Into the Woods...
Posted Sep 9, 2010 8:55pm
What a day - certainly the slowest moving critical day - but a day, nonetheless! I have already discovered some tricks to making a stay in the hospital easier, and getting up at 4, taking a shower and having coffee is a great way to make sure you meet the Drs. for rounds. Then you might as well take your nap, because I am knowing the reality that sleep is measured in 10 to 20 minute increments, and hope that they add up in your favor at the end of the day! Unless you work here tho, this is really the land in which time becomes pretty irrelevant.
Anyway, everyone was pleased with the progress Phil has made - even impressed at some things. It was decided that he could move from the ICU as soon as a bed became available, which of course was right about the time I fell into a decent sleep. But while waiting we watched the phenomenon of the Disappearing Machines - where one by one pumps were shut down, lines taken out, wires disconnected, and tubes rolled up and tossed. How, I want to know, are there still so many???
We were whisked up to room 1008 where I had to de-stick Philip. This could not be described as fun for either of us, but he did feel better when untangled from the medical spaghetti. We are weaning off the morphine and switching over to an oral narcotic, and it's rather scary experimenting with pain meds. You hate to see him in any pain at all, but you have to balance everything out. Next step is to get some grub into him, and he says he is hungry, but the whole transferring process pooped him out and he's sleeping now. We're going to treat him to a couple cans of Ensure via his g-tube while he sleeps, but I told him to dream about what food he wanted when he woke up!
Tomorrow we will have the Big Reveal...we take off the bandages. Not a red letter day on my calendar, and Mark already knows he will be the one to change the bandages first. For all my lack of squeamishness in the face of human gore, for some reason I have had a hard time integrating gross surgical procedures and my son into the same picture, and it causes a very strange reaction at the core of my being, which makes a chair and glass of water good things to have on standby. Wouldn't THAT be an interesting update: View From the Floor...
So during our walk about the campus while Philip slept, I realized that we are not out of the woods. No...we are merely now acclimating TO the woods we are in. Getting in was dark and scary...unfamiliar and frightening to the core. But here we are...we are in. Our eyes are adjusting to the darkness, our skin to the coolness of the temperature, and our noses to the new smells. So! This is the woods, eh? It's now time to set up camp, build a fire, and learn how things are done here in The Woods. It's all different. And it's a semi-permanent home for now. It's now a learning process that will teach us daily how to make everything work. It's still The WOODS, tho...things can creep up on you, and there are even scarier things..."Infections and fevers and pain, oh my!" But this is where we train for life in The Woods, and learn how to avoid the pitfalls and proactively protect our little buddy Phil.
He's waking up now...here's hopin' he'll eat, sit up and cough again tonight! For now, we'll keep on exploring The Woods we are in...especially since it comes complete with it's own Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger action figures :-)
Anyway, everyone was pleased with the progress Phil has made - even impressed at some things. It was decided that he could move from the ICU as soon as a bed became available, which of course was right about the time I fell into a decent sleep. But while waiting we watched the phenomenon of the Disappearing Machines - where one by one pumps were shut down, lines taken out, wires disconnected, and tubes rolled up and tossed. How, I want to know, are there still so many???
We were whisked up to room 1008 where I had to de-stick Philip. This could not be described as fun for either of us, but he did feel better when untangled from the medical spaghetti. We are weaning off the morphine and switching over to an oral narcotic, and it's rather scary experimenting with pain meds. You hate to see him in any pain at all, but you have to balance everything out. Next step is to get some grub into him, and he says he is hungry, but the whole transferring process pooped him out and he's sleeping now. We're going to treat him to a couple cans of Ensure via his g-tube while he sleeps, but I told him to dream about what food he wanted when he woke up!
Tomorrow we will have the Big Reveal...we take off the bandages. Not a red letter day on my calendar, and Mark already knows he will be the one to change the bandages first. For all my lack of squeamishness in the face of human gore, for some reason I have had a hard time integrating gross surgical procedures and my son into the same picture, and it causes a very strange reaction at the core of my being, which makes a chair and glass of water good things to have on standby. Wouldn't THAT be an interesting update: View From the Floor...
So during our walk about the campus while Philip slept, I realized that we are not out of the woods. No...we are merely now acclimating TO the woods we are in. Getting in was dark and scary...unfamiliar and frightening to the core. But here we are...we are in. Our eyes are adjusting to the darkness, our skin to the coolness of the temperature, and our noses to the new smells. So! This is the woods, eh? It's now time to set up camp, build a fire, and learn how things are done here in The Woods. It's all different. And it's a semi-permanent home for now. It's now a learning process that will teach us daily how to make everything work. It's still The WOODS, tho...things can creep up on you, and there are even scarier things..."Infections and fevers and pain, oh my!" But this is where we train for life in The Woods, and learn how to avoid the pitfalls and proactively protect our little buddy Phil.
He's waking up now...here's hopin' he'll eat, sit up and cough again tonight! For now, we'll keep on exploring The Woods we are in...especially since it comes complete with it's own Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger action figures :-)
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