PICU

Saturday PM UPDATE
Liam is now in PICU - Flower elevators, 4th floor.   Many people, when they hear "ICU" are thinking worse.  But me, I see it exactly the opposite: I think it's a good thing.  Why?  From a 10,000 foot view the answer is simple:  For the last 3 days Liam is in pain and does not get better.  So a new, more intensive care environment with new Drs and a fresh look might be what she needs. 
Why the move, according to the Drs?
1.  Ability to give her stronger medication with the medical staff being right there to monitor the situation.
2.  Ability to stick her with new IV lines.  Sounds too simple, but they weren't able to do it on our floor.  So far PICU failed with that too.  This becomes a problem.  She needs more than one IV line so that they can give her more stuff concurrently.  Otherwise they have to give everything in stages.  Not only it's less efficient, but it matters to the cocktail of meds in her system.
3.  New Drs, did we say that already?
4.  I think that the people who made the decision took my approach (10,000 foot view).  Some of the nurses said that there's nothing in Liam's condition that justifies a move to PICU.  After all, Liam is not in critical condition, as far as we know.  She breathes on her own, her blood pressure is ok, her other vitals are sort of ok too.  But I'm still happy that we're here. 
Yes, it's less convenient.  Only 3 of us can be in the room; food is not allowed; you can't come in and leave as you please.  But these are all minor details.  The important thing is Liam's well being.  She needs to be here.  Period.  The big question (for me) is how different of approach the Drs at PICU will take.

Funny, as soon as Liam was situated in the new room, she fell into a deep sleep and she's breathing fine - two things she didn't do so well back in TICU.  Unfortunately, it didn't last long.  There are still OOOWWWs now.


(Through the glass door I can see the helicopter crew wheeling in a kid.  Everybody's running.  Can't help but think about that kid.  Don't need to watch ER or House or Gray's Anatomy.  It's all here.  Live and in 3-D.)

What's with all these ICU's?

In the hospital there are several Intensive Care Units (ICU), according to the area of expertise (cardio, etc.)  PICU is sort of a general Pediatric ICU.  TICU is Technical.  It's not an ICU at all.  It's somewhere between the general pediatric floor and the PICU.  It's quite open.  Anybody can come and go as they please.  This is as opposed to the PICU (and other ICU's) where hygene and access are tightly controlled (in other words, no beer fridge.  DRAT, said Toad).  We can't even eat in the room - at least not officially.

Angels

We're surrounded by many human angels.  I touched on it several times before and I'll never get tired of mentioning these good soals.  Some bring us food, some drive for us, some clean for us, some spend time with the girls.  Some are even beer angels. And I probably forgot some.  My appology if I left anybody out. Today, within minutes of the announcement that Liam goes up to PICU, it was arranged that somebody was here to help and since both Rachel and I were here, that somebody showed up at home to be with Meitav.  We're really fortunate to be surrounded by such a lovely community.  (I would, however, argue about the amount and availability of the Beer AngAles.  Can never have enough of those.)

Deep thoughts

If I had a hammer, wait, I have a hammer.  Nevermind.