Hospital Update - 11

On Thursday morning, I got LOTS of questions at Bible class about how Maggie's doing. Y'know, physically she's recuperating great! But boy oh boy, she is getting so spoiled! Cards and presents and too much TV are the nice parts. But the "get me some milk" and "help me pick up the thermometer" (which is lying 18 inches away from her) and "I'm hot; take the blanket off me" is getting to be a little much. We made her start helping with lunch dishes -- one of her regular chores -- a couple of days ago. She can't sweep or vacuum or any other work that takes chest or abdominal muscles.

Today Maggie told me that Mrs May gave her instructions to "have those brothers wait on you for a while." And she's playing it out for all its worth. She's just trying to obey Mrs May, you see. [The mother rolls her eyes....]

The rash is nearly gone, but now she's feeling itchy. Hopefully it's just dry skin.

One of Maggie's stunts in the hospital was figuring out the monitors. She liked watching the heart beat on the monitor, with the number for her pulse. There was also an electrical lead for her blood pressure. There was one for her temperature that she kept a close eye on. The really funny one was the respiration. It fluctuated wildly, except when she was asleep. When we asked the nurses, one told us that it has to be very sensitive, so as to register for babies who are belly breathers and big kids who are chest breathers. Because of the sensitivity, it also registers movement (including talking) as breathing. So when Maggie got chattering, the monitor might show her respiration to be sky-rocketing. She liked to look over her shoulder, up to the monitor. But that movement in itself caused the numbers and the graphline to bounce all over the place. In describing the machine to her, we showed her that she could take three quick breaths, and that would affect the graphline one way. If she took slow breaths, or deep breaths, or shallow breaths, these would all affect the graphline. So one time, when I wasn't there, she decided to hold her breath. I hear tell that a nurse came hurrying in to find out what the problem was. And Little Miss Cry-Wolf just grinned and announced that she had been holding her breath. That there is one good indication that the ornery child was feeling too good to be housed in ICU any longer.

Another conversation was on Friday, before going home. One doctor and a resident and a nurse were making a very big point about her health and her incision and the snow. She should not go tobogganning. Snow angels would probably not be a good idea. No tobogganing. Okay to sit out in the snow, all bundled up, and throw snowballs at a tree or other target. No snowball fights, though, because the snowballs shouldn't be coming in her direction. And she couldn't go toboganning. No making snowmen either -- too much weight to move. And no toboganning.

Finally Maggie interrupted on the 57th prohibition against toboganning. "I can't go tobogganning. We don't have a toboggan." Oh. Okay. Then there's nothing to worry about. With a twinkle in her eye, she said, "We have a sled though." Good grief!!! After laughing, they told her "no sledding!"

In case anybody's interested in heavier reading, I posted on the Mouthhouse Moms blog about some Gerhardt hymns. Pastor Borghardt had requested that all HT bloggers consider putting up something on December 7 for Advent. I couldn't think of anything else to write. After I posted, it crossed my mind that I could've told Maggie's birth story. I suppose that could always wait for another day.