Monday's Memory 3

The next two weeks of our lives are all kind of a blur in my mind. I do know that I did not leave that hospital once. Everyone else was freezing their tooshies off outside…it was the coldest Minnesota winter we’ve had in all of our 11 years here so far. I do remember that surgery day came on the 23rd of December, two days before Joshua’s first Christmas. The surgery went as planned, was uneventful thankfully, and Joshua came through wonderfully. They said they were able to fit a nice big valve in there that should last him until about 5th grade. Since everything happened so fast, I don't recall any family being able to come until Christmas Day. The nurses warn you before they bring you in to see your child what they are going to look like…puffy, swollen, tubes and machines all over. I actually thought of my niece Caitlin who had passed away more than 2 1/2 years earlier when I first turned that corner of the PICU and saw my baby lying there. I’m not sure why. I like to think that she was around, helping us through the ordeal. My experience of taking care of her during her 18 short months on earth was the best schooling I could have had for the children that were going to be sent to me. A reassurance that God knows so much more than we do, that He is in control, and that we need to trust Him. I think often of what I learned during that time with her. The first time Joshua started “rattling” after surgery the nurses kicked us out of the PICU. They said we didn’t want to see what they needed to do to him. Then the next shift came on and Joshua was making that noise again but this nurse didn’t kick us out. She suctioned Joshua by sticking a tube down his throat to get all of the junk out so he could breath easier. I said, “That’s all they were doing when they kicked us out! I had to do that to my niece dozens of times!” They never kicked us out again. Thank you Caitlin, Jeff, & Jaymie!!!


I can’t remember how long they kept Joshua intubated and asleep. It was several days. Christmas came and went. There is a man who comes every Christmas to the children’s hospital and plays his harp. For hours he moves from spot to spot throughout the hospital playing beautiful Christmas hymns that remind us of our Savior. It is so soothing. Bishop Hill and his wife came to visit one evening and brought Joshua a miniature Christmas tree and a stuffed Snoopy and of course dinner for us. I was touched that they left all 6 of their children and spent a couple of hours with us…people they didn’t even know. Victoria and Vicki came with pizza and sat in the waiting room with us one evening talking and listening. They were nice breaks. The days are so long sitting at the bedside of a sleeping child listening to the beeping and watching all of the numbers. It’s funny when more than one of you are there visiting…it’s always a race to the lamp that is warming the sleeping child’s feet when it turns off…who will get to turn it back on. Yes, very long days! When they do wake up they are SOOO thirsty and just want water to drink but they have to wait…for hours. They are miserable. Joshua did not sleep for 3 full days and nights after they woke him up…thanks guys! We tried giving him every kind of drug to make him rest but nothing worked. I was exhausted!!!!!

The worst part of being out of the ICU and up on the floor is that they started Josh on coumedin and so he needed labs every day that had to be a fresh poke; they couldn’t use an IV site. He was only 9 months old and little so they never could get it. The first technician would try twice and then send another who thought they would be able to get it, two more pokes later they usually got it.

I remember Joshua not being able to sit for several days. I kept setting him up and he would fall over. Nobody warned me of the physical problems that come from being asleep for so long. He had to relearn things and build up strength. It was difficult to remember to pick him up the right way...NO picking up under the arms! I remember the Pillsbury doughboy came to visit us and some school choirs came by caroling through the holiday week. New Years Eve came. My parents, my sisters Emily and Jeni, and Mike’s parents were all there so we had our own little party in the family waiting room there with pizza and card games.


Joshua loved to roll through the halls in the red wagon. It was January 1st when we got to go home. Our family that was there had to fly out. We tried to get Joshua excited about his Christmas presents that still sat under the tree waiting to be opened. He wanted nothing to do with them. We ended up opening them for him. He did not feel well. Aunt Michelle came to visit. The next day he started having terrible diarrhea and was re-admitted thanks to the rotavirus that he must have picked up from the hospital. At least being contagious with something gets you your own room. The nurses had been very strict about kids sleeping in their cribs with the railings up. Joshua and I were so tired, we fell asleep on the chair in our room and the nurses actually left us alone…we got a few hours of some much needed rest…it was nice.

The blood draws were even worse this time because of dehydration from the illness. The lab people would give it their best shot and then finally would page the cardiologist. He would come and hang my little baby, who just had open-heart surgery and was sick besides, upside down off the bed with a nurse holding his legs and a nurse holding his arms and poke him in the neck for the blood draw. He was so weak he could barely cry. This happened daily. It was so sad to watch! I think we finally got to go home on the 5th of January - about 17 days total in the hospital. Oh happy day! Joshua continued to recover without any further complications.