Yay the Floor! eh...

Written 1-27-12

It was pretty exciting getting moved to the floor since it was the last step before getting discharged. There were some nice things about it, and also some not so nice things.

When we first got settled of course I needed to pump again. So I went to the desk and asked where I needed to go. At first I got a little frustrated because they didn't seem to know where to tell me to go or anything. But then they next thing I knew they brought me my own pump right to our room! I was finally able to pump whenever I needed to without having to wait for anyone else. The only problem is we shared a room with another patient and his mom, so I had to figure a way to point myself into a corner and position the curtain just right. Also, the sink in the room to be able to wash my pump stuff was on the side where they were. So sometimes I felt like I was intruding, but other than that? Great!

Speaking of that other patient, he was a very cute little Hispanic boy. Probably 3 or 4. I overheard that all of his internal organs were flipped. So what should have been on the left was on the right and visa versa. So I didn't blame him one bit for constantly whining. But the fact that he was also constantly coughing? Kinda freaked me out and made me wonder why they would have put a baby fresh out of heart surgery in a room with a sick kid.

I asked the nurses about his coughing, if he was sick and if we should be moved to another room. They said they would go check on that. .........??? When they finally came back (a couple hours later) they said he was not contagious and not to worry. Thanks for leaving me high and dry and worrying for the last couple hours though ladies!

After we were on the floor I never left the hospital. The only times I would go back to the Ronald McDonald house to shower and change was if Kathy was with Tanner. I loved being able to stay with him overnight and care for him more. But it also made me very cautious of the staff.

The first night we were there, I heard a baby crying one room away from us for over an hour before anyone went in to check on her. Was she hungry? Was she in pain? Was she just lonely? NO IDEA! After that I was all that much more determined to always have either myself or Kathy with Tanner while we were there.

One kind of fun thing was that Tanner needed an x-ray while we were on the floor. I was expecting that we would be rolled off somewhere to have this done. Nope! Next thing I knew, the x-ray guy was knocking on the door and dragged his huge machine into our room. Awesome! Tanner was able to be x-rayed right in his own room in his own bed. It was so nice.