Hannah's Test Site

The big highlight of the weekend was our trip to the North Pole. Anyone who lives in the area may have seen the story on Channel 7 news last night about the "fantasy flight." This is something Schneider Children's Hospital does each year for their oncology/hemotology patients.

We arrived at LaGuardia airport at 10am. The flight was to take off at 11am, and arrive shortly after at the North Pole. The NYPD band was playing, the area was decorated and busy with Santa's elves, Rudolph, Shrek (what's Christmas without Shrek?), and tons of reporters and camera crews. We saw several kids we knew from clinic, and some of the staff with their kids also, which was nice. The pilot-Captain Carl, was mingling about and stopped to talk with us for quite a while. He explained to Hannah that he had surgery, showing her the scar on his head too. At one point, he came back to ask Hannah to dance on the congo line with him and to my great surprise, she did! Here they are dancing away!

Then the time came to head to the gate and board the plane. We had to do the normal security check, shoes off and everything. It was very official and the anticipation began to build. We headed over to the gate and boarded the plane. After everyone was on, we were instructed to put down the shades on the windows, after all it was a secret flight to the North Pole. The pilot started the plane, we backed away and "took off". The plane taxied over to the North Pole, probably about 15 minutes total while we all sung Christmas carols together. We sat next to another little girl and her family, turns out she had medulloblastoma too. She had a stem cell transplant in July, since her cancer also extended to her back. She was still wearing a mask, since she was still at risk for germs.

We all got off the plane in the North Pole and were greeted by Santa and Mrs. Claus. The area was sectioned off for us, and decorated with tons of balloons. There were carnival games, face painting (where Hannah tried to talk the lady into a full head painting), an area to talk to Santa, a large food buffet, a jumpy blow up, and Hannah's favorite-cotton candy. Here is a picture of Hannah and I with Santa. Everyone was just so caring and giving and supportive for all the children. It was really amazing, and much more than we had expected.

I just checked Newsday's website, and they have a video taken during the party. Our friends Debbie and Jake are on there, as well as so many others we know, and Hannah and I too! Check it out HERE. After the Newsday site comes up, look for the video section down a bit on the left hand side. The video is entitled Kids Fly to North Pole. For now, it's the first video listed. It gives you a good feel for what it was like, exciting and fun!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the day. Tomorrow is another chemo day, one more closer to the end.




xoxo Kim