Hospital Ordeal

The back-story for this is too long to describe, and most of you know it anyhow.

The short story is that with very little notice, we discovered that we had to admit Evelyn to the hospital for what we initially were told would be a 2 day stay which turned, suddenly, into a 10 day stay. Evelyn had to recieve a 10 day course of Penicillin--administered intravenously every 6 hours.

She wasn't sick when she went in, but she was both sick and traumatized when she came out. (Much the same is true of Jess, who didn't understand and grieved her absence.) Evelyn's ordeal involved, sedation, a spinal tap, multiple IVs (at times two at once--one in each arm) and constant--for her also very stressful--poking and prodding from doctors and nurses. To top it all off, both Evie and Jesse (and me) picked up a flu virus that was going round the floor. So we had fevers running in the 103's both at home and at the hospital. The worst part of the flu, however, wasn't the sickness; it also resulted in Evelyn being put "on isolation". For the last 4 days of her stay, she wasn't permitted leave her little hospital room (802 East)--not once.

Above: The 8th floor where we stayed.

I don't think I could begin to describe how horrible this experience was.

Thankfully, we had help from friends with cooking and childcare until reinforcements--a.k.a. "mom"--arrived on the 4th day of Evie's hospital stay. Frankly, I don't know what we'd have done without her. Even with her help, I feel like we barely survived. There was no choice but for me to take the full 10 days off work; Brent took a number of days off too and worked only 3/4-1/2 time other days. The average day consisted in my staying with Evelyn at the hospital from morning till about 4 or so in the afternoon. When Brent got off work, he'd take a shift at the hospital while I went home to spend time with Jess, who was himself shaken by Evelyn's absence and Brent's and my long hours away. Usually, I brought Jess back to the hospital so he could spend time with Evie. After an hour or so, I'd go back home with Jess to give him dinner, bath, and put him to bed. Then I'd return to the hospital to bring dinner (which mom made) to Brent. Usually, I'd eat dinner with him and spend a few more hours. We took turns staying the night with Evelyn so, depending on whose night it was, I'd either come home at about 10-11pm or stay for the night. Mom worked her tail off: she took care of Jess during the hours our nanny wasn't on the clock, then she joined us at the hospital helping to pass the hours. She also cooked, cleaned, and gave much needed moral support.

The hours at the hospital were alternately long and stressful--because Evelyn was in pain, sick, and/or scared--or long and mind-numbingly dull--because she was feeling OK but was utterly bored, restless, and frustrated (especially during the days of being on isolation) . All and all, however, Evelyn was amazing. She fought like crazy against all that was painful and scary (and she found scary even the things that were not painful). Not once did she relent or surrender to something she didn't like--indeed, she surprised many a doctor and many a nurse with her strength (both physical and vocal). Needless to say, it was heartbreaking as parents to be in the position of trying to explain to her that these things had to be permitted. There were days when she was withdrawn and lethargic and sick (due to stress and pain). Those were dark days. But she hung in there, she came through, and more often than not, she managed to be her sweet, happy, goofy little self.

In sum: it was grueling--exhausting mentally, emotionally, and physically. Even so, Evelyn and Jess are back to life as usual. Brent and I are still recovering.

In the midst of it all we did manage a few pictures: