Wednesday, December 28, 2011

New Digs - Not So Wordless Wednesday

Oh, there's so much to say, and I haven't been at a real computer with a real keyboard in days, and I don't even know where to begin.

Last Friday (Christmas eve eve) at around 8 pm, I got a call from our hospital that the transfer for Leaf to a bigger hospital had been sorted out...and was happening within the hour. Thus began a whirlwind of helicopters and new doctors and nurses and new rules and new places and just...chaos.

At any rate,  we've moved to University of Michigan - CS Mott Children's Hospital. The hospital is brand new - they moved from the old hospital on December 4th. The hospital is nice - really nice - even the public bathrooms on the PICU floor are nice - showers are included in each unisex bath for parents who are staying with their kids:


The way they handle breastmilk makes me happy. The family lounge is well stocked and set up for people to actually use. The elevators talk, which Acorn thinks is the funniest thing ever. The cafe has decent food. Parking is inexpensive ($2/day max for patients and visitors with validated parking tickets). The views from most of the patient windows are stunning - here's ours:



Leaf got to ride in a helicopter, because they figured moving a ventilated patient from a PICU to a PICU was not something to do on surface streets. The flight crew brought her a pair of wings and a bear dressed in a UofM flight suit:



We're just waiting for a bed on the vent unit now, which they're hoping to have for us on Monday. We are also planning a meeting with the vent team for next week to get things lined up and a plan to get Leaf back home. Until then, we're just hanging out in our nifty high tech corner of one of the PICU bays:


At the rate we're going, I'll likely not be posting much the next few weeks. It's an hour drive one way, and while we're still in the PICU, Acorn and I will be out there most afternoons. We're debating how to handle things once we move to the floor, because I suspect Leaf will need more parental involvement. Our friend K has graciously offered crash space at her house, just a few minutes away, and has offered to come keep Acorn busy from time to time, since she works just a few blocks away in a research lab on campus. We still have to clean out her bedroom at home too, and take care of Acorn's appointments and a ton of paperwork for both kids, and getting to a computer that I can actually type on has been a heck of a challenge.

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday season!

1 comment:

  1. Hi there -- It looks like a great locations (minus, of course, the commuting challenges). You're in my thoughts as we move into this secular New Year. It's good to see the light returning, eh?
    I've been following you for a bit and I am impressed with your honesty.

    ReplyDelete