Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Heart Transplant Presentation

I was recently reminded that I have not shared photos of Eden giving her Heart Transplant Presentation, for "News Day" (kinda like "show-and-tell" for us 80's kids) at her preschool. How could I have missed one of my most proud parent moments?

Of course... she was amazing. I can imagine this being the first of many similar type events in her life. I can only hope that she continues to share the story with as much innocence, pride and resolve as she did here.

So this is how it went:

First, you can't give a heart transplant presentation without looking like a doctor. So she wore her trusty scrubs that actually say "Doctor in Training" on the back.

Next, she brought out her build-a-bear, Champ. Most of the kids could relate to putting a heart in their build-a-bears. Champ even has a heart shaped, stitched, "scar". Here she is showing him around the circle...




Then, she passed around a photo of herself in the hospital just after surgery and lifted her shirt to show everyone where her new heart was placed.




And last, it was time for questions. She did great with the easy ones, like, "did it hurt?"... "nope", she said. But when Greta rose her hand with the dreaded question "where did the heart come from?", Eden looked at me like she'd never thought about that, "where did it come from, Mommy?" "It was a gift from a little boy we didn't even know. Isn't that amazing?", I said. "Yep" she answered with a smile.

As you can imagine, we heard all kinds of stories from the kids... when they've been to the hospital and where they have scars, but the best was when I asked if they knew what their hearts sound like. Sure, they said... "lub-dub, lub-dub". "Well, before Eden's transplant", I explained, "her heart sounded like a washing machine - "swish-swash, swish-swash". A split second later, bright-eyed Ryder is raising his hand to say, "my heart sounds like a car wash!"

Oh... to be 3 or 4 again... cute, curious and innocent.

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