Some Christmas Pics

"Kneeling before the alter?" Oh dear.


Really motivated to get into that cabinet.

No, thank you. I prefer cheetos. I feel this bowl makes a nice hat though.

This hat works for me.


I am so much cuter than my parents.

I just love being the show.

My favorite present- a Signing Time book.

Second Spontaneous Decannulation! Wheee!

So I ran some errands today while the nurse was here, and Kiera figured out how to decannulate (pop her trach out) a second time. If you recall, I was the lucky care giver the first time. Everything resolved okay. Thank goodness for my experienced nurses! Zane was a great assistant in the crisis and held her trach in place while the nurse was attending to her. It freaked me out a bit to know I wasn't here for it, but I'm grateful that I have competant people so that I can get out once in a while. It's such fun having a baby that can go from happy go lucky, fun loving, 2 yr old, to life or death action in a matter of seconds.

Kiera's making me laugh right now. She's sitting in her play area getting into everything. She's currently playing with the Playstation controller. She found a way to read her book by turning pages with her hands AND feet. Now she's trying to involve her brother in her mischief. She's BUSY, BUSY.

One can't help but notice the resemblance to a black French poodle of our puppy's namesake, Rene Descartes.

Latest fun pictures

"Monsieur Descartes Loren Wright" 5 1/2 wks


Puppy eating. "I'm awfully hungry, Momma."


Kiera eating. "Mmmm, that looks good. I'll have what he's having. What's in it?"



Pet the puppy.


Kiera helps decorate cut out cookies. She "picked" this one just for you.


"It won't bite back, Kiera."


Kiera and big brother, Zane, decorating cookies.


Nan's hat- "I make this look good, yo."


Kiera holds her cousin.

New Arrival!

My darling husband got me a standard poodle puppy for Christmas! His name is Mister Descartes Loren (and I'm considering the last name Squarepants). He's French of course and very smart, so I thought a French Mathematician and father of Cartesian mathematics was appropriate as a namesake. As Descartes would say in his Discourse on Method, "I think, therefore I am (a poodle)."[sic] :) His middle name is a tribute to Kiera's pulmonologist. Jer made me laugh last night when he said that Descartes is "graph paper trained." AWESOME!

Anywho, the funniest thing last night was when I fed Descartes, and my lovely Kiera with her oral aversion and unwillingness to eat anything other than suck cheetos and doritos thought that puppy chow somehow looked appealing and was perfectly happy to attempt eating that. :) Don't worry, we caught it before it went in the mouth. So I had to get some of her meltable sweet potato puffs and put them in a bowl so she could eat with the dog. She at least licked them and played with them, although they don't have the intensity of cheetos or puppy chow, so it left her underwhelmed. It reminded me of something I think her speech therapist told me about a kid starting to drink by copying their dog and only wanting to lap up milk from a bowl. Who new that getting a puppy was sound feeding therapy technique?

I'll post pics later today.

I'm too cute to take a nap, Mommy.

So Kiera was just cracking me up yesterday. She refused to take a nap when I put her down at 1PM until she finally crashed at 4PM. Previous to putting her down, she was making it quite difficult for me to run the restaurant payroll by "hardlining" my computer while I was working. (She likes the light up "off" button.) She grabbed the mouse and logged me out of the payroll program at one point. She grabbed the keyboard to change employee data. She tried to eat someone's child support paperwork. She's also a little funky lately and thought she'd like to projectile vomit a few times mid payroll...just to keep me on my toes. Very fun. So I put her in the pack 'n play for her nap. She then proceeded to play a game we call under over. She stood up in the pack n' play holding onto the changer and peeked at me under the changer through the mesh and then over the changer as best she could being a little short. Of course, she just flashed that big smile every time and did this over and over and over and over.... Soooo cute. Then she started blowing me kisses. Kiera doesn't just blow them...she chucks them at you. Her blow kisses could knock you over. Of course, she kept smiling still with a sweet, "I don't want a nap, mommy," look. Then she started fingering "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to get me to sing and play with her. She signed,"love" and "mommy." She gave me a kiss when I came over and laid her back down again. She definitely was pulling out all the stops.

4PM...she finally fell asleep. I win.

Did you get a load of this...?

So, the government is mandating a change to ALL asthma inhalers! Just saw this on KOAT7 news tonight. Of course, the change is being made so that the propellant is "ozone friendly." Since there will be no generic it will increase costs of meds for bajillions of asthma sufferers. This is the crap that happens when we let the government run health care!!!! I hope the meds still work the same. Of course, this is a maintenance med for for many people that they can't go without, so the difference between a $10 and a $40 co-pay is not just $30 but probably $60 more a month or $720 more a year! It's all going to get worse with the incoming idiots in charge. How much do you want to bet they didn't even consult the patients affected by such a change? Forget about choice. Environmentalism is the new mandated government religion to the detriment of the people.

Yeah...Biggest Day so far at Indy Grill!

We FINALLY got our liquor license on Wednesday, and Friday was our biggest day so far! Keep sending your friends and family in! When you go out to eat, think of Independence Grill! We are at 6910 Montgomery Blvd NE at Louisiana and Montgomery southwest of TJ Maxx and Shoes on a Shoestring. website is http://ABQburger.com and phone is 505-837-BURG. I assure you there will be something for everyone on our awesome menu. Don't forget that PICU and NICU staff will get a discount. Just bring your badge! (If your server seems confused ask for Jerry :) )

Kiera is doing GREAT this week! She is into everything! I got her this little push and ride toy at Other Mothers about a month or two ago, and Thursday she used it to walk across the room. She has also been trying to walk with her therapy walker, although it is a little more cumbersome. Maybe she'll walk for Christmas! What a concept?! Her first Christmas in 2006 I hoped she'd be home for Christmas. Her second Christmas in 2007 I hoped she'd survive till Christmas, and when she started improving that she'd be at least back in Albuquerque by Christmas. I actually get to have a Christmas wish this year that doesn't involve life or death or hospitals. Woo Hoo!

She is starting to try to make sound past her trach cuff...kind of an "Ahhhhh." She also interacts with Steve on Blue's Clues. When he asks questions, she blows kisses as her answer. It's so interesting. I wonder what her kiss is communicating in her world. She had many play dates this week. My neigher brought Audrey over to play, and my brother brought Kiera's cousins over twice! She has also been playing with her brothers which she really loves.

I am also getting NURSING for Christmas! Yippee! I have 3 more wonderful PICU and NICU nurses signing up to come help us out. I am so excited, especially after having to be up at 2:30 am, 3:30 am, and 6:00am this morning before my hubby handled some early morning cares so I could sleep a little longer. Thank God for coffee. :)

Gotta go. Something Stinky This Way Comes.

Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is Cheetos!

And Signing Time videos. :) Kiera has started enjoying licking the cheese off cheetos. It's about the only food she'll stick in her mouth. She licks them clean. Ever seen a white cheeto? Anyway, it's cute and makes her (and mommy) feel like she's eating with us. She only goes through about 4 in a sitting, but it's at least something. It reminded me of the year that all my sister wanted for Christmas was Easy Cheese. They must be of the same cloth. :) Funny thing...I had a Cheetos bag with nothing but Cheetos dust on my counter at Thanksgiving, and someone "helped" me without my knowledge by throwing it out. I hate to call all my family to find out who threw out Kiera's cheetos dust, but for future reference....visitors in my house must not throw out FOOD in even the weirdest form. Remember...one person's trash is another person's treasure. Kiera treasures her cheese dust. :)

Therese

Oh my Gosh...

Okay, so I know I don't have any pics posted, but there is just so much to keep track of right now. I'll get to it. I promise. I have some cute ones from Thanksgiving and of Kiera with the new puppy we are getting for Christmas. I just have to retrieve them from my camera.

I just have to share a surreal moment I had tonight. I was driving home from Socorro past Presbyterian hospital around 9PM. They light up the hospital with luminarias every Christmas as they did Christmas 2006 and 2007. As I was driving past I thought..."Look...the hospital...and Kiera's not in it."

What a strange moment. It's weird when you realize how different one event has made your entire world view. I had likely driven past the hospital for 19 holiday seasons previous to 2006 and never given the building, its occupants, or its decorations a second thought. For two seasons, 514 days, every time we passed we waved to Kiera, said hi to Kiera, commented that that's where Kiera was, etc. The building has come to be a huge presence, a constant reminder of Christmas past, present, and future.

Even though we were there today for a Dr. appointment, and we are constantly in and out, this image of the hospital was the most poignant. This view is the one that makes it clear that we will forever be emotionally involved with this building. It's where everything happened. We have changed restaurant businesses, we have moved to different houses, I've taught in and attended different schools...but this building is different. I can visit other buildings from my past and remember days gone by, but seeing this hospital lit up at Christmas can actually transport me to that place in an instant. I'm pretty sure it always will.

Funny thing...we put up our Christmas tree, and I was so excited imagining how Kiera would react when she saw her first tree. So I put her on the floor by it. She lightly grazed her fingers over it a little touching some ornaments and needles (it's a fake tree). Then the door bell rang, and I answered. About a minute later I look back at her, and she has crawled to the open bag of clean diapers and is chewing on them. Diapers- 1, Tree-0. I might as well decorate the tree in diapers. It would hold more appeal.

Here's to hoping this will be the first Christmas with Kiera not in the hospital.

Therese

Yet another grocery store clerk traumatized by Kiera Rose

So, I ventured out, and yet again discovered a weak link in our travel plans. :) I really needed to get Kiera's meds and groceries for Thanksgiving, but won't have nursing again till Monday. I had an "evil plan" that I could do it myself. Luckily due to a SNAFU and missed bus I ended up with a stepson assistant. Kiera with all her equipment pretty much fills a grocery cart. It was helpful to have The Boy to push another cart and fetch things. Kiera really enjoyed looking at everything. She was all smiles. She liked the ride in the cart, too.

So we did pretty well until we got near the end of our trip in the produce section. Kiera's vent circuit popped off and hit the ground just right so as to break off the sensor tube from the circuit leaving a tiny whole for lost pressure and volume. I sent The Boy out to the car to get the bagging tank just in case while the produce clerk helped me try to tape the broken piece onto her circuit to stop the leak. Voila! The Medical Tape Corollary to the Duct Tape method of repair was a success. Next time, I will carry a spare circuit in the car. I had no spares with me since this had never happened before. The clerk was very nice and also informed me of the location of a phone that can dial out. Apparently not all phones in the grocery store are capable of dialing out and the scanners cause dead zones for cells which is good to know in an emergency. Thank you, Don, at Smith's grocery store.

FYI- Kiera has started experimenting with standing without support. She tried it last night and tonight. She is so pleased with herself, and we clap together afterwards. Very cute. I think she is also cutting some 2 yr old molars and seems pretty bothered by it.

Therese

Indy Grill Dress Rehearsal

It was so much fun seeing our restaurant get born tonight. Thank you to everyone who helped test our crew out and see about working out kinks. It takes a lot of work to turn a restaurant into a finely tuned machine, so we appreciate your patience and support. I am so grateful for all the help we had cleaning, painting, wallpapering, decorating, refinishing, etc. I was also thrilled to have a nurse today to help so that Kiera could attend, but I could focus on all the guests a little better. I could definitely tell the difference between tonight and other times when we go out and I need to stay in tune with how she's doing better. She was so cute. She tasted a little berry mini-milkshake and seemed to like it. She also tried guacamole and sour cream. Not big on the sour cream but guac seemed tolerable. Kiera really seemed to enjoy herself, and liked all the lighting. Since I knew it might be a long evening I brought the pack n play, critical books, and a few toys, but my real guilty confession is that I brought the travel DVD player and her Elmo "What Makes Me Happy" DVD for the predictable evening meltdown. Of course, the DVD should be re-titled "What Makes Momma Happy." She camped out in the playpen and watched TV. I wonder if she sees the TV people from Poltregeist? She's her Daddy's girl. I recently discovered yesterday that the endearing sign I thought was Kiera reaching for mommy may in fact be a sign for the remote control. Hmmm. I admit defeat. The TV has won. "Go toward the light, Carol Ann." Or is it "DON'T go toward the light?" Darn it...I can't remember. Come eat lunch or dinner opening Monday 11am. November will be a special month for Presbyterian Hospital PICU and NICU staff showing badges. You're basically family, so come in and get your family discount during the month of November. Ask for Jerry. Cheers!

Here are some pics.

Independence Grill Opens Monday!

Yeah! Come visit our new restaurant, Independence Grill! We open Monday, although it is a soft opening. Our Grand Opening will come as soon as our liquor license comes through. In the meantime, we serve Jones sodas which are really fun and unique, and the food will blow you away. In addition, our place is so pretty. I love the mood and atmosphere. We can't wait to share it with you. We are located at 6910 Montgomery Blvd and the phone # is 837-BURG. Come get the Best Burger in town! Tell your friends!

Up Day...

Kiera is back on her rate of 16 with O2 at 3liters and still on 4 hour nebs and steroids. She made me laugh this morning at around 6am when she decided to be UP and stood up in her crib and started removing all the rail guards and tossing them. In the silhouette of the closet light, her hair was standing on end in a sort of "Flock of Seagulls" updo. When she does this, she often whines and grabs her suction catheter from the changing table to indicate that she would like some immediate suction assistance from her tired mother.

Another cute thing today...the nurse French braided her hair. It is so cute! Kiera has also developed a taste for Nacho Cheese Dorito's. She likes to lick the cheese off adult fingers. It's a start at least. She does open wide. :)

Therese

Up and Down, See Saw

I used to think of Kiera's health as a roller coaster ride, but sometimes it's much more like a see saw- so gradual change, just up and down.

She seemed to be improving on Monday and back to her rate of 16, O2 at 3liters, and 4 hour nebulizers. Then yesterday she was pretty sick, back on 3 hours nebs, rate back up to 20, O2 at 4liters. Today, so far, she's back down to a rate of 18, with 4 hour nebs and O2 at 3 liters.
This, of course, is in addition to some diarrhea and diaper rash and lots of secretions to suction.
But, I hate to commit, she seems a little better today.

I am looking forward to more nursing this afternoon, Thursday, and Friday, so I will be able to help finish setting up our new restaurant to open on Monday! Yeah! (on the nurse and the opening.) Our restaurant is Independence Grill at Lousiana and Montgomery (6910 Montgomery). We will be open daily for lunch and dinner, and the restaurant website is http://ABQburger.com. I hope you will all come. The menu is fantastic featuring American Kobe beef burgers at a great price! I am totally in love right now with our prime rib with our chef's special green chile en jous. And for dessert lovers, I picked them personally with all my sweet teeth. (Just ask my dentist)

I also want to thank my guardian angel mom, Shannon, for the video baby monitor. Once Kiera is well, I will start trying to sleep in our bedroom instead of Kiera's and see how it goes. It's all hooked up, and all I need to do is get Apria to send me a louder SAT monitor.

Love,
Therese

So far so good...we've kept her home

Another quickie: Kiera's down to neb every 3 hours instead of every hour like yesterday, and her O2 is down to 3-4 liters. I dropped her rate to 22 (I had had to increase it from 16 to 30 to get her through being sick and keep her home). Now she's getting more puffs of Symbicort, still getting the steroids, atrovent is up to every 6 hours instead of every 8, and we dropped her mucomyst. She's still pretty junky(i.e. phlegm in trach tube) and gets kind of lethargic when she's due for Atrovent, but sheactually sounded more clear last night at bedtime than she had.

This all happened with very poor timing. She just changed diets Friday after her GI appointment. She has had some funky GI effects that I think are from the diet change, but I think the respiratory fallout is a separate thing from a virus probably. She's been gaggy because I think it takes her longer to process the new food, but she could also be gaggy because of the "junk in her trunk" (again- phlegm in her trach). We also got to just start her Vest treatments up again on Friday because we had been off for 2 weeks for her to heal from surgery. Therefore, it's hard to tell if the junk is from no Vest treatments or a virus, although the runny nose leads me in the virus direction.

Thank you for joining me for amateur medicine 101. :)
Gotta go...Kiera's "calling."
Therese

Oh-P.S.- found the camera under her other equipment bags. It was here the whole time, and we could've gotten more Halloween pics. I may just have to dress her up and get a few more. :)

Kiera' caught a cold at the doctor's office

Kiera must have a cold, and it's been throwing her for a loop. I've been giving her nebs just about every hour since yesterday afternoon, and we started steroids this morning. It's been a long night. Hopefully we can keep her out of the hospital today. We'll see.

Therese

Kiera playing Rock Band and using grocery cart "walker"

This isn't how she uses the cart loaded up, but we were just practicing.


Braving a transfer from the cart to the drum set.


Kiera likes to Jam! She uses chopsticks because there are now little teeth marks in our drumsticks. We had to give her decoys.


She is totally a hair band rocker chic! She loves to watch us play and join in. Sometimes she drums on her tin (leftover from Christmas popcorn) or plays her piano, tambourine, or maracas.

Can you sign, "Drama Queen?"

Our family had some drama tonight at an un-named alternative grocery store which I think has
pretty much scared the crap out of a whole bunch of grocers. Jer was
working today, and he had previously asked them about getting one of
their old gray kiddie shopping carts for Kiera to use with her
ventilator to facilitate learning to walk. They were going to sell me
one for $40 because they had upgraded to new prettier ones, and I
guess they cost $120 new. I have no nursing lately, so I was faced
with the option of waiting till Tuesday when I have a nurse, or
packing Kiera up with my 2 teenagers and trekking to the store. I
rarely do this since they are not well versed on how to help in an
emergency while we are driving, so I would have to pull over for
anything more serious than reconnecting her ventilator to her trach.

Anyway, I risked it and took her out thinking she has been doing
really well, and we wouldn't have any problems. You can probably
foresee that Murphy's Law will again rear its ugly head. Part of me
thought that having Kiera with me might charm them down on their price,
too. Who could say "no" to that smile?

Anyway, I guess Kiera had a huge plug she was trying to cough up, and
she started desatting right after we got in the store to look at the
carts. So here we are at a booth at the front of the store by the
registers. I suctioned Kiera 3 times, bumped her O2, took off her shoe
to make sure the SAT probe was reading accurately, and finally sent my
oldest to the car for the bagging tank. Now we are bagging her in the
store in front of every shopper who's checking out. I had one stepson
bagging her while I did a ventilator check, and no matter what I did
(changing tanks on the vent, changing tubing, etc) I could not get her
SAT's to stay up on the ventilator. So I gave her a Xopenex inhaler
treatment which didn't seem to help much and kept bagging while one of
the boys called dad to come help us bag her all the way home. I didn't
feel safe about driving with them bagging.

So, while waiting for daddy, I still had to page the manager back to us
to discuss the shopping cart purchase. Interesting enough, the white
look on his face as I explained that we were having a minor medical
emergency, that my husband was coming, that no, we did not need him to
call 911 but that I had a phone if I decided to go that route, and
what I'd really like to decide is whether he'd like a check or charge
card for the kiddie cart caused him to allow us to just take the cart
free of charge. :) I think what he wanted to have follow was, "Just
as long as you don't come back to freak out my peace loving customers,
lady."

So all in all, the trip was a success. We are back home on the home
ventilator having gotten some thick mucous out and run some extra
nebs, and she seems much better. She still has an elevated heart rate and temp, but is getting feisty again. I think she just didn't take kindly
to having been woken up from a nap for this outing. Of course, I
wasn't too keen on being up with her from 1:40-5am this morning
either...which is what I told her. I think we have an understanding. :)

Therese

Happy Halloween, 2008!

Today was so much fun, I almost cried. This was Kiera's due date had she gone to term, and this was her very FIRST Halloween at home and not in the hospital even though it's her third. A little SNAFU had our camera left at work, so these are pics from my brother's camera, and I have a few on my cell phone camera once I figure out how to get pics off it. I just had to include the pic of my nephew scrambling up the stairs with his dragon tail wagging. Too cute!

We went trick-or-treating with Kiera's cousins. Daddy was Winnie the Pooh, Mommy was Eyeore (It looks more like Eyeore when you see my tail on the back), and Kiera was Piglet, The ventilator was cleverly disguised as Tigger (her big stuffed Tigger riding the stroller canopy). The boys dressed as Halo II military type characters. It was cute...they did our recon and scoped out houses ahead of us. Unfortunately, 3 out of 4 houses in our neighborhood have stairs to their front door, so I often had to hold her pumpkin for her while she waited at the foot of stairs. Next year will be even more fun if she's walking.

Kiera actually sucked on a Dum Dum sucker for about a half a block!!!!!! It was so cute. Later when her hands were sticky from the sucker she tried to blow her cousin a kiss, and got distracted by her sweet hands.

The best part was after we got home. Kiera sat on the floor and started pulling candies out of her pumpkin. It was such a big girl thing to do- especially since the boys(14 and 16) were on the floor next to her sorting through their candy too.

I can't wait to see the pictures.

Love,
Therese

"Don't Panic!" (Nerd alert)

If you understand the reference in my title then you are just the type of nerd to which our family can relate. If not, then you might end up in a Vogon hold appreciating poetry when aliens finally decide to invade our plant. I digress....

So something funny happened today. Kiera had a blood gas drawn on Thursday in the hospital before discharge. I had called her pulmo Friday to make sure he had seen it and see if he wanted to do any vent setting changes, so he called today having looked at them. I don't remember all her numbers, but her Ph was 7.46 I think and her CO2 levels were 46! This is a wonderfully low and almost normal level for Kiera. Her levels used to be 50-60's when she was WELL which are horrible for someone else but were great for her. When we had her in a coma a few times last year, it always followed CO2 levels in upwards of 100. One time they were 180!!! So 46 is fantastic!

Now for the funny part (for those of you patiently waiting for the connection to the title): at 46 the gas reading is labeled as a "panic level." If this were a normal individual's lungs, I guess they might be prone to PANIC at 46, and yet, here we are rejoicing. :) Ahh, what a skewed world view we have.

This is a great sign of her overall pulmonary tree improving. We have been noticing much lower pressures in her lungs in the last few months where she used to have pressures in the 50's, and now her pressures are in the 20's. This means her lung tissue is growing and becoming more elastic and less difficult to ventilate. This is a good premonition for weaning in the future as long as we get through the winter infection free. So she is down to a rate of 16 and on 2 1/2 liters O2 (about 30%).

So, "Don't Panic," all is well.

Therese

Home and grumpy...

Kiera is recovering, but she's still pretty grumpy and napping a little more than usual. I touched the spot where her porta-cath is last night, and it's a little creepy to feel something that big under her skin. Her g-tube site is red and kind of puffy. And the poor thing woke up this morning with her eyes pasted shut with eye gunk.

I did notice last night that she was really adept at picking up some croutons and putting them in a fast food bag, and this morning she seemed much better at her shape puzzle than in the past. I'm wondering if her depth perception is so much improved since her eye surgery that it is making a big difference for her. I think we might see a big change in her fine motor skills.

Oh... and I lost another nurse today, but am gaining a NICU nurse I interviewed last week who already knows Kiera, so I guess I'm at status quo. I guess the nurse I lost was only working for me while waiting on a previous full-time committment to become available again. It surprised me, but I guess it was her plan all along.

Chuggin' along.
Therese

Kiera's Surgery Went Well

Kiera's surgery yesterday went well, and I'll be bringing her home this afternoon. She was pretty pissed off, but recovering nicely. She started crying the instant we started to put her on the hospital ventilator yesterday, as if to say, "Nooo, don't leave me here." I felt so bad, but she calmed down and we read some books. Then she fell asleep and was asleep when she went in to surgery. I wonder what she thought when she woke up afterwords. She'll probably never want to go to sleep again! :) We took her a giant Tigger that I found at Other Mothers for $5. (I love that store!) She enjoyed it, and it will compliment her Halloween costume nicely. I just held and cuddled her till she was ready to open her eyes. Then she watched an Elmo video and slept afterwords. Thank goodness for Little Mermaid which she was watching last night. I was able to leave and come home and sleep, and she pretty much didn't even notice us leave. Her eyes look aligned already, and I guess it will just improve. Having the porta-cathetar will be great for winter. The peripheral IV she had for surgery took at least 2 tries and only lasted till the end of surgery, so I think we made the right call. She won't need any IV sticks next time she needs a line. I've been telling people that we basically added a "faucet" to her veins for easy access. :)

Thanks for your prayers.
Therese

Kiera's feeling better and getting ready for surgery

Well, we weathered the stomach bug, and a few weird respiratory days following. Kiera doesn't want to eat again. Apparently 2 days in about 10 months was enough for her.

She is scheduled for her lazy eyes corrective surgery (strabismus surgery) in addition to a g-tube granuloma removal and a porta-cathetar placement at the same time on Wednesday the 22nd, so we are prepping for that. Her gaze is extrotropic meaning both her eyes drift outward so the surgery will pull those muscles inward to try to align her eyes. Right now she tends to switch between the two. The porta-cath will provide us IV access through the winter, so that when she does get sick we can administer IV antibiotics without the drama and torture of multiple sticks to try to get an IV in her poor little scarred veins. I'll probably bite the bullet and sleep at the hospital with her this time. It's getting harder on her to stay alone even though she knows everybody. Please pray that she comes through it all successfully.

I'm excited because one of the nursing agencies sent me a nurse today from our NICU who actually had Kiera quite frequently way back when she was iddy biddy. She still works full-time in NICU, so she'll just be available 1 shift a week, but every little bit counts. This will give me more consistent coverage on Mondays and Fridays with my other 3 PICU nurses filling in. The best part is that I know she is trained and capable.

It looks like we'll be opening our restaurant, Independence Grill, in November. There is so much to do. Keep an eye out for us. We'll be serving the best burgers (American Kobe Beef) with flavorful and avaunt guard toppings in addition to other great offerings like our portobello mushroom burger, American Kobe beef hot dogs, prime rib in our stone oven, and more. Everything is coming together.

Therese

Stomach Bug Revisited

Well, I guess one week of good health at a time is all one can hope for? Kiera started throwing up yesterday afternoon, coincidentally 24 hours after her flu shot. We stopped feeds and ran 24 hour pedialyte overnight and got her back on feed today; however, she seems a bit funky tonight. She hasn't started throwing up yet, but her tummy seems a bit full, and she hasn't pooped since this morning. I guess we'll see how things go overnight. Pray for Poop. :)

Funny thing: We received the annual report from Ronald McDonald House in Houston. BTW- they withstood a huge amount of damage from Hurricane Ike and are currently closed for repairs, putting their current tenants up in hotels. We had already been planning to contact our local RMH to hold a fundraiser for them as part of our grand opening for our restaurant in November. Anyway, the funny part was looking through the report tonight. They have pictures of kids on the front and back covers and throughout the book. You've all probably seen stuff like this before and wondered who those kids are. The weird part was that I knew about 75% of them from our stay at RMH last year. I was at many of the events pictured. Unfortunately, since our baby was in the hospital, we personally didn't make as good a photo opp. :) It was definitely different feeling like an insider for one of those random mailers we all receive instead of an outsider. It's so easy to go through your everyday life and see all those faces as just nameless faces. Once you know their names, they can never just be faces again. I hope they never will be. Here's a face the report missed:



Therese

HUGE NEWS: Kiera actually ATE food 2 days in a row!!!!!!

This is BIG! If you haven't had a kid with an oral aversion then you may not appreciate this. Apparently my own brother just realized after almost 2 years that Kiera has been fed by G-tube(since January 2007) and has not been willing to eat by mouth. Kiera was fed by NG during her first 6 months prior to G-tube placement. She has always sucked a pacifier and used to like tastes of juice and tasted food once a day for about 2 weeks until her second swallow study in Dec 2007, and suddenly decided that eating is not for her. Last night and this morning Kiera actually ATE, by mouth, with her speech valve in line. Last night she ate about 1/2 a container of 1st foods carrots! The container is probably 2 oz so maybe she ate an oz? It was about 3 teaspoons I think. I'll have to measure more accurately. This morning she ate about a third of a 2nd foods container of pear/strawberry granola which is, again, about 3 teaspoons or an oz. It was so exciting! I don't even know how much a 2 year old should be eating daily to get her full nutrition, but this is an excellent start considering just last week she would barely let 3 tastes go in her mouth. That's all for now...I need to give her a bath and get going on my day (now that it's already 12:30 in the afternoon.

Therese

We ask your forgiveness...

I previously failed to post pictures of Kiera's many travels since Kiera got sick and interrupted my blogging life. Also...I didn't want to get found out. We are supposed to keep her away from large crowds and dusty environments, but we couldn't help taking her to the state fair the Thursday prior to her pneumonia hospitalization. She did great at the fair, and we really wanted her to see the LIVE farm animals instead of just the ones in her books. She was a real trooper and did well even though we discovered after returning home that her tank was malfunctioning and only delivering 1 liter O2 instead of the 3-6 we thought she was getting. We had treated the minor de-sat's as environmental or monitor malfunction and gave a neb while there, but all in all, she did surprisingly well (a didn't touch much). Here is a pic with a goat and one at the horse pavilion. She was more interested in watching her brothers' antics.




I am using the blog today as a forum to confess our sins involving Kiera's many travels to her pulmonologist who inadvertently found out about our trip to the fair from the PICU nurse we ran into while there. What he doesn't know, is that in addition to her busy week attending the foods show, the fair, and a church family fun night (which I believe is ACTUALLY where she got sick from playing on the floor), we have actually been taking her many other unapproved places, any one of which could be the culprit for this last virus contraction. However, since he told us early on that it is better to ask forgiveness than permission...we now humbly beg his forgiveness. Here is the photographic evidence of our indiscretions:

We started with fun locations close to home in New Mexico in order to expand her world. Developmentally, these experiences have been so enriching for Kiera.


The Rio Grande Petting Zoo...She signed, "Kitty." It was SOOOO cute!


Carlsbad Caverns, NM...More wildlife experience digging through bat guano.


We want Kiera to experience her parents' heritage, so we took her to our old stomping grounds. Daddy remembers fondly trips to Utah to visit his grandma and other relatives, and, of course, I can't imagine a world without nuclear waste from Hanford Nuclear plant in Washington state where I spent my childhood.

Utah Arches National Park...a bit dusty, but overall, an enlightening experience for her.

Since she's on a vent, it is a "closed circuit" as I am often told, so I figure the fallout from this waste storage site would be inconsequential to her...and, well, it's too late for me. I drank the water growing up. One must also consider that this baby has had more x-rays in two years than Wonder Woman has received in glances from Superman.


Of course, the real test is international travel. Did you know you can get Apria Healthcare services in other languages?


I told her not to "pet" the lepers at this leper colony in India, but we had our Purell with us, so I suppose it was okay. Those silly 2yr olds! You can't tell them anything!


The walk at the Great Wall in China was a doozy, especially with the stroller weighed down with a good 40 pounds of additional equipment. I was so proud of Jerry. But, in our defense, we did get Kiera an Avian Bird Flu Shot before we went.


Okay, Mount Everest was admittedly a bad idea so we just took a picture at Base Camp, and went directly home. We did sell some of her O2 to some fellow hikers for the rest of the trip. These are memories that will last a lifetime.


So again, for these and our many other transgressions...we are truly repentant. It's time to move forward though, and forget the past.

Therese

Kiera says, "Mama!"

One of the benefits of leaving your 2 yr old in a hospital room for a week is that she develops separation anxiety and learns to speak up to get attention. :) Since coming home she has decided to "cry out loud" every time I leave the room, or even appear to be getting ready to leave the room. By "cry out loud," for those of you with non-trached children, this is a BIG deal. She has to get enough pressure behind her to make sound past the trach cuff and ventilator pressure. It's not the volume or duration of a non-trached kid's cry, but it certainly gets noticed when we normally have a silent baby.

Anyway, this need for me to be in the room at all times combined with her speech valve trials with the therapist has inspired her to say, "Maaaa- ma," to get me to come back in the room. It was so sweet to hear(even though it sounds like a whine) that I cried. I thought I had heard it before at the hospital a few times with her cuff still inflated, but coming from her, it sounds kind of like a bleeting sheep, and it was easy to second guess what I heard or chalk it up to just noises made while crying. The therapist and I tested her a few times today with the speech valve on by having me leave the room (I was mixing formula) and then come back when she called, "Mama." She repeated this at least 4 times. Unfortunately for Daddy, the "D" sound is much trickier, so he'll have to wait, I think. The Latin based languages are clearly a maternal conspiracy to gain power over fathers.

In addition, she has been willing to "taste" a little bit of food and drink. Some tricks have been unusual. She likes prunes, expecially since I think she's been uncomfortable pooping since we changed her over to a daytime only feeding schedule (no overnight continuous feeds), and the other night when she seemed uncomfortable, I offered her prunes and said, "They'll help you poop." She seemed to understand the logic of my statement, and now that phrase seems to encourage her to try things. She's been chomping on carrots, but has quite a bite and can break off big pieces but then not know what to do with them, so I will have to DC these for a while even though that's what the hospital feeding clinic recommended. Frankly, I'm having more success going against their recommendations. I just don't think they know Kiera and are treating her like a "typical kid with a trach and oral aversion" rather than adjusting their philospohy to her. So now I need to go buy more prune baby food. Of course, she only eats about a teaspoon in one sitting. Other parents would hardly call this eating, but for Kiera, this is HUGE! She also likes to drink when we sing "Drink, drink, drink" to the tune of "Jingle Bells." On "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street, he always ends the show playing Jingle Bells and singing the topic word to that tune. She LOVES this song, and smiles when I play it on xylophone, etc, so I thought she'd feel comfortable, and it seemed to work. Yeah! Again, drinking only involves about 5-10 cc's (1/6th to 1/3 of an oz) at best. But at least the cup makes it into her mouth. She seems to prefer sippy cups without low flow or spill proof lids, so I have to remove the spill proof valves and monitor her so she doesn't throw it and let it run all over my carpet.

Cheers!
Therese

"Does She sleep through the night, yet?"

Ode to a preemie Mother and an elusive night's Sleep:

Kiera has been sleeping through the night pretty much since birth.

She slept through the night for most of 514 days in the NICU and PICU.
She slept through the night while having diapers changed, blood pressure and temperature taken, or blood gases drawn every 4 hours.
She slept through the night while Mother was getting up every 3 hours to pump breast milk for her. She slept through the night when Mother received 4 am phone calls from nurses who had to bag or reintubate her; calls which always began with "Kiera's fine now, but...."
She slept through the night when Mother would wake up from nightmares that she was dead or otherwise in crisis.

She finally comes home. She starts sleeping through the night around 10 PM.

She sleeps through the night while vent and baby are carried upstairs by 2 exhausted parents.
She sleeps through the night while a pulmonary vest treatment shakes her lungs and sounds like a helicopter circling the neighborhood.
She sleeps through the night while Mother gets up to run nebulizer treatments every 2 to 4 to 6 hours depending on her health always starting one at midnight in hopes of mother getting to sleep through the night.
She sleeps through the night when Mother gets up to suction her trach tube.
She sleeps through the night when she shimmies out of her apnea monitor and sets it off with an alarm loud enough to wake the dead...but not her.

She sleeps through the night most soundly when she is feeling well like last night.

When she is in a deep, deep sleep, she exhales around her trach cuff allowing pressure to escape and setting off a low minimum volume alarm on her ventilator; thus waking Mother as she continues to sleep through the night.
When she is in a deep, deep sleep her resting heart rate drops below 55 setting off her SAT monitor in an annoying and constant roadrunner-esque "beep-beep, beep-beep;" thus waking Mother to hit the silence every 2 minutes from 2:30AM-5:30AM as she continues to sleep through the night.
When she is in a deep, deep sleep triggering all these alarms, Mother's sleep deprivation evolves into bizarre quickie nightmares between hitting silence involving scenarios of inability to function in an emergency trach re-cannulation due to ... lack of sleep, as she continues to sleep through the night.
When she is in a deep, deep sleep, her mother's inability to rest evolves into nighttime ruminations of how exactly she will explain this to the mother's who quite innocently inquire, "Does she sleep through the night, yet?" ...as she continues to sleep through the night.

6 AM arrives. A nebulizer is given.
A brief wink is caught.
8 AM arrives. A nebulizer is given.
Another brief wink is caught.
9:30 AM arrives. Meds are late. A feeding is late. A baby who sleeps through the night stands in her crib, 2 yrs old, smiling, "Good morning, good morning!" having had a fantastic night of sleeping through the night.
Mother's coffee is ready.

Kiera's back at home

Kiera was discharged yesterday, and seems to be getting back to her old self. Mommy is still getting over her bronchitis, probably inspired by the same virus that gave Kiera pneumonia. Daddy got it, but mostly had a sniffle for a few days. Just goes to show how much of a problem a sniffle can cause Kiera, so keep vigilant if you are visiting this winter. No sniffles allowed.

Fallout from this admission, or maybe just bad timing, is that Kiera is practicing her separation anxiety. Every time I leave the room she cries. I even stepped behind the couch to get her meds this morning, and she was lying down and couldn't see me, so she sat up and cried. I think it was particularly hard for her in the hospital because I stayed away two days while I was sick in order to keep her well, but that's impossible to explain to a 2 yr old. I had to sit and cuddle her most of the evening last night. Thank goodness for Grandma who visited while I couldn't.

Funny story: After we called the charge nurse while we were on our way to the hospital to admit Kiera last Monday, we hung up, and she had to call me back on my cell to get some other information. She didn't have to use caller I.D. because she has my cell number memorized. You know you've been in the hospital to often when you not only have the hospital's direct line committed to memory, but they've memorized YOUR number. :) Now THAT'S customer service!

Therese

Kiera's perking up...

So I think Kiera is starting to feel better. I think I caught whatever she has Tuesday, and Jer might be catching it now. Last night we went to see her, and she stood up in her crib and played our kissing game. I kiss her, she pushes Daddy and Mommy's faces together to make us kiss, then Daddy kisses her. It's quite entertaining. She also LOVES Eskimo kisses. She thinks they are hysterical! We played ball in her crib and read and sang songs. So, I think her bug is passing. She's still on the 840 vent, and they are slowly weaning her settings and trying to back off on her nebs which she has been getting every 3 hours. My earliest guess to get her home would be Saturday, but I'll have to pick some brains today.

My real dilemna is that my husband thinks this is a great opportunity to help him paint our new restaurant. Thank God I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday! He's going to make me do manual labor. :( I did get 2 loads of dishes and 2 loads of laundry done yesterday and was able to spend significant time helping Mitch with his math. It was weird, though, being in my kitchen. I kept feeling like I should be listening for the ventilator in the other room and going back and forth between the two to check on Kiera. It's definitely too quiet around here without the vent constantly going. I certainly understand "empty nest syndrome."

Therese

Back in the P-I-C-U (a lesser known song of Billy Joel)

So, we admitted Kiera tonight. She had such a rough day all day, that it seemed the best choice. Of course, we will have to catch up on the Heroes premier later. Thank God for DVR. :) Once we got her on the hospital ventilator (the 840) she actually improved tremendously. Hopefully, this will just turn out to be a 72 hour tune up. It's actually been 3 whole months since her last pneumonia. Not a bad run. Her x-rays show an obliterated lower left lung (which has traditionally been her good lung) and what appears to be some viral activity in the right central as well. I asked them to hold off on the N-Balm (spelling?) lavage (a deep lung culture) and any I.V. attempts to see if this is just viral and passes with better ventilator support. I feel like the lavage last time contributed to escalating the pneumonia instead of helping. It will be nice to get a nutrition panel, blood gas, and other lab work that is tricky from home. Since she slept most of the day (as best as she could) she was wide awake when we left tonight. Luckily Elmo and The Little Mermaid have replaced us as parents, and we left her, unnoticed, while she watched her programs. :) She'll probably be up a while. She even got her old corner room. Yippee! I really hated to take her in, but she was limp and pale, and we had pretty much maxed out our bag of tricks here at home. I guess this is the beginning of us becoming even more reclusive for the remainder of the winter. It makes me nervous about her eye surgery scheduled for October. Eek.

Love,
Therese

Sick again:(

We are not amused. We started inhaled antibiotics this morning. I was so excite Saturday night because Kiera drank 15 cc's(about 1/2 an oz) of milk from a sippy cup! This is such a BIG deal! Then Sunday morning she woke up throwing up a cheesy looking product. So I decided maybe cow's milk isn't for her. I tried Similac at dinner Sunday, but she wasn't really in the mood and wouldn't take it. Now, this morning around 3 am I had to suction her regularly all night, about 12 times between 3 and 6, and then the nurse came at 6AM and suctioned her 12 more times by 10AM. We've had to bump her O2 to 5-6 liters. I want to think she's just sick, but I'm worried that she may have aspirated the milk and gotten pneumonia from it. I really want her to be able to drink, but it seems like she gets sick every time we try. I just want to cry. It's so frustrating to not be able to do something as normal as feed your baby.

Therese

Kiera Finally Did It...she decanulated! Whee!

So...now we know how that works. Definitely, Kiera's new found mobility is in direct conflict with her 3 foot ventilator circuit and vent stand too heavy for her to pull with her. She was at the rope limit and stretching to get something (that she shouldn't). She toppled, decanulated (ie. trach tube popped out, inflated balloon and all), unplugged SAT probe (so I'm not sure if or how low she desatted), and pulled out her G-tube (again balloon inflated), all simultaneously. It probably only took about a minute to get her recovered (maybe 2), but it seemed like longer. The obturator on hand that came with her trach seemed like a good one; however, in this type emergent situation, it bent and made things particularly difficult. There was lots of blood everywhere from the decanulation which made it look scarier. I don't think her SAT's were ever too too low, but since her plug to her probe had come undone I can't be certain. Her lips didn't get too dusky though, so I suppose maybe her SAT's dipped to 80's or perhaps 70's. Of course, she was crying and pissed off which made her red in the face, so that might have been hard to read. The best part was I got to do this by myself. Jer was at work. I did have one of my consultants here who I asked to help hold her hands down, although in the scurry to help I had the trach back in by the time she got to our side. That was certainly an initiation into the wonderful world of a toddler with a trachiostomy. Poor thing (my consultant) got to witness some colorful language on my part to say the least. I was fairly calm and collected until Kiera started fighting me and the obturator was bending. Then foul language seemed the appropriate response to get us through it. :) I am yet again aware of how skilled my nurses need to be. I am so glad to have the PICU nurses that I have because this is risky business.

On a lighter note: Kiera's mouthing of the word "Hi" has seemed to evolve into sticking her tongue out while saying it...kind of in Gene Simmons fashion or like an "Ack" from Bill the Cat. It's pretty funny. She's signing a lot more now too, and loves playing "This Little Piggy." She hands you her toes as if to get a pedicure.

Kiera also had a hearing screening yesterday and did pretty well. She shows a slight hearing loss in her left ear, but that may be attributed to the margin for error, so we just watch it and go back in 6 months. As it is, it wouldn't be something to correct anyway. She definitely fought like a bear to keep them from putting anything in her ears. She would have fought less had we been pulling off her toenails.

Love,
Therese

Kiera has AMAZING Ball Handling SKILLS!

We were playing ball yesterday. She clearly wants every person in the room to have a turn, even if they seem uninterested in the game or if she has to find a way around her ventilator to get it to them. :) She does the neatest thing and rolls the ball up her side to change direction and roll it to someone else. I think she's pre-WMBA. :) She's BRINGIN' it.

I'll try to upload pics soon. I'm trying to finish my stupid taxes still between messing with a finnicky feeding pump, reconnecting vents, etc.

Therese

Okay, no rock concerts for Kiera.

So we took a chance and took Kiera to a McCain/Palin Victory Rally at the convention center. This is the first time she's been in this big of a crowd. We've never even been to the mall or a full church with her. She did great in the hour and a half with just the crowds and music. The big thing that was hard for her was the unison applause and cheering. She cries sometimes at home just when I laugh at the TV loudly or suddenly.When actor, Robert Duvall, came in and everyone cheered, she cried. (I don't think it was a critique of the movie "The Prophet.") Then when speeches and cheering started I had to hold her in the Hip Hammock (Thank God and my friend Angelina for the Hip Hammock!) and hold her to my chest with my hand over her ear. It was a very interesting outing. We ended up standing next to 2 nurses, which was comforting, and a man whose daughter was trached at 3 months and on a ventilator 17 years ago. He was so cute, asking about the new styled travel ventilator that they didn't have then and mentioning that the suction cathetar hasn't changed. God does watch over, doesn't He?

We suctioned her twice while there, fed her which resulted in her G-tube pulling out so we had to reinsert it while bumping O2 because of a simultaneous desat, and changed a diaper on a chair (the only normal task to most, but at this point not much different than the previous 2 for us). We also had to be creative about access out of and into the parking garage whose one working elevator was hard to find going in so we carried her stroller down some stairs and wandered through the empty Galleria, passing an out of service elevator and an out of service escalator, till we found a different elevator. Then upon leaving, we found the garage elevator and wished we hadn't since it smelled like urine. Oh, and I almost forgot, we gave her a nebulizer using the bagging tank in the car, while driving and pre-ordering pizza on the phone. Then we went to dinner as a family at Dions, and everything timed out perfectly. We packed a little extra in the way of O2 and battery power since we didn't know what to expect, but overall, it went incredibly well. I even had some granola bars for my boys and water bottles. We Rocked this thing!

Feeling Good.
Therese

Make Way for McCain!

I really enjoyed the McCains' speeches last night too. I particularly liked the videos about each of their lives. I had no idea that Cindy McCain founded and ran the American Voluntary Medical Team, and she led 55 medical missions to third world and war-torn countries in their 7 years of operation. Their daughter, Bridget, was one of Mother Theresa's orphans in Bangladesh with a cleft palate while Cindy was there with Operation Smile. Cindy currently serves on the Board of Directors of Operation Smile. One of Kiera's nurses and I think one of her RT's in the hospital actually volunteer for Operation Smile. It was such a cute story about how she fell in love with Bridget and brought her home, and when she got off the plane with the baby, John said, "Where is she going," and Cindy said, "Home with us." He responded, "I thought so."

McCain's speech definitely carried a theme of personal responsibility for community service and making our country a better place and in diminishing the horrendous size of government and pork barrel spending to get government out of the way of the amazing things the American people can achieve. I definitely think McCain and Palin will be just the thing our country needs. We need to stop relying on government to solve all our problems. He also said that (I think I remember it word for word but forgive any paraphrasing) "Education is the number one racial issue in America." Education is the key to overcoming poverty and opening doors for people. We get nowhere by increasing social programs that just keep the poor in the same place.

I am very excited about taking Kiera to see McCain and Palin at their event tomorrow. I hope she's feeling a little better. She has a cough and a ton of secretions. I think she caught it from her brother. Hopefully, after another day of treatments, we can get her back to a more reasonable level of care to take her on an outing. It's tough to think about going to an event like this when she might need a lot of medical attention throughout.

Therese

Preemie for Palin!

(click on title for Palin speech video)

So Kiera's doing pretty well and getting into EVERYTHING for a kid who is constantly on a 3 foot leash.

What I really want to blog about today is how EXCITED I am about the McCain/Palin ticket! WOW! Did you see Sarah Palin's speech last night? If you didn't, you owe it to yourself and our country to watch it. If I did this correctly you can click on the title of this article to go to an CBS news video of her speech. I think it's 38 minutes. I watched Palin's speech TWICE yesterday. I have never in my life been inspired to watch ANY political speech a second time. I feel like she and I have so much in common, and that she is a candidate who really understands me. She is a STRONG and CONFIDENT woman. Plus, she is a mother of 5 with a 4 month old who has Downs Syndrome. She made a promise last night that when she's in the White House we will have an advocate for children with special needs. You know with a special needs child, she's got heart, and she's a fighter.

In addition, I came away feeling like McCain and Palin are the people to lead us through tough times. She told a story of when McCain was a POW, and how after interrogation he would return and give a wink and a thumbs up to a fellow POW (present at the convention) who was watching to let him know they would get through this. That's the kind of leader who is thinking of others and not himself, who is there to serve and not be served. Plus, if he could handle torture, I'm sure he can handle a White House press conference. They won't tax small businesses (like our restaurant) to death like Obama plans and put more people out of business and their employees out of work. What kind of economic plan is that? Did you hear this morning that retail sales are down at major department stores? If business is already having a decline in sales, how is taxing that business MORE so they keep LESS of their income going to stimulate our economy? She also has clear experience in the fuel industry and plans for drilling and utilizing alternative fuel sources. They will kick start our country.

The neat thing to think about, is that getting Sarah Palin into the White House as VP gives her a chance to train as second in command for 4 to 8 years so that she could be a viable candidate for the first woman president with actual experience under her belt in running the country. It's interesting how the National Organization for Women has clear ideas of which women they support. You apparently can only think one way and be pro-woman. Interestingly enough, the first feminists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were pro-life and wouldn't be considered feminists by today's standards either. When I hear comments from the other side that Palin should stay home and raise her baby, it becomes very clear who keeps the glass ceiling in place. I guess the Dems only want CERTAIN women to rise to positions of power in this country. They are all talk. They really just want the women they think they can CONTROL.

Most of all, I am feeling positive and secure about the future, and I hope you are too! If you're not, then maybe you should reconsider who you are voting for for our future. :)

Love,
Therese

Kiera's social visit to the hospital today...

Yay! Kiera has a new cousin who was born last night! We went to visit him today in the hospital, and Kiera was so cute with him. She was really fascinated by him. The minute she saw him, she signed, "baby," and smiled big. We let her touch him, and she touched his face gently. Then when my mother was holding him, I had her stand next to Grandma, and she was tugging at his blanket to try to touch him. It was, yet again, weird to see her as the BIG baby.

Then we stopped by PICU to visit. It's on the same floor as mother/baby on the opposite side of the elevator. She enjoyed seeing everyone, and they all loved seeing her; but after a few minutes she started getting visibly anxious. She had a look of concern on her face that I might admit her and leave her there. Poor baby. I bet she was glad when we went to the car, and she realized that the whole trip had been merely a social call with no needles or anything.

Therese