Roomies

It’s been five nights since we’ve been out of ICU and in that time we’ve had four different roommates and one new room! We’ve seen so many come and go and last night it was actually US that “went” – but only to a private room as we were ‘quarantined’ as to not infect anyone else with whatever this bug is Koal seems to have!  As of tonight, Koal is doing alright – no puking today, but lots of icky diapers and overall just not himself. We are praying for a restful night, and of course that he’ll be well enough tomorrow for us to be discharged. Since I have very little to report, I thought I’d give you a run-down of our different roommates since we moved to the cardiac floor as it’s been quite a wide array of characters, and I just want to have the info recorded so I can look back and remember.

Night one out of ICU we moved into our room with a seven year old girl named Katrina with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.  She had surgery earlier in the week to have her pacemaker replaced, and we spent only one night with her and her mom before they were discharged.  She was a sweet, cute little gal who loved Koal and enjoyed asking lots of questions about him.  Unfortunately, she cried a lot during the night, though that didn’t seem to bother Koal, as that was the best night he’s had post-surgery.

After Katrina and her mom left, we had one sweet night alone in our room.  Must have been “too quiet” for Koalton, though, because he was up a LOT.

The following morning we welcomed our second roomie, a 6 month old boy named Hunter who also has HLHS. He had a catheterization and was spending the night for observation.  He didn’t seem to have a great night either, but his mom took him in his stroller and wheeled him around the halls alot, so we heard nothing but Koal crying that night.  Again, maybe it was “too quiet” when Hunter was out?!?

Within an hour of Hunter and his mom checking out, 8 month old Phoebe and her parents joined us.  Phoebe had a small surgical procedure done by catheterization as well, and also only had to spend the one night in the hospital.  Phoebe wasn’t a great sleeper, much like Koal, but she and her family are of Chinese decent, so they played loud Chinese music all night!  Both mom and dad spent the night as well (which is totally against the rules, but no one said anything to them, and I just had to be careful using the bathroom and nursing!), and Koal was just as fussy and up a lot that night, so I was at least glad that Phoebe was as well.  Pheobe’s parents were very nice and wanted to know all about Koal and his problems and procedures, but there was a definitely language barrier, so Adam and I had a tough time understanding a lot of our conversations with them! HA!

Night 5 a young couple and their 4 month-ish old baby, Charlie, moved in.  We exchanged pleasantries, but it was nearly 9pm when they came in, so we know little about their story. Koal had a terrible night this night as well, so I spent hours walking him in the stroller (since we were finally tube-free and able to disconnect wire to get out as needed).  Night 5 was also the night of the transfer and quarantine as Koal puked over and over.  So, half of night 5 was spent in our new private room, where we are glad we’re not waking anyone else up, BUT Koal is not allowed to leave, so my “strolling” area is VERY small!

Here’s hoping night 6 is quiet and uneventful!