It was a long night, only because Norah had to have blood draws and Tylenol every 4 hours, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep.  All 3 calcium tests came back with a level over 8, and they were supposed to be at least 7.5.  I don’t know what that value means, other than that we can go home.  She was able to finally eat this morning because the riskiest time for bleeding has passed and she won’t have to go back to the O.R.  She will have one more blood test at 10 a.m., and as long as she’s still over 7.5 we’ll be able to leave. 

This is a great hospital and our stay has been terrific, great staff, lots of little touches to make it easier for us, but we’re ready to go.  We’re just keeping Norah from jumping on the bed or running in the halls until 10, then we’ll go for a walk around the 7th floor until the test results come back.  Keep your fingers crossed!

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Norah and Ben are both zonked out…my “bed” is the blue recliner in the foreground.  Cozy!

You may have noticed the gorgeous flowered blanket in some of the earlier photos.  When we arrived in our room in the PICU (pediatric ICU) direct from surgery, we found this beautiful fleece blanket, and a goody bag of items to help make our stay in the PICU a little easier.  The bag had snacks, water, playing cards, a puzzle book, a pad and pen, tissues, tea, mac-n-cheese, gum, and a beautiful painting of a rainbow from a young artist named Cecelia. 

These gifts were from Brady’s Smile, a charitable organization founded by Annie and Matt Hinton to carry on the spirit of their son Brady, who passed away at the age of 2.  Brady endured numerous surgeries and medical procedures, and spent close to 6 months of his life in an ICU.  And through it all, he smiled.  His parents are honoring Brady’s smile and his life with their work to help other families spending time in the ICU.  We are very grateful to have received these gifts in Brady’s memory. 

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Honestly, I’m getting a little bored too, but apparently it’s a good sign that Norah is complaining of boredom.  She’s getting tired of watching movies, so when she found out that there’s a roomful of toys down the hall, she conned Ben into walking her down with her IV pole.  We took the wagon for a lap around the unit but this is a really busy place so we parked the wagon and got her back into bed. 

Dr. Breuer and Dr. Rivkees both came by to check up on Norah, along with various other doctors, nurses, and residents.  They all agree that she’s doing great.  There’s no evidence of bleeding, and the greatest risk of that is in the first 12 hours so we’re nearing the end of that window.  Norah’s calcium level was good, so she’ll have blood drawn again at midnight and 4 a.m. for two more checks.  Hopefully those test results will be good too, and we can go home after breakfast.  I’m running out of entertaining ideas!

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Norah is still not herself…she just fell back to sleep after exhausting herself with a couple of Dora episodes and a few minutes of painting, but she’s doing great.  We’re waiting for her calcium level test results to come back.  If her calcium is low that means that her parathyroids are taking a break and she will need an IV.  She would need to stay in the hospital until her calcium is stable without the IV, so we’re really hoping for good results so we can go home tomorrow.

The first thing Norah said when she woke up from the anesthesia was “mariquita,” which is ladybug in Spanish.  I hadn’t even noticed but some of the ceiling tiles had been painted by kids and there was one above her bed with a ladybug, a cloud, a heart, a sun, and a flower, and she named everything in Spanish except for the cloud.  I think the fact that she woke up speaking Spanish is a good indication that the Spanish is becoming embedded in her brain.

2:00 p.m. conversation:
Norah:  Do I have a band-aid on my neck?
Me:  Yes.
Norah:  Why?
Me:  Because you have a hole there.
Norah:  Am I done with surgery?
Me:  Yes.
Norah:  Then why didn’t I have a lollipop?

Here are some photos of her recovery progress so far:

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Norah is in her room in the PICU but still pretty groggy. When she first started to wake up she was very confused and kind of flailing around, but now she opens her eyes, nods yes to questions and goes back to sleep.

Dr. Breuer said everything went great – they saw the nerves and the parathyroids so they know that they weren’t damaged. They will monitor her calcium and watch for bleeding but if all is well we’ll be home tomorrow afternoon.

Click here to read the next post about Norah’s thyroid.

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