If you haven’t read my blog lately, you probably didn’t know that Daniel was in the hospital from Monday afternoon to Friday afternoon with a 7 hour ER visit on Sunday. In order to clean out my brain and try not to have this be hugely traumatic, I’m going to list the positives from this week.

[+] The ER staff: Our resident was wonderful and the ER doc on Sunday was one that we had before. Considering that they were slammed, they were good at listening when I had questions or was flipping out. Even though one of the triage nurses on Monday was a wench, the other one listened to me, took a rectal temp (which showed the fever), and got us back there quickly.

[+] Radiology: They were super patient with Daniel, pleasant with me, and didn’t act like it was a complete imposition to work with him. (I’m used to really bad radiology people from the hospital near where I grew up.)

[+] The PICU staff: they were wonderful as always. I wasn’t amused with the doctor on Tuesday morning at midnight who had no bedside manner skills for dealing with parents but the nurses were fabulous and the doctor on call for the week listened to me and let me ask questions in rounds. Our residents were gentle with him and more than happy to answer our questions. The nursing staff was freaking awesome. Our day and night nurses actually cared about how I was doing as well as Daniel and let me help with cares as much as I was comfortable. (Seriously, they let me help with putting in IV’s by being present with Daniel and talking to him while they poked him.) Some of them remembered us from two years ago which is both good and bad (mostly good). I think the best scene was his day nurse stroking his head and talking to him while he looked up at her with love.

[+] The respiratory therapists: They continue to be the most awesome people ever. I had two that I knew from the last time and the one working with us during the Tuesday midnight insanity was the best of the best, partially because he has an autistic kid and got Daniel used to the mask and calmed down while we were waiting for the Versed to kick in. The rest of them were patient with him and very gentle. Because of the way they worked with him, I can get him to do breathing treatments without a problem.

[+] The peds floor staff: They were swamped this week so there were some grumpy moments on my part. The best thing ever was that our favorite nurse in the world was assigned to him on Friday and she loved him up. I made sure he blew lots of kisses at her. She told me that she had signed up to be his primary nurse two years ago if he ever ended up in the hospital again and this makes me feel so much better knowing that we’re going to get her if she’s working. Two years ago, she’d take him and put him in her lap if she had charting to do. This time, she did everything she could to get us discharged and to get Daniel allowed to be out of his isolation zone.

[+]The residents and doctors: The attending on the floor was one that I knew from two years ago and she was happy to see Daniel looking good and to see how much she had grown. I have no complaints about the residents — they were great about answering questions and involving me in the decision-making.

It was a good week in many ways but a tiring one for me. I spent most of Saturday sleeping and will be asleep once this posts and my house panther removes her claws from me. I missed her a lot and asked Jon to bring her to me daily. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my wish on that.