Hospital Hell

Have you ever tried to keep a one year old contained within a 3 foot diameter? Let me tell you, it is no easy task.

Sunday morning when I woke Gracie up she was so lethargic and couldn't breath. It was so scary! I gave her a breathing treatment, it didn't really help. Aaron was at meetings, so I told all the kids to get ready for church and I was out of there. When I got to the Hospital they didn't even have me sit down, they called a nurse to come out and get us. They took me right back to a bed in the pediatric ER. They were so so so good. After chest x-rays, blood work, RSV tests, and a lot of poking and listening, they came to the conclusion it was PNEUMONIA!! The RSV test was Negative. I thought for sure that is what it was. It was about this time last year when she got it. At this point I thought, "Fantastic, give her some antibiotics and some more breathing treatments, and I can be home to fix my family dinner". Not so. She was a little dehydrated, and her acid levels (?) were high and her heart rate was really high, so they decided that she needed to spend the night and go home in the morning. Now I thought, "OK it would be easier to have some help with breathing treatments all night, and she can get IV antibiotics, this is OK". They moved us to the Peds floor.

Then the best part of the whole experience happened. My crazy Dr came in to see her. Now if you don't know about my crazy Dr see here and Here and there are many more. He came in the room with his own mask in a baggie, and a pile of wipes. Then he started cleaning with the wipes. He wiped down every cord, the crib, the cot, the bathroom, the nightstand, the eating tray, the TV, both chairs, the inside and outside of the closet, the window seal, and the garbage cans. I think our room was sterile. It was so funny. The nurses told me that those wipes are so strong that you are supposed to use gloves with them. He uses them to wash his hands! All the Doctors and Nurses know how crazy he is, but they all think like me, It is easy to put up with the crazy because he is "the best" Doctor. Plus I think they are all afraid of him so they were really good to us.

Gracie was hooked up to an IV and then they had a thing on her big toe to measure the oxygen in her blood and her heart rate. This meant she was on a leash. She just wanted to leave. She kept pointing at the door. I finally talked the nurses into unplugging the toe thing so we could walk with the IV pole. She loved it. We walked for 2 hours. She was so tired because every time she would fall asleep someone would come in and wake her up. When it was time for bed, the nurses and the respiratory therapist promised me that they would be super quiet in the night and wouldn't wake her up. She started in her crib, but every time she would move she would pinch a line and the alarms would sound and wake her up. So I put her in bed with me. The night visitors kept their promise. She didn't even stir when they came in. I on the other hand woke up every time they came in. It was a long night. I was so glad to see morning. They all started coming in at 7:00am. I was actually glad for this because I just knew Crazy Dr would be in any second and say go home. Well, not quite. He came right in, but she was still breathing really fast. He said hang around today, and I will be back at lunch. I thought, "I can stand it for a couple more hours, and I can be home before the kids get home". Lunch came and went. The nurse said he called and he would be in after office hours. I thought, "OK this is Ok I will be home just a little later than I thought". Gracie was going crazy. She was tired of being there. We unhooked her from IV and the toe thing and walked, and walked, and walked. I saw patients that made me very grateful for pneumonia. We were in the PICU, so there were a lot of patients that I think had been there for a long time. It was sad. The nurses all knew Gracie by name because she would walk by and wave to them. We scored 4 stuffed animals from all the different nurses. Dr crazy finally came at 5:30. He looked at her and said she was doing better so he would call in later and if she was still doing good we could go home. WHAT?! I thought, "You are freakin crazy! Just let me go home before I lose my mind!!". The nurses came in and said we would be out of there by 8:00pm. They were going to get the paper work done so when he called we could just go. By 7:30 we were on our way home!!! I have never been so happy to be home in my life. I think Gracie was too. She went to bed and slept the whole night.

I wish I could thank all those awesome nurses and respiratory people at Summerlin. They all changed shifts before I could tell them all thanks. They were all so good. I loved that they made fun of Dr Nishihara too. Thanks everyone who helped my family, and just called or texted to see how we were, it made me feel a lot better!!