We got to see most of Ryan's old nurses and all of Ryan's old Dr's. It's amazing how fast you forget names after 8 years.
We were grateful to see all the Dr's, however there was one doctor in particular, that we really wanted to see - Dr Weinberg. Dr Weinberg has since moved on from CHLA to become the Director of the BMT unit at Stanford, but we are extremely grateful that he made the five and a half hour drive down for the reunion. He's a great Doctor and are extremely grateful for his expertise.
They had 750 people RSVP for the reunion but only had 250 show up. Because the planned for 3 times the amount of people, the kids won bags and bags of toys. (mostly dollar store type toys, but the kids were so excited.) We told them they had one enough, but they had so much left over, the nurses were begging the kids to come and win more toys.
Our favorite gift was a "build a bear" type teddy bear that we got from Max of a Million Dreams Foundation for Cancer Research. The founders of this foundation, are some dear friends that were in the hospital with their daughter at the same time we were in the hospital with Ryan, 8 years ago. They started this foundation after having 2 children with cancer and unfortunately losing a son to cancer.
It was great to see our main nurse, Donna too.
We were able to talk to a few parents of kids that are still looking for the light at the end of the tunnel after their childs transplant. Although, Ryan's recovery isn't quite like most, it was nice to share our story and give some hope.
