The Day We All Sweated...

Today was Ryans sweat test. Here's the long story of the day!

Getting There
We had planned to take the train and my mom graciously offered to drive us there. Well on the way there we found out that the bridge over the brandywine on the route we normally take is closed for construction as of this morning! So that along with the fact that Ryan puked on the way made us miss the train. So mom drove us back to our house and we jumped in the car, i sat in the back to help ryan with his puking. We also called the pedi and chop to make sure we should still go, they said this wouldn't affect the test and we might as well just do it since we're on our way. Well about the time ryan stopped puking riding in the back caught up with me and we had to pull over so i could toss my cookies. It was a long drive!!

CHOP
Once we got there we met up with my sister Katie who works in that same building. Praise God for her support, direction and explanations!!! We would have been so lost and anxious without her! We love you katie thank you so much! To do the test they put two electrodes on ryans arm and sent a current through his arm for 5 minutes to stimulate sweat. Repeat other arm. Ryan was VERY not pleased as you can see in the pics. After the stimulation they wrapped special paper on his arms to collect the sweat. He didn't like this so much either since he couldn't move his arms but dealt with it ok since we could leave that room and read books! Finally they take the test strips off and send them to the lab.

AfterMath
Katie took us down to a book drive they were having in the lower level and ryan got to pick out several books, to help make this trip a little less stressful! He promptly fell asleep once we got in the car. No more puking the rest of the day btw. Katie, Tim and I went and got food at boston market and katie very very nicely let us stay at her apt and crash until we felt good enough to make the drive home! Thank you katie again!! So now we wait, impatiently, to find out what God has for us. We will post as soon as we know.

A Note
You couldn't help but see and meet lots of other kids in the hospital (top childrens hospital - it was a great place!). I know that many of them are there for tests like ryan and others are there for surgery and even others have terminal illnesses. We only had a taste of what those families go through every day. Please pray for ALL the families at CHOP!