Friday, November 22, 2013

St. Louis Friday

Surgery started at 9 am. We got to the hospital at 5:45. It feels like
1 pm already. Loooong day ahead of us.

Sophie hasn't eaten since Wednesday night. She was ok yesterday until
the late afternoon when her energy crashed and the dressing on the
picc line started itching and burning (sensitive skin--prob just
adhesive irritating it, wasn't blistering or anything). I gave her
Benadryl and Tylenol, she slept a few hours, woke up for a couple
hours and watched tv, then went back to sleep around 9. She slept all
night till 5 am. We kept her well hydrated yesterday. So it went
pretty well, considering.

The place we're staying is called Haven House. I think it's an old
nursing home that's been converted to a hotel-like place for families
of hospital patients. The rooms are huge with private baths. They
serve breakfast and dinner, there are several family rooms with couch
and a tv, a gymnasium. Each wing has its own washer/dryer, full
kitchen, and family room. It's clean and homey.

Our pastor drove over this morning. He left at 3 am and was here to
see Sophie at 6:30 am. Totally unexpected and a huge blessing to us
all.

We have a private waiting room on the surgery floor. The hospital
really does a great job taking care of families and siblings. My mom
and I took Luke to the play room on the lower level. We could even
leave him here, like a day care, if we needed to. He's paying the Wii
right now.

There's a Ronald McDonald family room at the hospital where you can
shower, wash clothes, has snacks and drinks for no charge. Each
patient floor has all that too, but this is smaller and a little
nicer. The lady there said their showers have hotter water than the
hospital's showers. :)

Sophie will be in surgery until 2 or 3 pm. Then the ICU all night,
then moved to the floor on Saturday. She'll have drains in her back
and a bladder catheter until Monday. The surgeon's nurse said she'll
probably go home Tuesday.

So that's everything so far. I'll post more when I can. Thank you for
all the prayers.

10 comments:

Jill A said...

Thanks for the update!! It sounds like you have a nice facility to take care of you all. That's a blessing in itself!
Still praying for you all.
xoxo

Vickie said...

Hospitals have come such a long way in working with the families. Sounds like everything is just as you need it to be. What a long day for you. Nap when you can.

Laura N said...

They are closing her up now.

Laura N said...

Unknown is me (Laura). Google ID didn't have my info for some reason.

Vickie said...

The unknown thru me for a minute with that message.

did they keep you posted through all the stages?

by now she might be out of recovery.

I assume St Louis is on central time?

Laura N said...

They called our waiting room every hour or so to update us. She was moved to ICU around 2:30. I think. Time has kind of lost all meaning today. It's 5pm, feels like 8. Yes, central time.

Laura N said...

And she's doin as well as can be expected. The next two days will be painful and difficult. It will be hard after that too but they said the next two are really rough.

Vickie said...

Do they let one of you in with her all the time? Or just for short visits? I have a true idea of what you are going thru because one of the girls from ME came for major back surgery that also involved pelvis. We were at hospital right after surgery for hours. And then were up to the hospital nearly every day. Pain was pretty terrible.

Unknown said...

Thinking of you, Laura. Hope you are getting some rest.

katie said...


"All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.."

Julian of Norwich

Everything is going to be alright...things have a way of working out...it's just a matter of time. ( my mantra)

Waiting is hard but you are your daughter's rock and you will sail through it both.