Hospital Life & 3 Weeks Down

Time is going by and my spirits are much better than earlier this week.  Today marks 3 weeks here.  That's a good chunk of life spent in the hospital!  It is definitely blurring all together and I often forget what day it is. This is a typical day for me and Lily. . .

7am- get woken up by the Urology team.  They all come in dressed in nice suits and doctor coats and then there's me in pjs, no bra, and morning breath.  I've gotten to be friends with all the residents now, they are cool dudes.  They love Lily and always give her a high five.  We go over the plan for the day and any concerns. Which lately there have been no concerns, they are really pleased with how things are going.  

8am- our nurse for the day comes in to do her Vitals.  Blood pressure, temp, oxygen, check her urine output, etc.  Usually at this time I run downstairs to the food court to get some breakfast.  We often order breakfast, but I'm getting sick of the hospital tray choices.  Btw, I LOVE all our nurses.  We've been here long enough that we get the same ones often, so they have gotten to know Lily really well.  

Mid-morning we usually get different visitors, it depends which day of the week it is.  Sometimes she needs a dressing change or the wound care ladies will come see how things are healing.  

11am- The amazing Child life Specialist Peyton comes to play with Lily so I can go back to the Children's House and shower and grab some fresh clothes.  I am in desperate need of doing a load of laundry, so I need to get that done today.  Peyton has been so great in making crafts with Lily, playing music, or just talking.  

The rest of the day goes kinda slow.  Sometimes Lily takes a nap, but she watches a lot of TV so it's pretty boring.  We try to break up the TV time with coloring or doing a little school work.  But it's hard to do some of that when she's laying in a bed.  I try take a nap when she does, otherwise I'm on my laptop watching Netflix or Hulu or browsing the internet.  I'll go for a walk when she's sleeping too, just to get out, grab a snack and people watch.  This hospital is sooo diverse, lots of culture and types of people.  I've kinda noticed there are 4 main types.  First- The fancy doctors and residents in white coats.  Always with a cup of coffee and looking like they have somewhere important to be.  They are usually very put together and professional.  Second- The nurses. They are usually in groups grabbing lunch or coffee.  They always have a smile on their face, and I like them cause they are very down to earth and fun.  Third- Parents or family of patients (including me).  They are usually walking the halls looking frazzled, tired, and in casual clothes or sweats.  It's definitely no fashion show.  You often see parents pushing their child around in a wheelchair or sitting by a window enjoying the view.  Parents tend to be kinda quiet and somber, not much to smile and laugh about. Fourth- The staff (customer service, food service, cleaning and janitorial) There's a ton of employees here that make this hospital run.  It's a well oiled machine. We have the same cleaning lady (Roxanne) come in our room everyday to wipe down and mop.  They are all great people and hard workers.  

Evening tends to come early, dark at 5:30.  That's when we see someone from Urology again to check in one more time before they leave for the day.  Dr Gearhart doesn't come everyday, but when we see him he always livens up the room.  He's such a character and all the nurses call him the Cowboy. He tends to come in with a loud voice and laugh, and does things his own way.  He will sometimes make weird requests and the nurses have to figure out what he means.  Some love him and some don't like him that much.  I obviously love him, for many reasons, but I get why the nurses can have a hard time with him. 

7pm- Shift change and we get our nurse for the evening.  More vitals and checking urine.  By this time we've eaten some sort of dinner, and starting to get a little tired.  There's a movie channel at the hospital so sometimes we watch a movie together and I'll pop some popcorn.  There's a little family kitchen on our floor that we can use for cooking food.  Then we both tend to go to bed around 9ish.

The days are so slow, but they are somehow going by.  We are on a waiting game at the moment.  Friday Lily will have one more procedure to fix up her belly button. But until then, we don't have much to do.  We are starting to walk a little each day, and hoping to make it out to the hall today.  I'm really hoping that after Friday things will go faster and we can most likely leave the hospital by next week.  Fingers crossed!