As the days spent praying and waiting ran together, and priorities shifted into focus, a few concepts worth sharing emerged:
- Staying in the hospital is not what I thought. Not at all. If you want your loved one to be cared for with any urgency at all, someone had better be there to keep an eye on things. I left the room for 20 minutes, to visit the cash machine after my daughter left; when my son went for the call button – remember, he can’t turn his head at all – it slipped off the bed AND he knocked a water over! Thankfully, he could reach his cell phone and call me, since there was no way for him to reach a nurse. I could give you lots more reasons and examples of why it’s best to be there, but what have your experiences been?
- Hospital rooms are cold. Note to self: if you ever have to spend time hanging out in a hospital room, no matter what time of year it is, take a cashmere sweater, even if it’s a pullover. Temperature in the room averaged 66 or 67 degrees. Wearing jeans, cotton/silk/cashmere blend t-shirt, and a cotton zip-up sweatshirt, I was still cold. Additional note to self: you wanted another cashmere cardigan for your trip to Italy, just spend the money and get it!
Other than that, I am happy with alot of my fall wardrobe. I didn’t take much time to pack; it was pretty much: jeans, shorts, t-shirt, t-shirt, t-shirt. And sweatshirt. More on fall wardrobe to come though, as I see that was supposed to be this week’s comeback topic. Drop me a line if you are doing a fall wardrobe post this week.
Oh, and having hair that I could just wash and wear was helpful too.
Amen to both your points. Jason’s been in the hospital a total of about 6 months of his 15.5-year life, and after I spent time w/my mom the last week of her life in the hospital, you are totally right.
In ped’s, when Jason was only 3 or 4, it was even more important for us to be there. The nurses weren’t much help when he was really upset about something.
At the nice new Denver Children’s Hospital we were in this summer, the rooms are all private with plenty of room for a fold-out bed for a parent. But adult rooms don’t make allowances for someone to stay there which makes it much harder.
Emergency Rooms are cold too.
Interesting, my experience of Australian hospital rooms is that they’re all too warm.
Wash and wear hair is great – aren’t you glad you don’t have to go through all that blowdrying rigmarole now?
So glad to hear that your son is home and doing well!
So, so true: you really need someone to be your advocate while you are a patient in a hospital. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Wheels that don’t squeak don’t get any attention at all.
PS Of course, I hope your son continues to heal in his halo. Poor thing!
PPS: I did a fall wardrobe post, but it was a couple weeks ago.
Hi there-thanks for stopping by. I do hope and pray your son makes a full and good recovery, please take care of yourself too.
Jennifer – at first he was in a shared room, but by the time I got there he had a room to himself. They probably needed the space to maneuver the equipment: he had x-rays at least once a day. There was a chair that folded out into a bed, so that’s where I slept for the last couple of days when I was the only one there.
Imogen – that was what I was afraid of, which is why I thought a cardigan would be best. I just really didn’t expect to need wool vs cotton at that time of year. But now I know. It’s the strangest thing, too, about my hair – maybe I didn’t need to be blow-drying it all along. ???
Thanks so much to everyone for all your support and well wishes. It’s nice to be back! 🙂
Still praying, yet glad to hear of all the positives!! Please keep us posted.