Tuesday Was a Nightmare

I was released from the hospital at 10:00 the Tues morning, and we headed home to pack enough to get through a few days in Charlottesville, got Katie settled with my mom, and took off. Once we got to the PICU at UVA Medical Center, we got filled in on what was happening. It was crazy – alarms were going off left and right, half a dozen dr’s and nurses were swarming in and out of the room working on her, and she was hooked up to more drugs and machinery than one can imagine. She was so blue/gray. Before this all happened I was worried about all the pink in her wardrobe (I wasn’t big on pink). Now pink is my absolute favorite color.

Jas and I stayed a while, met some people working with her, and watched her get a little more stable. A social worker came in to set us up with accommodations at a hotel in walking distance, as well as the Ronald McDonald House, where I’ll be for the long-haul most likely. Then, we went to the hotel to crash. I had not slept, and couldn’t sleep then either. I couldn’t stand being away, so made Jason take me back to the hospital, where I stayed most of the afternoon and into the evening. At one point her vitals dropped so low that the entire staff of the PICU seemed to be in our room. I watched in horror/awe as they worked on her – 4 drs and 3 nurses, trying to keep her going. I have never been so scared in all of my life. I don’t know how they do what they do day in and day out – but I’m so thankful that they do it. For hours there were constant alarms, her vitals would seesaw like crazy. Blood pressure would go up, cvp (basically the pressure in the heart) would go down, she started running a temperature, her O2 levels would drop… there was always something going wrong.

Finally they had her stable enough that I knew she’d make it through the rest of the night (or at least felt she would). Jas forced me to leave for some sleep since I hadn’t slept since Sunday and it was then Tuesday night. I wasn’t in pain still but downed a blend of sleeping pills and percocet to numb and knock myself out for a bit. I'm glad that day is behind us, and look forward to a brighter tomorrow.