Cell Counts and Riddles

On Mondays and Wednesdays I don't have school until 1:30, so today I spent my morning at the hospital. Our goal for Matthew is to keep him up and moving so fluid will stay out of his lungs and for his body to heal faster, so last night I made a scavenger hunt to get him walking with a purpose. My clues were spread out around the whole seventh floor, and they were spread out far from one another so he would have to walk more. He had 11 clues to find, and those came with a piece of a puzzle. Here are my clues (if you've been to the hospital frequently and are confident with the layout, see if you can solve the riddles. I'll put the answers at the bottom of this post. Just keep in mind I typed these up in like 30 minutes last night, so they're not incredible.):

1. I blow out the bad and keep in the good,

But hopefully I will not be your prolonged “hood”

2. We take from the healthy to give to the sick,

And even though we mean well, we give you too many pricks.

3. Mother is crafty, Mother is kind,

Mother made these with others in mind.

4. We shouldn’t drink this because the prophet says no,

But I make it anyways for others who don’t know.

5. I will make your hospital nights a prettier stay,

But they forgot to give me batteries to light up the milky way.

6. Although you have one in your room,

I service staff that have bladders full like balloons.

7. Without these women you will be

Like Aladdin without “open sesame.”

8. Although I cannot move but two directions,

Willy Wonka might excuse my imperfections.

9. Bambi and Tom (not Jerry) sitting in a tree,

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

10. Yours is black, Sakeri’s is too,

But to the color white, the hospital stays true.

(This one is kind of far fetched)

11. Families come and families go,

But I stay here to keep their food cold as snow.

When he found all of the riddles and collected all of his puzzle pieces, we went back to his room so he could put it together. The completed puzzle was a picture of a key on one side, and another riddle on the other. The riddle goes:

You think you’re clever because you can find
A key with riddles that came from my mind.
But just you wait my friend and see
Just how tricky I can be.
Yes, the hunt is over now, you’re almost absolved.
But there is one more riddle to be solved.
Like a key this riddle unlocks
The game we’ll play next that will blow off your socks.
Your mom and I will surely beat you,
But don’t get discouraged or else we’ll eat you.
This game is white and square like teeth,
With numbers rotting them underneath.
You need thirty points to first go down,
And then with sets and runs you may go to town.
Yes you probably know the game to find,
So good luck, lets play and see who’s the winning kind.

The answer to this riddle is Rummikub, and when he figured that out he got the game and a pack of Reeses and the three of us played. Mom won, in case you're wondering. It turned out to be a really fun activity though and made two hours fly by.

Clues are green, puzzle is orange.

As you can see though, Matthew is feeling great and is moving a lot. He is fever-free and his counts are high, but we just found out today that he does need to have that procedure that will move his port line away from his heart. I don't think it's problematic, they just want it to be where it's supposed to be. If everything goes well tomorrow he may be able to come home after the surgery because it is an out patient surgery, but we'll see. I like to think positively that he will be able to come after the procedure, but they just keep finding reasons to keep him. So hopefully he'll be home tomorrow, but if not I'm thinking he will be definitely on Tuesday.

Answers to my "riddles"
1. Farthest wing of the seventh floor
2. Nurses station
3. Table where the beanies are kept
4. Coffee maker
5. The nurses gave him a plush turtle whose shell projects stars on the ceiling when you turn him on
6. Staff restroom
7. The front desk where the women who buzz you in to the halls of the seventh floor sit
8. Elevator
9. Sculpture of a deer kissing a cat as you get off of the elevators
10. 7th floor xbox
11. Freezer in the family room