The Lima Bean Diaries: November 2007 Archives

November 21, 2007

The longest week of my life

Well, I figured since I've been home for a week and haven't posted any new pictures I was being a bit selfish. We came home last Wednesday morning when Ms. Lilliana was discharged from the hospital after receiving IV antibiotics for a blood infection. The week was very long. Just when I thought switching rooms was bad only because it seemed as though we were sleeping in a coat closet, the staff moved us again to another level where all the sick kids were. A very sad floor in the hospital but on top of that they put us in a room with two other mothers and their babies. That wouldn't have been so bad and I could have sucked up sleeping on the vinyl pull out chair but I was sharing a room with a baby on medication for withdrawal from her mom's heroin addiction. If that wasn't enough to put me over the edge I don't know what would've. When I walked out of the room sobbing like my goldfish died the nurse stopped me and whispered "Would switching rooms help at all?" I told her whatever she could do would be greatly appreciated. Then I sent Mike to retrieve my things for a brief trip to the homestead for some sanity he also spoke to the very wonderful nurse and had us moved. When I came back from my sanity trip the baby was already moved and all my things were neatly placed in a new room with only one other baby and parents who were hardly there. It was far better! The vinyl chair was still very hard to sleep on but I was just happy to have a place to sleep so I could be there with Lilly. She was so good for all her medicine, vitals every 2 hours and IV flushes every 3 hours. The doctor said that the only side effects are the possibility of hearing loss but they tested her before we left and she passed on both sides. The possibility of her losing her hearing was far better than the possibility of us losing her which was another option. I was told if she was't treated the infection could lead to meningitis and possibly death. So suddenly a deaf child seemed like nothing at all. It's amazing how fast everything can change. I was planning on having a baby and coming home two days later but clearly that wasn't the case. Thank God we're all doing well now. I have a spare 27 seconds so I thought I'd share some pictures. She's 15 days old today, actually almost to the minute and she is adjusting to the chaos quite nicely.