Week 27 in Photos

Despite being in Children's Hospital all week with Alex, I managed to get a photo a day except for one.  We are still here ... day 11, I believe ... and are looking at possibly going home on Friday.  I haven't had much time to blog the rest of our great hospital adventure story, but I hope to soon.  In the meantime, these are the photos I captured last week ...

{Saturday, June 30}

I was short one last week since this photo was on my phone and I couldn't get to it - no cord and unable to connect to my email here at the hospital.  Alex and I both got to share this first ... riding in an ambulance.  Not that it was a bad experience but once was enough for me.

{Sunday}

I'm totally cheating on this one.  This was Alex's surgery day.  And the last thing I wanted to do was take pictures even though Doug brought my camera down to the hospital.  This photo was originally taken for Sunday's Scavenger Hunt prompt "mosaic", but I ended up using something else.  This is part of a pillar in the play room down the hall from where we've been camped out.

{Monday}

We got to watch the sun setting from our window.

{Tuesday}

Monday we had a visit from a Child Life specialist who offered to sign us up for a dog visitation program they do here.  This was one of the dogs that visited us this day.  Her name is Crackers.  She, like our dog Honey, likes to sprawl out on the floor and make herself comfortable.

{Wednesday}

We had a great view of Pittsburgh's fireworks display from our hospital room window.  I layered a few photos together to get this grand finale type photo.

{Thursday}

This is Ike.  He's the ugliest dog I have ever seen ... a hairless Chinese Crested.  He was a sweetie though.

{Friday}

Today was a rough day.  Alex had a tube inserted in his nose to drain the yucky stuff from his stomach.  (He'd been vomiting for the past few days).  Since he didn't feel like going anywhere, we stayed in the room and played games, watched movies, and read books.  He kicked my but at Candy Land, but I got him back with Connect Four.  :)

{Saturday}

Doug and the kids came down for a visit today.  The kids got bored in the room so I took them down to the play area.  They had fun trying out the Xbox Kinect.  I'm sure they'll be begging us to buy them one now.  :)

     


Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a great week!

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Deja vu all over again, part 2

Our great hospital adventure continues ...

To read part 1, go here.

The ambulance ride was pretty uneventful.  Jon, one of the ambulance guys (sorry, I don't know their titles), allowed me to ride in the back with Alex instead of making me ride up front.  Alex was pretty shy since he didn't feel well, which is why.  It wasn't the most comfortable ride but it went pretty quickly.  They wheeled Alex into the ER at Children's, we got taken to a room, and the ambulance guys wished us luck and left.

cell phone photo - a ride in an ambulance - a first for both of us

I wasn't expecting to be in the ER as long as we were, but we ended up hanging out there for about 4 hours.  Good thing Doug grabbed me some dinner before we left the other hospital.  We went over the story again ... and again ... and again ... with each different doctor or nurse that came in.  They looked at the films from the CT scan he had and agreed that he had appendicitis.  They weren't positive about whether his appendix was perforated or not, but surgery was scheduled for Sunday.

Many times during our time in Children's ER, Alex asked me to take him to the restroom. I had to carry him like a baby each time since it was so painful for him to walk.  Thankfully the restroom was right next door to the room we were in.  One particular time, I sat him down on the potty and he vomited all over the floor.  I opened the door and asked the staff who were right there to please help.  I had nothing for him to throw up in.  One of the nurses brought in a bedpan since that was all she could find.  But by the time she brought it in, he was all done.

I had to chuckle at the one doctor.  He told me not to worry about cleaning it up while he threw some towels down on the floor.  I had no intentions of cleaning it up and was very thankful to the housekeeping gentleman who was waiting outside the door to clean up our mess.  He didn't look too happy even though I thanked him.

Finally, sometime after 11 p.m. we got moved up to a room.  As we got off the elevator and headed toward Ward 6B, it really felt like deja vu.  This is the same area that Keira stayed in two years ago.  Not the same room though.  We were on the other end of the ward.  I remember photographing the sun rise one morning while Keira was here.  In Alex's room we can watch the sun set.

Anyway, after all the late night visits from various doctors and nurses needing information we were finally able to settle in.  Sometime after midnight.  They never let you sleep in a hospital.  There always seems to be someone coming in to check vitals or administer medication.  Or the IV machine is beeping for one reason or another.

Alex slept pretty well, probably due to the morphine they gave him.  Early Sunday morning the docs made their rounds and we were told that surgery would be around noon.  So we waited.  And prayed.

Another already long post and my brain is mush from lack of sleep, so as much as I hate to do this to you, I'm going to continue later.  :)  Thanks for sticking with me.

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