Football and Ninja Turtles

I've been spending a lot of time in hospitals lately. First my husband had a kidney removed (everything went great and he's doing better than had been anticipated), now my 7-yr. old son is in the hospital with a slight case of pneumonia, caused by a cold and his cystic fibrosis. He, too, is doing very well. Maybe TOO well...

Jeph was pretty apprehensive on his first day in the hospital. He had previously only visited the place. Now he had to have "procedures" done, and the worst thing was getting the IV and being connected to a machine at all times. To help with the adjustment process, I stayed with him the first night, and figured I'd probably have to be with him every night, or find someone else to stay.

On day two, the tide turned. Some players from the Minnesota Vikings came up to his floor for a visit. They were presenting a check from Fed Ex (sorry Bryan) on behalf of Daunte Culpepper who had been selected as "player of the week" and was given $5000 to donate to the charity of his choice. A hospital staff person from the Child/Family Life services came to Jeph's room and asked if he wanted to be in a picture with some of the Vikings. Jeph said sure, so we unplugged his IV pump and rolled it out to the hall where the event was taking place. However, not unexpectedly, Jeph had a defective IV pump which couldn't run off the battery power, so almost immediately upon reaching our destination, it started to beep at 2 second intervals. Talk about drawing attention. Everyone notices this pathetic little boy with the IV, and the noisy machine. But of course they don't want to exclude the poor sick kid from the picture, so they tolerate the noise, take a few shots, and we go back to his room.

We're settling in to play a little chutes and ladders, talking about how cool it was that he got to be in this picture, when someone pops their head in to ask if it's okay if the players stop by Jeph's room for a visit. Sure, why not?

Soon, five immense young men are crowding around his bed. Of course, they recall that he's the kid "who made our picture-taking so exciting" with the beeping IV. They had him a t-shirt, a Vikings pennant (autographed), and a football, which they also autograph in his room. Very cool.

But here's where it gets a bit surreal. Understand that I am NOT a football fan to any degree. Probably the word that I most use in connection with football is "disdain." So, I'm thrilled these guys are doing their little charity thing at the hospital, but I have no idea what I can say to them.

All of a sudden, one of the players notices Jeph's plush Ninja Turtle toy (courtesey of Kendrick). "Is that Michelangelo?" he asks, in absolute delight, a smile spreading over his face as he picks it up and adjust the mask over its eyes.

Jeph says, "Yeah." and another player says, "Isn't he the one with numchucks?" and Jephy says "Yeah." and another player chimes in with "He was always my favorite." and soon we're all talking about the various turtles and their exploits, and passing around the Michelangelo toy.
And I realize, these guys are like my two older sons. Probably close to their ages too. And I related to them in a whole different way. Suddenly, they weren't celebrity athletes doing a good deed. They were cool young men visiting my son in the hospital. And they were real and genuine and they cared about stuff too.

As for Jeph and his hospital experience... At the end of the day, just as I was planning to leave and feeling a bit guilty about it, he says to me, "Mom, this was the most fun day of my life."

No one has spent a night at the hospital with him since.