A Day in the Life

For those of you wondering what our days here look like, come take a peek. I know you probably think I sit around watching soap operas and eating bon bons ... well ... I'll let you be the judge:

As I got Chelsea dressed this morning, I noticed her dressing was open along one side, exposing her central line ... so although she wasn't due for a dressing change until Saturday, we did a dressing change today.

First they put the hand sanitizing foam all over the dressing. The alcohol loosens the adhesive on the dressing.


This does not make her very happy, we better let it soak in for a minute, and turn on Signing Time to distract her.


Dressing is off, ouch that hurts! Notice we've got her held down, she's good at touching the area especially after we've cleaned it.


Speaking of cleaning, the nurse uses a sponge with cloraprep to clean the area. (what does cloraprep make you think of? clora ... clorox ... seriously, it can't feel very good on already irritated skin.)


Let it dry!


Here's the new dressing!


All done!


Now we have to draw some blood to verify her blood type before she gets any blood products ... what did it change since last time?


Yep, blood



Headed down the hall to get some vitals while we wait for platelets.


Break time ... still waiting for platelets, why not take a rest in the middle of the hallway?



Lovin on a cute boy.



We've got platelets, no more bruising!!!



Platelets run by gravity, the higher up you hang them, the faster they go in!



We laid down for a nap after platelts, then they came in to hang her blood. While any blood products are running they take vitals often to make sure the child isn't having any reactions to the products. What do you know, missy spiked a fever ... so we took some blood cultures of each line.

Culture bottles


Drawing cultures ... Chelsea not feeling so hot.


Nothing like a little bit of Tylenol to break a fever! Still receiving her blood (it takes 2-3 hours.)


O positive



And because of the fever ... here she is hooked up to antibiotics (and blood is still running) while watching Signing Time.


I know what you're thinking ... jeez does she photograph everything? Well, ... no. Believe it or not, I left out part of our day. Chels has been having some crying spurts in the night and has also been pulling at her diaper for a few days. Apparently nobody else thought ... maybe something was wrong down there. So, I asked about a urinary tract infection and they agreed to take samples (they had to do it twice, the second time was kind of interesting, it involves taping a plastic bag to an area I don't think anyone would like to have a plastic bag taped, but it sure beats a cath!) I think they were just trying to humor me by taking the samples, but what do you know ... she's got a UTI !!! So that explains the fever spike and now we can get it all cleared up with antibiotics. Poor baby, she's had this for at least 4-5 days b/c she was pulling at her diaper last weekend. Ryan had a conversation with the nurse Sunday about it and they even charted it, but not a word was ever said about it again. Well I noticed her pulling at her diaper again last night, and then this morning she screamed when I tried to change her diaper. I KNEW something was up. It doesn't take ESP to figure out what's going on here, honestly, I'm a little disappointed this was missed by so many people. I think I'm going to have to bring it to her doctors attention. I thought that was the kind of stuff they talked about in rounds? They probably get to her and say, oh yeah, Chelsea's here for count recovery, next?

When her blood was finished and I was looking for our nurse to turn the pump off, a child on our floor was 'code blue'. Everyone was running around and one nurse steered us into the playroom so we didn't get run over. Eventually I made eye contact with a nurse who wasn't helping with the other child and she stopped the pump for us. I don't think we know this little boy, but we'll be praying for him. He's down in the PICU now.

After that, we called it a day. Chelsea got more pain meds as she's still having a lot of pain when I change her or when she goes potty. I know she has a high tolerance for pain, so when she screams like she has been, I get her drugs right away. I hope you enjoyed our pictures from today ... can't wait until I'm taking pictures of her at the park or the zoo or anywhere but here!