Emma was admitted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) on Saturday, August 22…they have been pumping her full of antibiotics and her cough has started to sound a little better. Emma has been having a hard time this stay; I am not sure if it is because it has been 9 months since her last stay or if it is because we are at a new hospital. She has made it very clear that she misses her daddy! Whatever the case, it has been rough.
Upon arriving it was apparent we had been SPOILED at Children’s Hospital Central California (CHCC) (Madera/Fresno)…our room at CHLA is tiny, about half the size of the rooms at CHCC…it contains a two and a half foot chair that pulls out into a bed for me to sleep on, it’s hard and completely impossible to get a “good” night sleep on. Our room, does have a toilet, but no shower or bath! So, to shower I must use one of the two “public” showers assigned to our wing. It’s sort of like going camping and having to hike to the bathroom and shower and hope no one else has had the same idea as you. We have to pay to park here, you can buy a weekly parking pass that will give you in and out privileges but you can’t buy it on the weekend…so I didn’t want to leave and have to pay again. We also have an intercom system in our room that pages the hospital staff at all hours, which to our excitement doesn’t have a volume control. On the plus side, the have a McDonalds that serves iced coffee!
Yesterday, Emma’s nurse Shonda, a tall blonde hair blue eyes middle aged lady with lips that would put Angelina Jolie to shame, helped make Emma happy with coloring pages of Spongebob and Hello Kitty. She also directed me to the closest Target…a 25 FRUSTRATING minute drive, where I found some much needed socks and a cute doctor’s play kit for Emma…I’ll come back to this in a minute.
Last night was LONG…someone was in our room every other hour for one thing or another; we even heard “OOOPPS, wrong room!” I was ever so thankful for the wake up calls. I also learned that the “Just say NO” phrase was written about the fantastic pullout chair they gave me to sleep in, so I crawled into the twin size hospital bed with Emma. I can honestly say; I am not sure which one was worse!
This morning, Emma had an ultrasound of her liver, we await the results. We are also waiting for the results of the MRSA test. Her drug levels were a little bit high so they have adjusted that and we will have to retest her later.
Today, we had four doctors in here at the same time, one pediatrician, two pulmonary doctors and one student doctor. Emma took this chance to use her doctor kit I got her. She walked over and grabbed the case, she took out the shot and walked to the main pulmonary doctor and said very clearly “ Hey, What’s the big idea, come here and get your shot!” We all burst into laughter and she then said, “It’s not funny, it give you an owie!” Again, we were all laughing; she started laughing at us and went to give her stuffed animal a shot instead. It’s moments like this that make me laugh be also break my heart, Emma has gone through so much. She truly understands the pain of a shot in ways that I can never understand. She has had more test and seen more doctors in her three years then I have in my 31 years. She has a shirt on today that says “ONE TOUGH COOKIE,” it couldn’t suit her any better. She is so tough, so strong and so patient. I am always amazed at how resilient children can be.
As you know, Ayva has joined us on this trip…what an experience it has been. The nurses are all crazy about her and we haven’t had any problems with her staying with us, but I think she has had a problem staying with us. She hates it here. She has been crying most of the time and only wants me to hold her. She doesn’t really want to play and she will crawl around but tries to escape when the door is open…she wants outta here…I can’t blame her.
Today, we have had the pleasure of listening to the hospital test the fire alarms since 6 am. Yep, it’s wonderful…every 5 minutes; these extraordinary devices would chime, like a child banging on a xylophone. It was especially gratifying during naptime!
Tonight, I have an old friend coming to bring me dinner. I am especially excited to see her, since it has been about 15 years. I hope they stop testing the fire alarm by then; it may drive her as crazy as it is me.
Thank you all for letting me vent and for your constant thoughts and prayers. We love you all…I’ll update you more soon!!
Love,
Lisa ( plus Emma and Ayva)
Coloring with Emma
Emma was showing off her new panties to everyone! Lol
Laying in bed with Emma at Children's Hospital LA
Our super tiny room at CHLA
Doing treatments in the hospital...she wasn't very happy about it!
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