Because We Love Her

Saturday, December 26, 2009

December 26th, 2009 Posted in Daily News Post

Our Christmas present from the hospital is a huge room. Since Chloe will be going to rehab on Monday we have been moved into the rehab room side of the ward. It’s like a triple room with only one bed. So that makes it easy to get to either side of the bed to help her and it gives us lots of room for sleeping during the night. We also aren’t cramped for our necessities that are mixed among the machines Chloe needs. The only down side is that it’s more noisy and colder. We’ll deal with that.

Sleeping is still a challenge but it’s getting better. When I got here today everyone was resting so I sat and fiddled with some computer work. About 10 am Dr. Cockrell showed up and took a listen to Chloe. She sounds pretty good but they scheduled a chest x-ray to see how the fluid and infection is going. Results later.

Dr. Norwood was next to show up, bearing gifts as promised. Actually it was just one gift, the picture of his puppy for Chloe to put on her wall. These two interacting is fun to watch. They tend to cheer each other up immediately.

Third up was Katy, the rehab PT. She worked very well with Chloe, getting to sit, hold her head by herself and getting her feet on the ground, even though she didn’t have a lot of weight on them. Before the heavy-duty stuff she did all her exercises.

The timeline is a bit mixed up today but it seems about 1 pm we started moving to our new room. That took a bit of doing since we were just three doors down so we didn’t use a wagon and we had all sorts of posters to re-hang.

About that same time James and Daniel showed up with a gift for Chloe and the rest of us, her Peace Sun Design on tee shirts and a special sweatshirt for her alone. They are very nicely done. The guys were a good relief for Dana especially as James has been a special friend forever.

About 4 pm someone from OT showed up. This was the big mistake of the day. The PT people did such a great job getting Chloe up and everything. The OT girl didn’t have anything go right from start to finish. Chloe even blacked out after getting her in a seated position. We did a second try after we got her stabilized but it didn’t go much better. I think, from now on, if they aren’t a regular on the team I’ll be asking a lot of questions and will probably request a nurse be present. I wasn’t impressed with this procedure. I hate learning at Chloe’s expense.

Then during the move, while trying to get all the machines hooked up and lines repositioned, etc, I got a phone call on my cell phone. I took it out of my pocket and flung it onto the windowsill bed. I was still a bit fried by the OT episode. When I checked the message I found out one of my twin grandsons broke his femur sledding today. Like I really needed any more stress. With four kids under 5 years old, and a brand new bullmastiff puppy in the house, my oldest daughter is in a constant battle of medical mayhem.

Maybe someone can help me understand something I heard recently. Long distance Reiki and Energy Work can interfere with sleep if done after 7 pm. I don’t know a lot about these forms of healing work but I do know there is a lot of belief in their power. However, if Chloe is getting help after 7 pm this might explain the restlessness during the night if what I heard is correct.

It’s 6:30 pm and Chloe will be coming off the vent for four hours. Then she’ll be on it overnight. She is exhausted but doesn’t know how to catch some sleep. Not sure what to do about that other than to keep quiet and see if she can be lulled to sleep by her music.

There have been some very heartfelt food donations showing up at the hospital. There’s no way to express the amount of gratitude we have for you generous people. There are many of you involved so please accept our blanket thanks. If I tried to thank you all individually but I know I’d miss someone.

So Dana and I are going to get settled in now. I’m still not sure of the schedule but I’m very concerned about the lack of sleep everyone is getting. We need to figure out how to have everyone come when they want to come and still have quiet so sleep can be completed as much as possible. If we are all walking zombies then Chloe isn’t going to get the care she needs and things like the OT episode will have more chance to happen again.

Be safe and well,
Ron

  1. 21 Responses to “Saturday, December 26, 2009”

  2. By dana watts on Dec 27, 2009

    Again the day was captured well by someone I deem necessary and qualified on the Team Chloe. I appreciate “tougher than I” people to be a liason with a child whose voice is temporarily silenced.

    I’m sending Love to Kelly whose child broke a bone today sledding. My goodness, talk about pilings on for you K. I do know how amazingly FAST bones heal in children…if only we can slow them down long enough to convince them!

    Here’s hoping, my Batman you will take tomorrow off so you can plan your new business as FPU instructor with your big January courses.

    A special thank you to Superman and Daniel for their love and patience today as they witnessed the Occup. therapy and me losing it by yelling nearly top of my lungs, HELP IN HERE!!!!! 7 nurses came RUNNING. Yes, it was an ugly lesson at Chloes expense. We have a new plan in place to anyone whose FACE/NAME we dont recognize…be prepared for an interview!!!

    Chloe is enjoying being read to(Daddy does this…they are into 2nd book of Twilight series now…New Moon) and tonight I read some christmas stories from home to her…she asks for more. Theres some things we need never grow out of.

    The mother lion

  3. By Rev. Barbara on Dec 27, 2009

    Remember I am always up to read to the wee one! Love you guys and continuing to pray. I will send out an email making sure people are doing healing work on Chloe before 7pm so that she can be restful when sleep is needed. Hugs and blessings, Barb

  4. By Supermanj on Dec 27, 2009

    What a powerful day it was to be at the hospital and see the happenings first hand.

    Immediately both Daniel and I cued into the huge smile on Chloe’s face–What a winning attitude she has, through signing to spelling things out she gets her message across. If any of you have had any doubts about a full recovery, let me tell you now Chloe CAN and Will achieve it. Don’t get me wrong, it will be alot of hard work, but I do believe she has the will and attitude to do that work to its fullest.

    For those of you who can’t see how the days go let me try to give you a short glimpse. In the short time we were there the machines went off a number of times with a high pitched screech, Chloe’s reaction is priceless to this–first a roll of the eyes and then she tries to look back to see what it is saying. It requires Ron, Dana or Sandy to take a look also, and often brings the nurse in. Shortly after arriving they came to take an x-ray and we were ushered out of the room. During the visit Chloe’s Blood Pressure and vitals were checked twice. The OT came in, and Chloe’s reaction to being sat up gave us all a fright. Prior to our visit the PT had been in. The move to the new room had began before our arriving and took the rest of the time we were there. I am sure I am leaving out a great deal of activity that that occured during the day, We left as soon as Chloe had been moved, so Chloe, Dana and Ron could settle in.

    The new room is a blessing, with a huge window that Chloe can see from her bed, and Room for the rest of the Team to move.

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.