Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

I had a pretty good night last night and my day nurse, Lisa, told my parents and Papa so when they got here in the morning to visit me. In fact, in the time it took my parents to have breakfast and get to the hospital this morning a lot had happened. (You'll have to ask my Mommy about accidentally playing footsie with Papa at breakfast, oops!) You can see in the pictures above that they had removed my bandages and turned my screws for the first time. Lisa assured Mommy that they gave me a dose of morphine before they did it and an extra dose afterwards to make sure it didn't hurt too much. My family could tell immeadiately that I was going to be a different girl today. My eyes were opened and as soon as I saw my parents I started crying and trying to reach for them so they could pick me up. Unfortunately, with all of the tubes they can't do that right now so they tried to calm me down instead by rubbing my head and talking to me. I had been able to keep my lovie with me and I started rubbing it against my face and bringing the tags to my mouth. I also tried to chew on the rubber string from the trach mist mask just like I do at home. I was "playing" just a little with my familiar objects which was a good sign. I would spend time sleeping while my family was hanging out around my bed.

Mid-morning, Papa and my parents went to get some coffee from the cafeteria and then headed up to the roof of the hospital. You have to get a special code to get to the roof and it is only open during daylight hours. My family wasn't able to go up last night because they had already closed it for the day. Although the day started out overcast, when they made it up to the roof it was a beautiful sunny morning. They had a great view of the area around the hospital and there was a nice breeze blowing. The roof area has been planted with lots of flowers and trees so it is a nice, quiet place to relax and get away from the hospital atmosphere. The hospital is designed like a circle with a courtyard in the middle and you can see a view from the roof of the courtyard down below. After a little walk it was time to come visit me again.

I slept alot during my family's second visit. My parents were happy to see that I seemed a lot more comfortable then I did last night, they upped my dose of morphine to make sure I wasn't in as much pain. You can see the screws from my distractors in the picture above. I know they look kind of scary but they aren't too bad. In fact, I was sleeping most of the morning against one of the screws and it didn't bother me too much. The hospital chaplin, Scotty, came by to say hello to my family and check if they needed anything. They have a prayer request book in the chapel that Mommy will try to add something to later for me and for my Aunt Kristin as she isn't feeling so hot. She is going to go back to the hospital tonight so both she and I will be hospitalized at the same time : (

My parents and my Papa left me sleeping and headed back to the hotel for some downtime of their own. When they came back to see me a few hours later I had been a busy girl. My nurse, Lisa, gave me a bath, put me in a nightgown and put my hair up in a ponytail. I was completely alert watching the TV above my head - and ignoring my parents and Papa. After a few hours I got kind of fussy, though, and had a few incidents of spitting up. After that, my night nurse gave me some pain meds. At 7 pm my parents and Papa had to leave for 1/2 hour because of the shift change. They decided to grab some dinner. My nurse told them that when they got back I would be able to move up to the 3rd floor to the step down unit. They were very excited. When they came back about an hour later and reported to the 3rd floor, I wasn't there yet. So they headed back down to the PICU. It took another hour before the 3rd floor was ready for me. Then, two nurses pushed my crib down the hall and into the elevator with my parents and Papa following. They took me into room 25 on the 3rd floor. What a difference. I'm such a big girl that now I have a room all to myself. There is a bathroom with a shower for my parents and a sleeping area for one of my parents to stay with me. My room has a nice big window and lots of storage space for my things. Although my parents were very happy that I could stay in the big girl room, it also means that there is only 1 nurse to every 4 patients. In the PICU it was 1 to every 2 patients. Also, the privacy of my own room is nice but it also means no one is really watching me very much. Mommy decided she would stay with me tonight so that she wouldn't spend all night worrying about me.

Once we got all set up in the room, it was play time. I was feeling so good that I wanted to play with Papa trying to get his nose and pulling his hair. Before long, it was getting late and I was getting sleepy so Papa and Daddy kissed me goodnight and then it was just me and Mommy. She turned on "Cars" for me to watch from my crib and it was off to sleep (at least for me)!

Peyton Nicole Smith