Dinner Conversations

Our family dinners were one of the parts of life we missed most when Anna was hospitalized.  Coming together for a meal at the end of the day, sharing excitements or disappointments with one another, and being silly together make a huge impact on our family's life.

This summer Ethan has reached a whole new level of understanding and questioning, which adds a delightful aspect to our time together.

Here are a few of the phrases/questions Ethan has brought up recently.

"Why do people from China come to your work?"
"Why does Dad have to go to work every day?  When will Mom go to work?"
"How do babies get milk from their mothers?"
"Why did Anna get brain cancer?"
"How did the doctor get the tumor out?"
"Why was Melanie (one of Anna's friends from CI) born with that thing she was born with (cerebral palsy)?"
"Why didn't Aslan roar?" (We have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia with the kids; it's Ethan's first time hearing the stories.  He was really curious about why Aslan let the White Witch kill him at the end of the first book."

One of my personal favorites from Ethan this summer was "Hey Kate!  Last night I saw the bees whose butts light up!"  (He meant lightning bugs.)

We also learned recently that earlier in the summer the kids came up with medicines to help the baby dolls when they are hurt.  "Hydrolerableed" is the medicine that "helps with the blood" and "walldebald" helps heal bones.

One evening recently, Matt and I were able to attend a dinner, presentation, and tour at the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research; that experience provided us with some more grown-up dinner conversations for once.

We are still not quite sure how we were put on the list of people to invite, especially considering the other attendees.  Our small group included the chairman of a large local construction business, his wife, and their son who is a marketing guru for UW Hospital and Clinics, the UW Foundation Vice President of Development, the Development Program Manager for the American Family Children's Hospital, and another couple who was instrumental in raising funds for the Children's Hospital.  And then there was us.  Matt and I made several jokes the next day about all of our "new friends".  Our theory is that this was a trial run for a new way of reaching out to donors and/or families and we were just one of the few families that said we could attend.

Enough of that.  The presentation, given by one of the pediatric oncology researchers, focused on some of the newer types of treatments being developed for childhood cancers.  We learned about immunotherapy, the roll the UW has played in some awesome discoveries, the funding gap for pediatric cancer research, the reason for this funding gap, how money is spent for the labs, and the hopes that the research department has for the future.  We were also given a tour of THE research lab used by the pediatric oncology research team at UW, and given a demonstration of the instruments.  Pretty cool stuff.

The doctor who gave the presentation and tour was also one of the attending physicians on P4 during some of Anna's hospital stay.  He is also one of the members of the Pediatric Cancer Dream Team sponsored by Stand Up to Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.  (see here for a link to an article explaning the Dream Team)  Turns out Dr. Capitini remembers our family, including the map that was so prominently displayed in Anna's hospital room.

Anna's life has certainly led us to meet many wonderful people, no matter their title or position.