Hospital Memories

It seems like I have been thinking alot this week about the time we spent in the hospital. There are probably a couple of reasons. I had thank you cards with Ryan's picture printed to send to the different places in the hospital he received care. The card for CV Surgery and the PICU I was able to give to our neighbor. He is a pharmacist in the PICU and was such a blessing during that difficult time. We knew he worked at Children's, but weren't sure where until Jason ran into him on the day of the surgery completely by accident. He said he had seen a Stratman on the board that morning and started to connect the dots. He came to room where we were waiting at the end of his shift and told us Ryan's room was ready and that he really liked the doctor that was on call the next day. We saw him every day that Ryan was in the PICU and he always came to Ryan's room and told us we had the best nurse in the unit. It was just so nice to have a familiar face in all of the chaos that was the PICU. The other cards to the NICU, 4S, Cardiology and Lactation teams I just mailed and hope that they will find the right places. I don't know that anyone will remember us, but I thought they might like to see pictures of a baby doing so much better then what the see day in and day out. Another reason for my thoughts of the hospital is a post I received from a mom in Utah whose son was also born with TGA and is about a year older then Ryan. She has a founded a support group in Utah and her blog has lots of good information and links to other blogs about heart kids. I have probably spent way to much time reading these, but it is interesting to see the journey others have been through. Everyone is a little different and I was wanting to find someone who had also dealt with diaphragm paralysis, but haven't. Maybe it won't even be an issue for us anymore. When I was in for Ryan's last weight check, I asked if we could check his sats and they were in the high 90's as opposed to the low 90's where they generally stayed while we still had the monitor. That lead me to hope that maybe his diaphragm is working, but I guess it could also mean he is just compensating better. His breathing rate is still on the high side of normal and he still sleeps more then my two older boys combined ever did, so we will see. He sees the cardiologist again a week from Thursday. I am still hoping he got approved for the RSV shots, some part of the insurance company called late Friday to ask when the shot was scheduled, which I didn't know had been scheduled. They said they received the prescription, but it just said October and they needed the date and a recorded weight within 30days. I said that I would find out on Monday and I was so happy that he had been approved and she said that this was just the first step and she didn't know if he was actually approved. I will keep my fingers crossed. I'm going to try to focus more on being present this week and not thinking so much about the hospital and reliving all of the details, especially since I may start working again next week. I said that I would be available if they needed help and my boss said that everyone was busy. It's time, I think and maybe working will keep me spending to much time reading about CHD and obsessing over the past and worrying about the future.