Dane Goes Home!!

                             Nurse Deb taking Daner's needle out- a quick pinch and then aaaaahhhh!

                                    Mikayla and Dane grabbing another load of Daner's things

          Four wagon loads and some prescriptions from the pharmacy and we were out of there!

Monday, June 27 Dane's dad texted me that Dane's number was a 426, the day before he was a 10, and to get the containers because he was sure Dane was coming home today!  I grabbed my big helper, Mikayla, and we got the hospital as fast as we could.  The Dr came in and told Dane he could go home while we were driving over so Mikayla and I brought up all the containers and got to work.  His Dr's and nurses kept telling us we needed a moving truck and that it would take all day to pack, but we got busy and had it all packed and loaded in about an hour!  The day he goes home always counts as day one so we didn't want to waste any of his home time hanging out at the hospital!  The nurses said they would miss his cheery room and his sweet countenance, but I reminded them we would see them next week.  It was around 2:30 pm when we started driving home and between low blood sugar and hungry tummies we drove straight to Panda Express at Dane's request and grabbed some lunch.  It didn't take us to long to get home and Dane was thrilled to be at his house once again.  He thought the house smelled different than he remembered.    Our friends Kristi and Zach brought Daner some delicious welcome home cookies and we kept Zach and went out to celebrate with pizza and Cars 2.  Dane's cousins, Aunt Mandi and Uncle Tom and Nana met us at the movies.  We had only 2 other people there with us (amazing) and after Lysol wiping and spraying we were set!  Dane needless to say was ecstatic to be home!

Making cranes

Dane with the girls

Coach Jason and Whit come to visit Dane

On Sunday, June 26th, Dane had some fun visitors.  Stephanie and her friend came to say hello and then Nana came with Halee and Mikayla.  Stephanie taught everyone how to make the paper cranes and everyone surrounded Daner and made cranes together.  They left and then Dane's football coach, Jason Hoover came with his son Whit and they talked about their cancers together and compared their chemo meds and talked about feeling sick.  Dane's coach found out he had cancer the same week as Daner found out and they should both finish their treatments about the same time!  We hope for a speedy recovery for Coach and that it will never come back!!  After coach left, Dane's dad and brother and sister Talia came and we ate a yummy dinner together.  The kids were wild and we were wondering what in the world we were thinking, but after months of forever changing schedules what should we expect?  Although it was crazy, it was nice to be together.  We all hung out with Dane in his room after until we were worried the nurses were going to call the cops on us and I darted out with Dane's siblings.  Dane and Dad got to have a nice evening together and enjoy the peace and quiet!

Little Big Town Performs for Dane!

Duke came over for a sleep over

They boys had a lot of fun together.  Dane's cousin Duke is moving in a few days and wanted to come have a sleepover with Daner.  They played xbox, ate treats, played UNO outside and the loser had to run circles around the hospital grounds, scared me half to death a few times, and watched a movie.  We had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed the change of pace!

Little Big Town autographing Daner's back

 The guys getting to know Dane

 Talia checking out the pretty curls

Autographing pictures for each of the kids.

 The family with the band

 Singing Boondocks for us--IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!

 He could belt it out!!

 The kids were so pumped after hearing them perform!

 Daner said after they left, "I couldn't stop smiling!"

So proud of their pictures

Each one signed Dane's shirt!

Dane was asked the day before Little Big Town came if he would like a private "concert" with the band.  They had time to visit only 3 kids in the hospital for 15 minutes each and they wanted to know if he would enjoy that.  They had come to Denver to be the main attraction for the Children's Hospital big charity gala.  He paused and thought, he tends to get embarrassed with any attention and was worried this might bring to much attention to himself, but I quickly answered for him and said he would love it!!  Their only request was that Dane and the family be country music fans, well of course that wasn't a problem!  We were really excited and I played a bunch of their music for Dane and his siblings before they came and they recognized many of the songs.  The band had that southern sweetness and each member was so very kind!  They oohed and aahed over each of the kids and kept telling us that we had a beautiful family.  They told us about their little ones and I told them if they could do 1 they could do 5!   I know they thought I was crazy but I just had to throw that out there.  We ran downstairs after they were done so Dane could give them his wrist band the supports his cause.  He gave one to each of the band members and they thanked him over and over in their sweet southern drawls!  They told him they would wear it at their concert that night.  We were appreciative of the kindness they showed our little boy and family! 



Doing sand art and playing Wii with Mikayla



Taking a walk to get some lunch

Visiting with Uncle Kip, Aunt Kari and Brie

Hanging with the girls- Talia and Lizzy

Nana visits and brings Dane's cousins

Silly picture

Fobert cousins come to visit

Having fun with Dane

Ty lost his tooth with some encouragement from Dane

Time to change needles

Sneaking out.....



Daner with a friend





Sneaking out



This was so funny!  Dane and I thought we would sneak out of the hospital and go get something to eat (besides hospital food!)  He dressed all "normal" and even put on his hat so he wouldn't look obvious, we even took off his arm band- we figured they could give him a new one, and off we went....until we ran into our good friend Jenna, who is here at Children's this week for a procedure she had done on her leg.  We told her we were going for a "stroll" and she was not going to be left behind.  She, however, did have her arm band and her IV POLE!!!  It was so noisy going over ever bump and not to mention all the ridiculous looks we got from passerbys, mostly hospital employees.  It really was quite hilarious!  By the time we got there and ordered our food, Jenna was really nervous and needing to get back for her line changes, so we sat and enjoyed the great outdoors for a total of 5 minutes and then treked back.  We have laughed and laughed about it....even felt a little uneasy about it worried we could get in trouble with insurance, but several days later Dane's doctor told Dane's dad that we could go anywhere on campus including Anthony's Pizza, Subway, or Jimmy John's!

Visits with pretty girls

Jenna was excited to check out some fun Xbox games for she and Dane to play.  They had a lot of fun together.


Playing UNO outside on a beautiful night

 This was so theraputic for Dane to be outside on a warm summer night playing games with Jenna, Jenna's friend, Whitney and mom. Fun fun night!

Dane with Halee and Jenna

Gelato party

Aunt Kari has brought a fun energy to the hospital for Daner!  She has come up with some fun games to play in Dane's room, ordered fun food to eat, painted his windows, watched movies, and been a ball of laughs!