This post might seem odd, but it’s going to include pretty much nothing about Eli’s medical condition and everything about our weekend. The reason is because I really don’t have much to report except that Eli has been feeling great and eating very well (better than he has for months). We’re heading in tomorrow morning to see if he is neutropenic yet, but otherwise he’s just on fluids to keep flushing out his bladder! Otherwise, we just spent the weekend trying to act like a normal family (with a backpack attached to our son and an overloaded wheelchair) on a New York vacation. According to some, we might have overdone it, but to us, it was the most enjoyable time we’ve had as a family for MONTHS.
Friday night: Barbara (Eli now refers to her as New York Grandma) called over to Marry Anne, the head Personal Shopper at Toys R Us (and a Candlelighters board member) and told her that we’d like to bring Eli by to see the store. She said to come on over and she’d be ready for us. So around 4pm when we were released, we decided to go to Time Square.
Now, how to get there? I said, “Hey, this is NY where the city thrives on public transit, let’s just load up Eli in the wheelchair and head for the subway!” So we walked from E 73rd between 1st and York to E 68th and Lexington (about 8 blocks). Note: Not ALL subway stops in NY are wheelchair friendly. This is important to know BEFORE you get into the station after you’ve bought your tickets. 🙂 Thankfully a very nice man helped me carry Eli’s wheelchair down the stairs (again, breaking the typical New Yorker reputation). We got onto a VERY packed train and got off a few stops later at 42nd and Grand Central Station. Another 7 or 8 blocks and we were in Time Square looking at the biggest toy store we had ever seen.
We made our way in (along with a few hundred other people) and went up to meet Mary Anne who immediately ushered us to the front of the line to ride the 60 foot tall ferris wheel ride (for free)! She gave us a complimentary picture, but I don’t have a good way to scan it in yet, so I’ll have to post that later. If you click the picture below it will take you to a photo album and there are a few shots from the ferris wheel there. Eli had the biggest grin on his face the entire time! We took time to shop around and picked up two Star Wars light sabers that Eli wants to fight with all of the time now. Marry Anne was fantastic and the walk back to the subway was really neat since by that time it was dark and Time Square was totally lit up. There wasn’t a good handicap accessible subway stop on the way back either, so another nice guy helped me get the chair up a few stairs and we made our way back home. It was well worth the trip. Mary Anne made it a really fun experience and special for Eli by treating us like royalty.
http://picasaweb.google.com/HornIT/BackInNewYorkCity/photo#5139623478495148626 From Back in New Y…
Click next to read about our day Saturday…