Monday, May 20 2013

Erin was discharged from the ICU yesterday.  All around, it was an interesting day.

Sheila arrived early, at around 7 am.  Personally, I would have tried to sleep in, but she is far tougher than I.  We had a fun morning, right up until they showed up to take blood.  Erin's line had failed the day before, necessitating taking blood from a new stick each time.  At this point, as one can imagine, Erin was hyper-sensitive to doctors, nurses, and especially needles and pain.  She managed to get through it with me holding her arm in a vise grip, feeling like a total jerk. 

The fun continued when, after debating between throwing her portable monitor through the window because we couldn't turn off it's incessant alarm, or hitting the call nurse button, I chose the call nurse button.  One would think that "Staff Assist" would be that button.  Wrong.  Within 15 seconds of hitting the button, our room was filled with at least 9 doctors and nurses, all out of breath after an all-out sprint to get to our room.  Apparently "Nurse Assist" means someone has coded, and it is all hands on deck.  Great, I have the least sick child on the floor and here I am pulling this stunt.  Everyone was very good natured about it, and managed to find a way to tease me about it.  I was mortified.  Luckily I am intimately familiar with the feeling of having totally screwed up. 

After the labs and x-ray, John Costello who runs the cardiac ICU came in to discuss options with us.  He told us that our option was to take a chance and leave, knowing the Erin could possibly relapse, or stay for another day.  His point of view was that Erin was in little danger of relapsing, but he wanted us to know that it was a slight possibility.  We were pretty quick to decide, and after two hour of waiting to go and finishing details, we were able to leave.  We went right to the Disney Store, located conveniently a block from the hospital.  Erin picked out some well deserved treats, and we had lunch afterwards sitting outside on a gorgeous Chicago day. 

Erin displayed no effects of her hospitalization whatsoever.  She was energetic, playful, and totally engaged all day long.  She claims that her incision does not hurt at all.  She even had me take her to the park late Sunday afternoon to swing in the swings, and play on the tire swing.  She has learned to swing all by herself this year at school, and is quite proud of her accomplishment.  We had a well deserved trip to Dairy Queen afterwards.

It is absolutely amazing to watch this not yet 5 year old child undergo open heart surgery, and a subsequent follow-up hospitalization with very little complaint, and a complete continuous zest for life.  She refuses to complain, and acts like nothing has happened.  The only sign we have of the ordeal she has undergone is that she is tired when she goes to bed.  Erin is the toughest individual that I know.