In ICU

Here I’m sitting in the ICU. Ella’s asleep and from all perspectives things are going well. From time to time she starts moving around which I don’t like because she whimpers as if in pain and at this point, because they’ve ex-tubated her and she is breathing on her own, they don’t give her anything but one rectal Tylenol every 4 hours. As the hours pass by she seems better and better, less swollen and more recognizable as Ella but without her extreme asymmetry. It’s quite unbelievable that this can be done. However, at the same time, I feel like this is a real “luxury” surgery. Especially when there are children around that can’t breath or have just gone through an 18 hour liver transplant. The care is excellent here. Each child is in a semi-private room with at least one completely dedicated nurse. It is uncomfortable being in the ICU though. Parents can’t sleep in here at the child’s side but rather have to grab one of a limited number of cots and then sleep in the waiting room. At Boston Children’s Hosp it is more comfortable in that respect because there was a separate sleeping room for parents that was available at all times.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2004 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Ella's Log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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