Current score:

Mom to Olivia: 1

Director of ICU: 0

Olivia is staying in the PICU this evening. Apparently when Maribel came in this morning there was a “tx” next to Olivia’s name indicating she would be transferred upstairs today Then after rounds … it wasn’t there anymore. Maribel wanted to know if I had gone in and messed with their board LOL.

Olivia is having a great day She’s won Maribel’s heart “she looks and acts like an angel” (wub). Megan from Child Life came and painted with Olivia so she loved that. And she took a very long nap this morning but was interrupted by Dr. Mello who removed her pacer wires Woohoo. One less thing to worry about! He was so sweet and apologized to her about waking her up from her nap.

She’s not too interested in eating today … I’m trying ever trick in the book to get her to eat. She drank almost a container of chocolate milk for lunch but otherwise I could only get a bite of string cheese and two spoons of corn into her.

She was cute when I was trying to get her to decide what she wanted to eat for breakfast – she said “this is like a hotel”.

So we’re hanging in there and we’re hoping to have a great afternoon / evening to just round out a perfect day.

Well, it looks like we’re most likely moving up to the floor! I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Dr. Zucker (Director of ICU) and I butted heads slightly

over this. I feel she needs to stay in ICU one more day but he says I don’t have a say in it. I agreed as long as they move her to the 8th floor which is the “clean” floor (cancer unit). I will go kicking and screaming if they move us to 7 where it’s loud and busy and it’s the general population of sick kids. My “no spleen, cardiac” kid doesn’t need to go to a general floor. They agreed with me and asked if I wanted a job .

Her chest xray looks good and she’s sounding better on the left side. She’s on “blow by” O2 (no more in the nose stuff) and holding at 95% oxygen.

Her INR was 1.2 which is great (this is the amount of blood clotting stuff she has in her – they want it to be 1.8 – 2.5 but they were very pleased with the 1.2).

The plan otherwise:

* ICU told us Dr. Mello would be pulling two chest tubes. Dr. Mello says he’s not pulling any of them just yet. He will pull her pacing wires before we go to the floor though.

* They’re going to switch her to oral lasix as she’s peeing / outputting more than she’s taking in.

* They are going to remove the zantac since she’s eating now.

Speaking of eating, she ate a bit of eggs and bacon this morning before taking a nap. She’s still napping comfortably which is good. She’s peeing well and using the bedpan. Dr. Berning (cardiology) says they can probably get her a bedside commode for when we go to the floor which will make her more comfy I’m sure.

More information later as we know it.

Good morning.

We had a FABULOUS night until the fire alarm went off at 5:15AM. I woke up to noise and flashing lights. I couldn’t even focus and grabbed my purse, my shoes and what I thought was my sweatshirt.Turns out it was my winter coat …

No one had told us what to do so we did what any good parent would do … we went to our kids. The nurses weren’t sure if it was a drill but the fire dept was here and so I’m sure I’ll hear more later.

Olivia had a FABULOUS night! Tom said she was a DOLL. She had some OJ and an orange Popsicle. She wanted to watch Dora and we didn’t have any in our “bag of tricks” so Tom found some that they keep on the floor.

The most beautiful thing is that she’s holding her own at 98% oxygen … little stinker took off her O2 and tucked it under her chin. She’s only on 1/2 liter so I’m pretty sure that the oxygen is going bye bye this morning. She looks so pink and was resting comfortably when I went in to see her.

We had a visitor last night – Mike, Aaron’s dad, came up to see us. My longtime readers will remember that Aaron received a new heart last summer up in Boston. Aaron is doing fantastic and Mike was thrilled to see how with great Olivia was doing. Mike was shocked to know that we ICU parents have actual sleep rooms with showers here at CCMC. We’re in a separate little wing off the ICU with four bedrooms (very tiny with a chair, tv, tiny closet and a daybed that has a trundle under it). We share two bathrooms that have showers in them and a small kitchen with fridge, microwave and a small table with a couple of chairs. It’s very peaceful here and we appreciate having a quiet place to rest at night. I know our friends up to Children’s Hospital of Boston don’t have a separate sleep area so I am very appreciative of this.

Now I’m going to jump in the shower and get ready for the day. Tom said he hopes we’ll still be in the PICU tonight (as in we might go up to the floor! EEK). Tom is working so maybe I’ll push to keep her here one more night before they send us upstairs. Also, Tom was going to make sure we had Maribel today who was our nurse yesterday. Consistency is the key to it all imo.

Have a wonderful day and I’m sure I’ll update later when we have some news on the “plan” for today.