Thread: A hospital stay with our daughter

We spent 25 days in hospital with our daughter. My wife had a mattress on the floor on one side of her bed while I slept in a sleeping bag on a sleeping bag on the other side on the floor. Our daughter was on an anti biotic drip every six hours for 17 days. Blood was taken every day. The blood tests were saying our daughter was improving but the physical side of things said otherwise.
She was subjected to a lot of examinations, internally to try to get to the bottom of things. These brought other issues to our attention which we did not know existed. So these factors were pointing to something going on that was hindering a recovery. We think we have a handle on this now.
Our daughter is 29 and has Down Syndrome. The experience was a little over powering for her. I explained that it was necessary to help her get better in order for her to make sense of it and deal with it.
They used to put something called a "cannula" into a vein on her arm to insert the drip. This was very sore for her. She is small and her veins are hard to find. When it was being done she would hug me with her free arm and put her face against me and cry. When it was finished being inserted I would wipe her tears from her face. She would then hug me and the nurse who inserted it. They were usually changed every four days or more often if one leaked.
Getting blood every day was another sore event for her and the same process and tears were gone through. Hugs all around when finished.
Owing to her swollen leg and knee, which she could not bend, my wife used to take her to the toilet. Her period decided to kick around this time just to complicate matters. My wife and I each had our specific jobs with our daughter.
Every so often my wife and I would leg it down to a local shopping centre and buy much needed tee shirts and underwear. My wife could shower in the ward toilet when showering my daughter. In the evenings I used to go down to a quiet corridor to a toilet and wash. I found one where I could put my feet into the sink (one at a time) and get an all over wash using shower gel...without the shower.
Morning time I would go outside for some fresh air, sometomes wet fresh air, but much needed fresh air. If you have ever spent time in a hospital ward you will know what I mean. I would stand at the railings looking at the cars driving by. One day I realised that I was making a note of the different shades of white on different cars going by. I wondered if I was about to follow Alice down a rabbit hole.
One day I noticed a flashing light across the road. This took my mind off the white cars for a while. I crossed the road to see what was going down. It was a red Scania truck with the bonnet open and the engine running. We had a very warm spell of weather about then, hard to believe I know but there you are.
There was a small crane on the back holding up a canopy while the workers put the supports in place. Now this was action with a capital "A". It was good bye Alice and good bye white cars. I sat on a wall thoroughly engrossed. Sadly all too soon the job was finished. The engine on the Scania was turned off, the bonnet was closed and tools packed up and they departed in the Scania. All good things come to an end. Now which rabbit whole did Alice go down.
I was standing at the railings one day when I realised this how captain Ahab must have felt. I was reading Moby Dick. The difference being that Ahab was standing looking for the white whale while I was standing looking at white cars.
One morning a female member of staff went by and as she passed something lingered in the air behind her. It was not diesel, was not petrol so it must be from a bottle I thought. I realised that there was an aroma surrounding me. It was not diesel, it was not petrol and it definately was not from a bottle. I realised I was beginning to smell like Robinson Crusoe. Drastic action was needed. One evening my wife and I drove home, just under an hour, showered, got a supply of clean clothes and headed back to the hospital. We were away for three hours.
After seventeen days some one realised that there should only be one parent in the ward at night with our daughter. I moved out to the car park to sleep in the back of the Puma 110.
The Puma 110 was never designed for sleeping in owing to the mechanism on the floor to lock the middle row of seats in place. No matter which direction you lay it was either between your shoulder and your elbow or your knee and your feet. I had a pretty miserable first night in the Puma in the hospital car park owing to the coming and going during the night. Next day one of the security staff told me to go over to the covid testing centre as it would be quieter.
I found a spot there outside the covid centre by the perimiter fence under some trees. No one bothered me there.
I used to leave the ward about 10pm as it was lights out time. Unfortunately the walk in the fresh air up to the Puma used to waken me up. So between that and the Puma floor it took a while to get to sleep. Dawn comes early this time of year, especially if you have no curtains. En suite facilities were provided by paper cups.
During this time there were multiple tests done on my daughter and we seemed to heading in the right direction, so there was light at the end of the tunnel, getting brighter everyday.
I remember standing out side one day watching the staff coming and going. Some had paper cups with coffee others with a mobile phone in one hand texting away. I remember thinking that one of the great steps in the development of Homo Sapiens was the opposible thumb. Without this people would not be able to hold a disposible coffee cup. This would not effect me as I do not use paper cups (except for ensuite purposes). People would not be able to text without an opposible thumb. This does not effect me either as I do not have a mobile phone. This shows you how close I was to following Alice down that rabbit hole.
On Monday the 30th of June after 25 days we finally got to come home with our daughter. Not 100% yet but much improved. We also have those other newly found issues to get a handle on.
I have not been around for awhile and I might not be back for a while yet.
I am thankful that I did not follow Alice down the rabbit hole but there were times when I came unnervingly close to it.
Lessons learnt? Well new clothes are a lot more comfortable if you remove the price tag

If that mini camera device kept going, you could have checked the plumbing as well!!
The technology is truly amazing.