Okay, no rock concerts for Kiera.

So we took a chance and took Kiera to a McCain/Palin Victory Rally at the convention center. This is the first time she's been in this big of a crowd. We've never even been to the mall or a full church with her. She did great in the hour and a half with just the crowds and music. The big thing that was hard for her was the unison applause and cheering. She cries sometimes at home just when I laugh at the TV loudly or suddenly.When actor, Robert Duvall, came in and everyone cheered, she cried. (I don't think it was a critique of the movie "The Prophet.") Then when speeches and cheering started I had to hold her in the Hip Hammock (Thank God and my friend Angelina for the Hip Hammock!) and hold her to my chest with my hand over her ear. It was a very interesting outing. We ended up standing next to 2 nurses, which was comforting, and a man whose daughter was trached at 3 months and on a ventilator 17 years ago. He was so cute, asking about the new styled travel ventilator that they didn't have then and mentioning that the suction cathetar hasn't changed. God does watch over, doesn't He?

We suctioned her twice while there, fed her which resulted in her G-tube pulling out so we had to reinsert it while bumping O2 because of a simultaneous desat, and changed a diaper on a chair (the only normal task to most, but at this point not much different than the previous 2 for us). We also had to be creative about access out of and into the parking garage whose one working elevator was hard to find going in so we carried her stroller down some stairs and wandered through the empty Galleria, passing an out of service elevator and an out of service escalator, till we found a different elevator. Then upon leaving, we found the garage elevator and wished we hadn't since it smelled like urine. Oh, and I almost forgot, we gave her a nebulizer using the bagging tank in the car, while driving and pre-ordering pizza on the phone. Then we went to dinner as a family at Dions, and everything timed out perfectly. We packed a little extra in the way of O2 and battery power since we didn't know what to expect, but overall, it went incredibly well. I even had some granola bars for my boys and water bottles. We Rocked this thing!

Feeling Good.
Therese