As you may already know, earlier this week Jackson was back in San Francisco for various infusions and doctors meetings.  During the infusions, he had a lot of the same nurses he has had since June of last year.  They know Jack well.  They know how he fights.  And they rarely get to see his beautiful smile.  

Of course, in order to give Jackson the infusions, the nurses first had to start an IV line.  Getting an IV line into such a little arm with such little veins is no easy task—especially when the little arms and veins don’t want the needle going in!  Jack has had some pretty bad experiences in the past and normally he would have to be physically restrained so that the nurses could try to get the IV in.

But not this week.  This week Jackson had his game face on.  He sat on his mom’s lap while dad held a DVD player playing a “Tigger” movie.  The nurse first started out with an attempt on his arm.  She stuck the needle in and he grimaced, but he didn’t cry, and he didn’t yank his arm away.  He just kept watching Tigger as best he could while she wiggled it around for a while and ultimately determined she just didn’t get the vein.  She then pulled the needle out and tried another location near the top of his wrist/hand.  Normally, at this point, it would be “game over,” and Jack would be fighting like crazy.  Again, the needle went in and the big man again merely grimaced a bit and managed to hold still.  It must have been a really good Tigger episode.

He also played a bit with the nurses and smiled a lot at them (not during the IV part).  He had them all asking, “Who is this kid!!!!”  

We think it is because his energy seems to be returning a bit more.  While he is still napping quite a bit, he’s running and playing like we haven’t seen in a long time when he is awake.  He has also started interacting a bit more with us.  It was a good week.

Here is a picture of Jackson playing at The Family House in San Francisco at night between his treatments.