Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

On Friday night after work, I went to the hospital to ‘relieve’ Jennifer so that she could spend the evening at home with Logan (her son), and Paul (her husband) as well as sleep at home in her own bed! Jennifer had been staying at the hospital overnight, every night all week. She DEFINITELY needed a break.

Just before we were getting ready to leave for the hospital, Jenn called to say that they were moving Saige from her private room (with a full sized parents bed) to a ward room...

Mark drove me to the hospital, as there was no sense in leaving a car there overnight, and we found Saige in her new room. We got the ‘pass off’ from Jenn and Paul and they went home for their family evening/night.

There were two other children in the room. A girl about 8 years and a little boy about 18 months. The little boy was quite ill – looked like Saige did when they brought her in – he had just arrived.

Of course Saige was feeling better by this time. They had taken her off the oxygen in the afternoon. If she stayed off it for 24 hours (especially through the night) then they would talk about sending her home.

They left the oxygen tubing in her nose and taped to her face just in case they had to hook it up in a hurry.

There was suddenly so much to look at and see!! She was mesmerized by everything. She also wanted out of her crib and to walk around – about as far as her IV would go! She was so taken with the little boy in the next crib. She just wanted to stare at him. By this time Tracey (my sister) had arrived for a little visit.

Saige is such a TROOPER!! They needed to change the board on her IV on her arm. She was so good. She was staring intently at the nurse and her arm while all the old stuff came off and the new one went on. No tears, no squirming and no fussing. She even helped by passing the tape to the nurse and she even put one piece on by herself!

Anyway...the nurse said that if we wanted to take Saige for a bit of a walk that would be good. She had to keep a mask on her face and they wanted her to walk and breathe heavy to help clear out her lungs. We got the mask on her and the IV pole and ventured out into the hospital. Well I think it was too much stimulation for her all at once. She (who had been wanting to run around her room all night) wouldn’t let go of me and didn’t want ANYTHING to do with walking. We went to Tim Horton’s in the hospital and got her a timbit – I don’t think I have ever seen her eat one quite so quick!! Then we went to a VERY quiet area of the hospital and it was just us and I put her down and she just kept walking and walking and didn’t want to stop. It was GREAT to see!!

Then it was back to the room to get ready for bed. She finally settled down in her crib and I opened the chair that was in the room that opened out flat to sleep on. The boy in the crib was taken out to another room so it was just Saige and I and the girl in the other bed with her grandmother staying overnight with her.

WELL...The little girl needed to rock herself to sleep – which is fine – however, I am pretty sure that she had the SQUEEKIEST bed EVER. She kinda fell asleep in a weird position and her grandmother tried to move her and she started SCREAMING – DON’T TOUCH ME – DON’T TOUCH ME!!! WOW! It was odd..then she had to start again by rocking herself (in the squeaky bed) back to sleep. She woke up quite a few times during the night...

The grandmother, unfortunately, was a bit hard of hearing. Both kids has and IV in. The IV is regulated by a computer ‘thing’. It is set for a time and when the time is up (usually 2 hours) the buzzer starts going off. So then you call the nurse or get the nurse to reset it.

Well the grandmother, who was hard of hearing, couldn’t hear the buzzing of her granddaughter IV alarm. I however, am NOT hard of hearing. Both kids were on a different rotation of alarms. So about every hour, I had to get up and get a nurse to turn off the buzzing of the IV alarms.

Saige didn’t hear a thing – thank goodness – and she slept soundly through the night (expect briefly when she got twisted in her cords) until 8:30 the next morning!! I don’t know how Jenn was still functioning when she went through this for 4 nights in a row!!

Saige made it through the night and didn’t require any oxygen. When the doctor made the rounds in the morning, she said that if Saige didn’t need any oxygen through the day (which she thought was likely), she could go home after dinner. How exciting.

I was SO pleased to be able to tell Jenn that when she came back in the morning. I don’t think I have seen Jenn happier!!

So yes, Saige is home from the hospital as of Saturday evening and she is doing great!!