Day 15 at St Jude

Flurries here today. Crazy that you miss so much of the weather being trapped in here. It wasn’t until a nurse told us that we knew it was snowing.

Also crazy that everyone hits your hospital room at about the same time… feel a little overwhelmed by it at times.

Jesse woke me at 5am wanting a drink. I was so out of it I thought it was Chris yelling for her daddy… and I was getting ready to yell at her before I realized what was happening.

Around 8am, Chris was up and ravished. Mike and Jesse slept until about 9. I had a staff meeting at 9, which is when the resident showed up. Different resident this time. I didn’t even get a chance to catch her name. That is frustrating to. Yes I have dropped everything to be by my daughter’s side. Please understand if I would like to continue to work. I need a sign for the door! “Staff meeting, Monday’s at 9am. Please wait until 10am before seeing us. Thank you. The patient’s parent inside.”

Thought about this a little more after I wrote it… I don’t mean that I wouldn’t drop everything for Jesse. I’ve done it before. But when you are here, you are constantly interrupted. I just want 1 hour to keep up with some aspect of my life outside of Jesse’s illness. And for that hour I have the meeting in the same room with her. I don’t go off and leave her.

Mike grabbed a shower while I finished my meeting. Then Chris and I went down to grab us breakfast.

The clinician came to tell us they were doing a craft on the porch when the wound care nurse arrived. She looked at Jesse’s wounds and was pleased that they looked much better. After she redressed them, we put Jesse in the wheelchair and rolled her out to “covered porch” to do a craft.

When the craft was done, Mike and Chris only had 30 minutes before they had to leave for the airport. And as they were telling us good-bye, the attending doctor and Jesse’s main doctor came in. The attending decided to return later while Mike met her main doctor.

It was hard watching them go. I don’t know when we’ll all be together again. Plus Jesse and I are homesick too. We miss our Maggie dog, backyard, house, friends, family, school, Williamsburg, Virginia, and the normal boring routine of everyday life. I miss getting the kids up in the morning to go to school. I miss cleaning my house… I miss my shower… I miss not having to share my washing machine (conceited of me I know… but once you can just do laundry at a whim and be lazy to leave it in the dryer overnight… you get ruined.)

I miss being aggravated by dueling TVs and Ipads. I miss hanging out with Mike and telling the girls to go to sleep… and Jesse getting fixated that she going to sleep with me. And me waiting her out sometimes and caving other times. I miss braiding Chris hair to make it “curly” for school.

After they left, Jesse felt like she had to pee. She sat on the toilet for 2 hours and no luck. I talked her into finally getting off to go with me to check the mail. But when we got back, she felt the urge again… and sat for another 90 minutes with no luck.

Thank you Jennifer Hewitt for the coloring books, pencils, cards, and singing card. Thank you Howard family for the coloring books, sticker book, and cards. Thank you Dan and Suzanne Hetts for the snacks, CD, and Jesse’s tote (that will be very useful). Thank you Nancy and Robert for the card. Thank you John, Beth, and Alex for the “Magic Tree House” books. And thank you Yatzeck family for the USB drive. Jesse was exhausted after we opened mail and fell asleep.

Thank you everyone for the cards that you sent. Jesse really has enjoyed opening them.