Hospital Stay - Day 3, Awesome Day

The shirt says, "Full of Awesome"

 I'm going to have to figure out how to manage our schedule a little better. Toe didn't get to bed until 11 tonight. At home, we do snack (or dinner) at 5ish, breathing treatment at 6:00, dinner at 7:30, bedtime routine at 8:15 and Toe is usually in bed by 9. Here, the last breathing treatment finished at 9:30 and he still had to do snack and get ready for bed. Because Toe was tired, it took forever and the poor boy didn't get lights out until 11pm. He fell asleep in under two minutes.

We told them we like to keep on the early side of things, so they showed up at our room at 8:30am this morning (after an 11 o'clock night last night) and Toe was still asleep. I told them to come back at 9. I want to do an earlier schedule, but not if he's getting to bed this late. Seems like the respiratory therapists show up late We have told them we want to be DONE by 9, preferably earlier but it never seems to work out. In their defense, they have to usually do about 20 clients in a four hour time slot, so people can get to bed by midnight. So it seems like maybe I need to make the adjustment.

We had a good day and were kept pretty busy. Traditionally, antibiotics make Toe wired, and I noticed the first signs today. I don't know if he's tired, stimulated by the antibiotics, or just excited to have an audience, but the kid was buzzing today (like a bee - just go go go, talk talk talk).

We played with a new trading card game. We did breakfast, we took a walk. Toe Face Timed with the cousins.

 And then it was time for Wednesday Bingo. Every Wednesday, Child Life Services holds a Bingo contest at 1pm. Volunteers hand out sheets and markers and they have a live feed on the tv. Kids follow along and when they get a bingo, they call in and they announce the kid's name on the tv feed. There were only two games, and each game took about the first 10 winners.

"Hi! It's time for bingo!"

 Toe did his breathing treatment while he played, and darned if he didn't get a bingo for each game.

 When a kid would call in, the conversation would normally go something like:
"This is bingo. BINGO!! We have someone who won a bingo! What's your name? What floor are you on? What's your room number? Great! Nancy just got a bingo! Yay!"

When Toe called, the conversation on their end went like this, "This is bingo..........................Wow. Thank you for all of that information at once! Toe got a bingo!"

On our end, it was hilarious. Toe jumped up and yelled "I got a bingo!!" I dialed the number for him and he said into the phone "Hi! This is [his full name] and I'm in [wing and room number] and I just got a bingo!" The respiratory therapist and I tried really hard to keep straight faces as Toe did his very serious voice.

His two bingo wins.

 After bingo, we played more card game.

 At 2:30, the first of our guests arrived. It was meant to be a short visit, but they were still here when our next guest arrived (we were playing dinosaurs and portals. Toe took almost an hour in setting the scene and basically performed for the three adults. He was a little wired.). Our next guest stayed through a movie with us as I tried to get Toe a little rest. Next came a friend fresh from the coast who brought Toe a book of dragon paper airplanes. The next guests brought me a few things and stayed long enough to toss the dragons for a bit. Everyone left for dinner and then we had our final guest come by to have "dragon battles" with Toe.

I hadn't planned it to be such a full afternoon, but we were having a great time and were happy to see everyone.

Meanwhile, the Respiratory Therapist noticed that Toe is not breathing as deeply as he could during the nebulized portion of the breathing treatment. She made up this game where she took a small wad of tissue and put it in the end of the tube. Toe would then suck the tissue in a little and then shoot it out (aiming at a wastebasket). Simple. Effective. Brilliant. I love pediatric hospitals. This one really gets that kids need to be kids and are more likely to do things if they are posed as play.

Not sure if I can maintain this pace, but we had a great day. I'm going to get some sleep while I can.