Abby's Miracle: Wish Trip Day 2- Magic Kingdom and Epcot

We were up early and ready to go! Our plan today- Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, hopped on the monorail, and next thing we knew we were walking into the Magic Kingdom. We had decided to get Abby a wheelchair, just in case, and because we knew how much walking around we were going to be doing during the week, we wanted to preserve her energy! It turned out to be a good idea because after just a few hours at the park, her feet, ankles, and legs were swollen huge again. I haven't gotten this pulmonary hypertension figured out yet. First, they get swollen when we go up in the mountains to a higher elevation, then they get swollen when we're at sea level in Florida?? What the?? That just doesn't make sense to me! It was 90 degrees with 80% humidity, maybe that has something to do with it, I don't know. Anyway, when we left the park for a quick break, I called the transplant team and we decided to double her PH medication for the week. When her feet get so swollen like that, it makes it painful for her to walk, which stinks when you're in Disney World! The medication change helped and the rest of the week was a little better.

     One of the greatest things about our trip was the "guest assistance pass" we were given. It allowed us to take the fast track lane on every ride in Disney World. I think the longest line we stood in was for the Haunted Mansion, and that was probably only for about 15 minutes. We could pretty much just walk right onto every ride. As soon as the ride attendants would see our pass, they would do everything they could to get us to the front of the line, it was awesome!! We rode Space Mountain and Splash Mountain multiple times, they were our favorites. We also spent time on thunder mountain and trying to beat each other on the Buzz Lightyear ride- of course I got a broken one so I didn't win :) We spent the majority of the day there, then went back to the hotel for a little rest, then jumped back on the monorail and headed to the Epcot Center.
     Our first ride there was a big mistake, we had even been warned and we did it anyway! It was called Mission: Space. There's a less-intense ride and more-intense ride. We did the easy one, and of course thought we were ready for the "more-intense" ride!! I should've known to get out of there when I saw the barf bags next to the seats! In this ride you experience forces up to 2.4 G. Let me tell you, it felt like my chest was being smashed into the seat. When I thought of Abby next to me, who had a heart transplant only one year ago, I freaked out a little bit! I love rides, but this was horrible!! I got off and looked at the kids, Britt and Abby agreed with me, that it was a little much, but Brock on the other hand only said, "Wow, that was awesome, can we go again??" Nope, we didn't go again!
     We continued on around the Epcot and decided we were hungry, we ate dinner in Italy, and it was delicious! After dinner, we realized it was 8:45 and we had been told that the park closed at 9:00. We really wanted to ride Soaring, one of my favorite California Adventure rides, but it was on the other side of the park. We decided to start running to try to make it. It was great.....Brock was trucking with Abby in the wheelchair, Britt and I were running in our sandals, every 5 minutes we would get a warning over the loud speakers because they were announcing when the the laser light show was starting, and we were dripping with sweat because it was so dang hot. We got to the ride, ran up to the attendant, looked at the clock and it said it was 9:03, and panting and out of breath I said, "Did we make it in time??" She just looked at me funny and said, "ummm....we don't close until 10:00 tonight!" We all just burst out laughing, she probably thought we were freaks! The ride was awesome, in fact, since we had so much time, we did it twice!
     We did another ride, then walked out to get on the monorail, but it had closed 10 minutes earlier, so we went to wait for the bus. 2 great things happened at this point in our day. The first was that we were passing out Pay it Forward for Abby cards and bracelets while we were waiting in line, and we met a family from Boston that was so excited to hear Abby's story. They loved it, in fact, they asked if they could have extra bracelets to pass out because they were going home the next day and they wanted to spread the word there too! It was fun to see their excitement and hear them talk about how the things they were going to do. The second thing was that as soon as we got on the bus, the driver turned the radio on, and the song that was playing was Queen's "We are the Champions!" How fitting is that?