Not Quite CVICU

Good evening everyone-

Let me start this off by saying that we are firm believers that we should report the facts on this site - the good and the bad. With that thought in mind, I bring some slightly negative news. I am careful not to categorize this as "bad" news since our situation is not nearly as bad as some others. That being said, tonight was EASILY Cole's worst night in the hospital thus far in his young life.

Earlier today before Cole was moved, our CVICU nurses had warned Laura that the care in Progressive is "not quite as good" as it is in CVICU. They went so far as to say things like "you will want to be in the room with him just to stay on top of them." If you read between the lines, they were saying that basically Cole would be on his own and that the nurses *wink, wink* would be there to "assist" us. Fast forward to this evening...

We arrived at LCH around 8:25 pm and as soon as we walked through the security doors, we could hear a baby screaming. We felt that lump in our throats as we walked closer and closer to Cole's room and the screaming got louder and louder and louder....it was then that we knew it was him. We walked in and nobody was in his room and he was just lying in bed executing a perfect version of his "hurt cry." We assumed that he must have been hungry so we plugged in a bottle. He ate 2 bottles while crying at the same time and the only other thing we could think of was that he was hurting. I went to get our "nurse" as quickly as I could. Once I reached the nurse's station, I told the first nurse I could find that Cole was hurting and screaming and that he needed some pain meds. Then our nurse (who was supposed to be helping us already) came into his room and after consulting her nursing school textbook, deduced that some pain meds might make some sense. Quite the Nostradamus she was! She left the room at 8:31 pm to go fetch the meds.

At 8:56 pm there was still no sign of our nurse. Apparently, the only "tylenol with codine" available was in Honduras somewhere and our nurse was on a safari to find it. I again went out to complain to the same lady as before and she ended up bringing in the meds herself.

As Cole was choking down his meds, our nursing student walked in and realized that not only did she not get Cole something for his pain, but that she had more meds that she was supposed to give him. While attempting to administer the other meds through the IV in Cole's hand, she discovered that the IV had slipped out of his hand. She calls in another nurse for "just another set of eyes" to look at his hand and sure enough, they had to remove the useless IV. This sent Cole to yet another level of screaming. This one was around the "someone stabbing me" tune...nice and high-pitched. At this point (it was 9:30 pm), Cole had been screaming for over an hour that we knew of, but who knows how long they had been letting him holler before we showed up. Had we not showed up, who knows? He could have screamed until he lost his voice. They could hear him and they did not do a thing until I complained. Later I found out that they have 4 nurses on that floor taking care of 20 children. 5 patients per nurse is a lot different then the one on one attention that Cole got in the CVICU.

At this point I start remembering the subtle hints that the CVICU nurses had dropped. I wondered to myself how I might go about nominating them for the Understatement Of The Year Award. If I worked in the CVICU, I would take the opposite approach and say something like "you are going up to Progressive, good luck with that." "Only about 3 out of 5 people make it out of there alive." This is the spite rising up in me manifesting itself in the form of sarcasm.

Finally, Laura started to sing in Cole's ear and he calmed down, starting looking at her, and seemed content. It was truly a beautiful thing. I love her voice and so does Cole Bear and we both looked at her with adoring eyes and she continued to sing like an angel. While Laura was singing, I was able to rub his beautiful noggin. There is soft and then there is Cole's head. Imagine cashmere mixed with a chinchilla fur with a side of pure silk....that is what his head feels like. I kissed him on his head as he fell asleep despite the tears that were falling from his mommy's face.

I know this description has been long and drawn out, but it had to be to explain just what degree of hell Cole was raising tonight. It was pitiful because he kept looking at us wanting us to help him and all we could do was stand around and watch.

Please continue to keep little "Tubbs McGee" in your prayers because as you can tell, things can go from "great" to "not so great" very quickly. He will be in Progressive until at least Monday and even though the Nurse Manager is going to get a piece of Laura Ann Griffin's mind tomorrow, we have a feeling the care will be "less than spectacular."

Like I said in the opening, this is a full disclosure blog. Come to think of it, that is the type of people that we are - no need to sugarcoat anything, just tell it like it is. I believe that is the type of God we serve also - a "no nonsense" type of God. Well, he and I had a bit of a clashing about my baby boy on my drive home. I am none too happy at the moment and I told God that. I try to always be real with Him and with you all and I always will be.

God Bless You all and have a great night.

Until tomorrow....

MG