From the ER to ICU

Mom, Dad, Christina, Dr. Kozenko and the unamed nurse grabbed all my things and ran to the ER.  Once there I was rushed to one of the rooms and a whirlwind of nurses and doctors started taking blood samples and tried to find an intravenus line.  I was trying my best to be good but WOW this was overwhelming. 

My little veins didn't like pokes, my feet were a battleground, my temperature was super cold, and the heater they put me under kept shutting off!  They worked long and hard to get me back to something resembling normal and a few hours later I was resting in a little blanket.

Meanwhile during this whole ordeal, mom and dad were worried sick about me.  They kept asking for water to keep there fluid up as they were busy leaking from the eyes.  Once I started to settle down Dad turned to a nurse and said "We're new in town, know any good places to eat?"  The nurse took dad down to the cafeteria and he grabbed a light lunch for him and mom. 

Now that we were all done in the ER, we waited a little while for a bed in the Pediatric ICU to open up for us.  Once it did, I was moved from my heating bed into a mobile crib and wheeled up a floor to the ICU.  They transferred me from the crib to a special bed called a Giraffe.  It was like an incubator but the top could be raised high up to allow access for IVs and easy blood testing.

I settled myself into my new digs and we met our first nurse, Catharin.  She took really great care of me as we tried to get a proper IV set up.  As it turned out, the only good place for an IV was my bellybutton as the umbilical line was still fresh enough.  Mom and dad had to leave for a bit while the doctors wired me up.  Once finished, I had a very special UVC line in my tummy. 

Mom and Dad were allowed to come back and we started taking hourly blood samples to see where my PH, Glucose, and Lactate levels were at since apparently I was abnormally high.  Dad tracked my progress through the tests in a little coil book he brought.  He tracked how I looked, my temperature and temperament and most importantly, my blood chemistry. 

As night time came, mom and dad grew tired.  They decided to try and sleep by my side.  The hospital provided small chairs that could fold out to become a very tiny single bed.  They curled up next to eachother and tried their best to get some sleep.  Meanwhile I got cosy and they closed the lid on my Giraffe.