The trip to our new room was sobering, as we passed by many rooms containing infants and children who were much worse off than our Aidan. But Aidan did think it was rather cool that he got to ride in an elevator while in bed. His new spot was in a large room that had several other young patients who were hooked up to tubes and machines. This definitely gave us some needed perspective.
It took awhile to get him all settled, and to get used to a whole new team of people. And then he lost it when they decided they had to put another IV in his other arm for drawing blood throughout the night. It took many of us to restrain him, but he did get another teddy bear and a cool soccer blanket out of the ordeal. After that, Weston had to head back home. Aidan wanted to watch another movie, and even though it was after 11PM, and even though the movie was Karate Kid, I let him. I probably would've promised the kid the moon at this point, if he'd asked. He was starting to regain some color, and perk up a bit, which was a relief.
About then, we were given the good news that he could eat something if he wanted to, and he did want to. So I was led to a "hospitality" room to pick out a snack. I was told that I just needed to count the grams it contained. I found it interesting though, especially now 2 weeks into this, that when I asked her to clarify grams of what, the nurse had to go back and make a call to find out that it was the carbohydrates we had to count. I had no clue how quickly that would be a huge part of my everyday life.
So I picked out some cereal and milk, and brought back to his bedside where he began salivating over it. But now, we had to wait for a certain medicine before he could eat (medicine I now know intimately as Lantus). We literally waited for close to an hour... I heard the nurse call down to the pharmacy for it to be sent up. When it didn't arrive in about 15 minutes she called back, and was eventually told that they didn't bring it up because there was some kept on our floor alreday. So she called her head nurse to ask, and no, there was none on our floor. So they had to call back to the pharmacy, etc. It was a huge runaround, with tempers flaring. They tried to save face in front of me a bit, trying to act like things were proceeding normally, I guess without fully realizing that their phone was just on the other side of the curtain and that I could hear every exchange. It was about then that the main doctor (not the endocrinologist, but maybe the pediatrican on duty?) came to check in on Aidan and she was pretty livid that the boy hadn't eaten yet!
Poor hungry Aidan finally got to eat... (and get his first insulin shot not from his IV) but I think waiting so long set him off even more emotionally, because from 12-1AM he was entirely irritated and done with his IVs. He started out whimpering, but it quickly elevated to crying/screaming. He just said they hurt. Nurses checked them out, they seemed fine, but we couldn't calm him down. Quite a team of people gathered trying to calm him because he was waking up the whole room. It was one of my hardest hours as a mother... just trying to comfort him and calm him down. I don't even remember what finally did it, maybe just exhaustion? But he finally calmed down and eventually drifted off to sleep around 2:30AM, and I tried to relax in a pretty uncomfortable chair that didn't even recline.
I awoke with him about every hour, to assist him as he had to pee. I also awoke when they came and pricked his finger every 2 hours, but he amazingly slept through that, and through the blood draw. I also woke up to several other 'crises' of the other children in the room throughout the night. Certainly not the best night's sleep. :)
We woke up pretty early, getting introduced to the new medical personnel for this shift. One amazing thing was that our main new nurse was actually someone who goes to our church. I didn't actually know her well, just her husband a bit, but it was still super comforting, and definitely a God thing considering we were at a huge hospital 45 miles away from home.
We got to order breakfast, and then meet more and more people, including a group of residents doing their rounds with their doctor (felt like Scrubs,and was kind of fun to observe). They also took one IV out, which was nice to have it gone, but the experience of taking it out seemed just as unpleasant to him as putting it in. Next, I had my first one hour session with a dietician, who handed me a huge binder of information and then talked me through Aidan's meals plans and tutored me on the math equations I needed to understand to calculate his necessary insulin dose. It's a very good thing Weston and I both enjoy math.
We were told at about this time that he was doing well, and they were transferring us to a private room (hooray)on the regular Peds floor. :)
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