After what felt like a mad rush to get here, things quickly came to a slow crawl.
We "checked in" at 9am - they showed us to our room - took some blood from Valerie - we met with the doctor ..... then nothing, for hours. That's been a bit discouraging. No real direction or explanation about things.
The doctor left saying they would start an IV today and give her some supplements. Hours after that, I went to the nurses station and asked - they seemed confused and said that there was no IV ordered and that they would bring her supplements in an hour.
About 3-4 hours later (7pm) a nurse brought in a handful of supplements. She didn't really know what they all were or what they were for. We recognized most of them, but still. AND a handfull of pills after we explained how nauseous Valerie has been. She did manage to take most of them.
That's all been a little frustrating for our beginning.
On the plus side - the food so far has been ALL vegetarian. Awesome. It's very good. There's always green juices (fresh) and almond milk and things like that out. Valerie still hasn't had an appetite and she still been fighting the nausea daily. I asked the woman down in the cafeteria if she could make a smoothie for Valerie and she immediately whipped up some bananas, almond milk and ice. It was the only reason Valerie could get the meds down. Just as a comparison - when we were at Hoag a couple of weeks ago (Valerie was hospitalized for 6 days recently and Hoag is our hospital), they were bringing her things like vanilla pudding with all kinds of preservatives and artificial sweeteners. So it is a very nice change.
I am hopeful that tomorrow will be busier and feel more productive. I know part of our frustration is we rush down here, spend A LOT of money, feel a bit at the end of our rope, and everyone else here isn't acting that way. Of course I'm glad about that, but emotionally it's hard to figure out sometimes.
And a few things just for fun: my computer is showing all of the blog headings and buttons in Spanish. So, hopefully, I have retained enough to hit the right buttons. No promises though. :) And I have to keep converting Valerie's temp from Celcius to Fahrenheit --- 37 degrees seemed alarmingly low, until I realized it's actually perfect.
We continue to be extremely thankful for your thoughts, prayers, chants, and compassion.
Love to you all.
1 comment:
Sorry the first day was a bit of a bummer. A relaxed atmosphere is better for you both, but I would be frustrated too by what you described. My fingers are crossed that your experience gets less frustrating. Love, M
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