(01/02/2013, Wednesday) Today was a long wait & see day -- as I'd alluded to earlier,
we'd hoped to move out of Pediatric ICU on Tuesday, but they didn't
quite get to the point of feeling comfortable about that, so we stayed.
By Wednesday morning the concerns that had been voiced regarding Evie moving to the regular floor had been resolved.
I spent my morning, making sure she'd be moved up to the floor prior to
1500 as the playroom is open from 1400-1600. Once that was guaranteed,
I went about establishing a contingency plan -- soliciting and
acquiring all special permissions necessary to be allowed in the
playroom while still a resident of PICU -- to include having her nurse
accompany her to the playroom as required by policy. This was important
for a couple reasons. First and foremost, Evie needed something good
and fun to happen as the journey has been rough on her. Second, if executed
properly, this would finally provide her the opportunity to see her
sisters in a very long time.
Meanwhile in a distant, though not wholly separate land, I had asked
Heather to alter the rest of the family's schedule such that they'd be
able to depart early enough such that they would arrive here in Chapel
Hill by 1500. (Roughly a 1.5 hour drive.)
You're all likely aware of my affinity for the concept of JIT
(Just-in-time) -- which is typically viewed as a smart thing in sensible
areas of
business and
computer science. If I may say so, my groundbreaking
homage to it throughout my stint in academia while studying both was visionary.
(Please
note: Those in the know called this
"Just-in-time-homework-manufacturing" or "Dynamic-code-creation";
however, it is possible you may have heard non-believers callously refer
to this concept as procrastination.).
In any case, since I'd realized later in the afternoon on Tuesday that
we weren't moving that day, I stopped stressing over trying to get
packed up and organized, so I left a horrific mess--thus creating the
opportunity for JIT packing Wednesday morning. So I busied myself with
getting us packed while Evie enjoyed an echocardiogram, and more
Disney channel. She was still restricted to 2-3 sips of liquid per
hour, so I interleaved that into the JIT packing process. By the
afternoon, I was done and her body was hungry for a nap. So we slept.
By 1445, we'd become bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed. I was not shocked to
discover that the transfer orders (moving us from PICU to the regular
floor) had not yet been completed. As a good Boy Scout, I'd prepared for
this very circumstance, thus the contingency plan. I got a status
update from Heather--they would be arriving by 1515, so I had a half
hour to locate our nurse to reconfirm plan B. It took me about 10
minutes to find her (she'd been at lunch) and I reminded her that I
would need 3 sibling passes for the playroom, and we'd be ready for her
to take us up there in about 15 minutes. The response back wasn't
encouraging ("Okay, I better make sure I can go up there with you.")
The family arrived around the same time as I was told that the nurse
would not be able to accompany us upstairs to the playroom. The olive
branch that was extended was that our new room was "nearly ready" and
once it was, we'd be allowed to have visitors. That didn't bode well
with me as I'd experienced the "nearly ready" room phenomena 4 times
already during this hospital stay, and I didn't think having Heather and
the kids wait for hours was a good plan.
It was particularly vexing, given the amount of planning and preparation
that had occurred. If she was checking out of PICU, and wasn't on the
regular floor yet simply because the room wasn't clean yet, what was so
wrong with her waiting out the hours it would take them to clean it by
being in the playroom? A kid on the regular floor doesn't require a
nurse to be with them. Could we not convert her status to "regular
floor kid" and just let her go? The answer of course was no -- common
sense and logic isn't always applied in a place of such learned men.
Luckily, one of the recreational therapists (unaware of the drama, or
the fact that we were moving that day) came down to see Evie and
invested herself in trying to resolve, or at least improve the
situation. In the end, I was allowed to take Evie to a waiting room
(while the recreational therapist accompanied us) where she got to spend
time playing Connect Four and Star Wars Operation with her sisters,
while watching her brother and his associated chaos.
Three hours later, the room was ready and I began transferring Evie's
belongings to the new room. One of the nurses asked if I needed her to
call a moving company. (As aforementioned, the hospital Santa provided
crazy amounts of stuff.) The irony is not lost on me that Wednesday
night happened to be the night that a few guys from church came to
visit me--arriving within a minute or two after the nurse joking around
about movers. So my friends assisted me in moving everything upstairs so
that I wouldn't have to take numerous trips. I spent the next hour or
so talking with them (while they all took turns wrangling Evie's little brother) while
Heather and the girls hung out in the room.
One thing I learned via the conversation (as well as an email I received
earlier) is that our entire congregation had knelt in prayer on Sunday
on Evie's behalf just prior to her procedure. (I don't believe they
knew at the time that a procedure had been scheduled.) Things went so
well. Thank you ward family.
All our visitor's had left by 2000 or so. Unfortunately, Evie vomited
a bit, shortly after their departure--nothing much just random stomach
contents. We got to bed around 2230.
DISCLAIMER: Posts
Labeled "One Year Ago Today" are a record of what transpired when Evie
first became ill. The slightly edited text comes from emails which we
sent to family to let them know what was happening, and to keep them
updated. These posts are usually long, but if you want to truly
understand what life was like for us, and what led to this point, it
makes for great "light" reading.
