Third Day at Riley

Raul Matthew and I used the discounted tickets we purchased from the Ronald McDonald house to visit a relatively empty Indianapolis Zoo this morning. Highlights of the zoo included seeing a show at the Marsh Dolphin Theater, an agitated emu, a polar bear that stared down Raul Matthew, and a llama so ugly that only it's blind mother could possibly love it.

After becoming one of the 1.4 million visitors to the zoo, we headed back to our hospital room on the 5th floor of the Riley Hospital for Children where we took the first family picture since Myla's surgery.

Today is also the third day of the chemotherapy given through Myla's central line, and the second day of--I kid you not--Riley's Butt Cream. Apparently, chemo treatments take the diaper-changing dance to a whole new level. Who knew? The chemicals from the chemo can cause severe skin burns in the diaper area. The Riley Cream is formulated to provide a barrier of protection against these burns, but we're still dealing with the problem nonetheless. These days, Melissa has to conduct the diaper changing procedure using hospital-sanctioned ChemoBlog gloves. And at 4AM each day, a large HazMat truck pulls out of Indianapolis to haul Myla's diapers to the Yucca Mountain Repository in southern Nevada. I'm just glad we have good insurance.

The nurses told us that we should expect to be at Riley during Christmas as Myla might be into her second round of chemo by then.

Our spirits were boosted today by visits from the Hughes and from my former college roommate, Mike; and his sister, Kathy; and Kathy's son, Kyle. Raul Matthew, Mike, and I ate dinner at the Ronald McDonald House here at Riley. An excellent dinner of lasagna and spaghetti was brought in by a presbyterian church in Zionsville. Raul Matthew later entertained us on the marker board.