. On the walk over, I noticed that she had tears in her eyes. I stopped her and asked if she had questions or concerns, but she pushed me out of the way and kept right on after I gave her a hug. She hurried to get back to him. She wanted to be in the room where he left her, she wanted to color him a picture and work on an ornament she picked out for him.

When we arrived back to the playroom, Daniel was in recovery. Mae visited with Courtney (the life coach) and did arts and crafts with Nana while I went off to be with Carley and Daniel. When I returned to the playroom, a new friend had arrived for his treatment. We've met the family a few times and love having the comfort of another family in the room with us. We chatted about "stuff" while we waited for Daniel to return. When he did he was ready to take his cousin out on a lunch date to the cafeteria. Again, they held hands and knocked everyone over as they ran down the hallway. It amazes me to see this little boy go from sleeping and attached to machines running, yelling, skipping down a hallway a few minutes after waking up. He looks like a healthy little boy. There is no sign of radiation, anesthesia, chemo or tumor. Just a happy little boy having fun with his cousin. How can he be sick?

On the way home, Mae had a ton of questions for me. I've been very open with her about Daniel's tumor. Since day one, she is worried about him. Kids sense sadness, worry, anger...they just know something is wrong. Today helped her understand that he is okay, that he is not in pain and that the people at the hospital are not scary. She saw him laughing. She saw his energy and funny personality return after the treatment. I've told her what a five year old can understand about the boo-boo on his brain. She fired off a bunch of questions. The ones I knew she was holding deep inside for the past month: Why does he have to go to the doctors every day? Why does not he go to school? Why does he have to take a nap at the hospital? What's on his head? Does it hurt? Does he cry? Why does he get mad and throw things? We talked the entire hour while we drove home from Foxboro.

When Daniel and Mae are together, which is almost every day, I find myself with tears in my eyes. My breath short, my heart aching. They love each other so much. No matter what they will be best friends forever!

A few of Daniel's cousins have joined him at radiation. It is essential for all of them to be there for him. He needs their support just as much as they need his. His cousins need to understand what is going on with him. All of them need to experience a day with him, so they are not scared of him. Scared of what is happening to him, scared of the doctors, scared of his treatments, scared of his frustrations. Just plain scared..