we're here...

...and now that all of hard stuff is out of the way, we're having a pretty good time.

Alex was not happy about getting up at 5am, but was okay once we got into the car and were on our way. When Ben was woken, he asked if he could just sleep a little longer (wherein I had flash forward to when he's a teenager and I'm trying to get him up for school). After I reminded him that today was the day we were going to the hotel, he was wide awake and bouncing off the walls with excitement.

The ride up was fairly uneventful. Boys did fine, Ben watched a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. They didn't sleep at all, which surprised me. We got checked in right on time, and took Alex on countless rides up and down the hall in a borrowed wagon. Eventually they called him back and tried to put in the IV. They blew three veins and Alex was screaming (turns out our room was sharing a wall with the waiting room and Jeremy heard Alex screaming for the half hour it took to get the IV in). Finally, after blowing the three veins, the dr just gave him a shot in the leg(Ketamine) that pretty much knocked him out. Now WHY couldn't they have done that to begin with?? The dr then got the IV in no problem and he was wheeled away for the MRI.

Jeremy, Ben and I went to the cafeteria and had some yummy comfort food: bacon cheeseburgers and a ton of fries. Then we headed back up to the waiting area to wait. They called us back to sit with him while he woke up. Usually he takes forever to wake, this time it went fairly quickly, however he got sick to his stomach and kept dry heaving. They gave him something for his nausea and we were on our way back to the car with Alex in a wheelchair since he couldn't quite walk straight yet.

All told, we were at the hospital for 5 hours. Ben did a stellar job keeping it together that long. He is the most patient 4 year old I know. He's so good with all this!

Both boys are loving the hotel room. The hotel we're at serves a light dinner (tonight was hot dogs, potato wedges, potato salad, chips, salad) and free beer or wine. Also will be serving a hot breakfast in the morning. All for no extra charge! Dinner was surprisingly good (I wasn't too impressed with the idea of hot dogs, but they were the really big, thick sausage-looking ones) and filling. It's so nice to not have to wonder what to do for dinner. And they let us take a bunch up to our room to eat so we didn't have to worry about the boys destroy the dining area. Oh, and our room...two bedrooms/two bathrooms separated by a living room with full kitchen. Perfect setup for us! We'll definitely be back. (They also go shopping for groceries for you at no extra charge....they just bill the actual grocery amount to your room tab...amazing...makes me wish we were staying longer!)

Well, the boys are done with their baths and it's bedtime. Tomorrow we get the results of all this testing, then it's a long drive home.