Looking forward to 2012

I have been glued to my TV over the last few weeks as often as I could. I have loved the Olympics. It has been a very welcome distraction from everything. I watched the closing ceremony and hand over today with much excitement. I am so looking forward to the games coming to London and totally plan to make the best of it and take the children to see some of the events.

I have always been a bit emotional at things on TV and I must confess to blubbing a bit oday twhen the flame was extinguished. I also found myself reflecting on the last sixteen days and the next four years. I caught bits of the opening ceremony on the ward in Birmingham and watched bits of the games in my hotel room. I had no idea what the outcome of William's assessment would be. The last sixteen days have seen us receive the recommendation that William joins the list of children waiting for a small bowel transplant. It has also seen us battling with bugs in his line, reaffirming the fact that the transplant really is William's best chance now. I haven't seen the girls in all of the last 16 days and miss them terribly. As I looked forward to the games coming to London I found myself thinking of how things could be for us. Without the chance of transplant, it is unlikely William would fit into our plans for the Olympics. Now, we can look forward to the possibility that our eight year old son will be able to enjoy going to see some of the action, free of his TPN lines and able to stay out for a long day without having to rush back for TPN. He may even be inspired to join in himself in the annual transplant games where teams from transplant hospital compete against each other. There is so much to look forward to. I couldn't think about all of that without thinking about the other family who will be involved in William's transplant.

Having snapped out of the emotional and reflective mood I decided that, as we are in London, we should stop watching TV and get out and join in so we put his IV fluid through his pump (he is not on TPN at the moment because his temperature went up again yesterday and he was pretty poorly so it is IV fluids only with a plan to take his line out on Tuesday and a new one in on Friday) and walked to Hyde Park, though all the crowds along the Harrods stretch. We got to Hyde Park corner in time to see the Red Arrows roar over with all their red, white and blue smoke. William was so excited. Another thing to add to our list of things to when we are off TPN - a day at an airshow. That would be a good place to have a picnic!