Joe Turtle and 2 miracles

My friend Ellen (who traveled with us to China to get her daughter from the same orphanage as Zoe back in 2007) sent Manny a "welcome to the family" present.  It arrived while I was in the hospital and she told me it was something we might want while IN the hospital. 

We opened it yesterday and it is one of the coolest toys EVAH!  It's a turtle that lights stars on the ceiling.  Oh my does Manny love it.  (We've named the turtle "Joe" since we got it while in St. Joseph's hospital.)  Well last night, we couldn't wait for it to be dark enough to see it.  It's light enough to place it on his tummy and he can wiggle just enough to make the stars "dance".  I wasn't able to capture the lights at night on the wall due to my camera but suffice it to say that it's amazing and it lights up the walls too.  (Comes in green, blue or red lights.)

So thanks to Ellen, Manny slept under the stars last night. 

I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about a couple of miracles that have already happened during our hospital stay.
Miracle 1:  Remember how I told you Manny's arm infused?  (The IV fluids are supposed to go in the vein, not into the surrounding tissue.  His IV came out and that's what happened.)  When this happened, he was sitting with me.  The nurse had come in earlier and felt it and it was fine.  Then all of the sudden, it was HORRIBLE.  I was scared.  The nurse was scared.  The news spread all through the floor quickly. 

But the miracle was ... it was only fluids.  (Basically water).  He was SCHEDULED to be on a medicine at that time but we had gotten behind due to a procedure.  I was told that if this happened when the meds were in his IV, he could have lost his arm or worse.  So even though this was horrible, I have discovered how much worse it could have been.  And since it was just fluids, it was reabsorbed by the body. 

Miracle 2:  Remember how I told you Manny was on "cough assist"?  Well if you ask me, it's a primeval torture device!  He does NOT do well on this machine. It's designed to produce a cough so he can cough some of the gunk up.  But ... in all the time he's done it ... never one cough.  Not one.  Two nights ago, we had a respiratory therapist named Dean who had been a paramedic and then has done this for 34 years.  He looked at the order for the cough assist and when it was time to do it, he came in (at midnight) and told me he didnt feel comfortable with what was in the chart.  He said he felt the pressure was too high for such a small baby.  That was the pressure that they use on teenagers (130+ pound) and not on a 16 pound baby.  So he told me he would suspend them and consult with the doctor in the morning.  aaaahhhh. 

The next morning, Mary Kay (our next respiratory therapist) said she too didn't feel comfortable with the level of pressure and it was up to ME if we did it or not.  She consulted me (mom to mom) and said that I have the right to refuse any treatment.  So she and I concocted a way to put that in the chart without questioning the doctor. 

Here's the miracle part ... little did I know last night I would get this respiratory therapist named Marion.  She is a sweetheart but ...  Let's put it this way.  When I heard I was going to have the "vest" at home, I read the instruction manual one time.  Then she came.  She was trying to run the 'vest' and didn't even know how to turn it on, adjust the settings, set the timer, etc.  This is something I learned in 5 minutes!  Yikes.  Now the vest isn't going to hurt him if she screws it up, it just won't come on.  But the cough assist could actually damage his lungs.  And here I have this inexperienced RT?!?  I wouldn't have been awake when she did the cough assist and because of a conversation earlier in the day ... it didn't happen! 

God truly takes care of ALL the details.