Our adventures in pictorial form.
I snapped this with my camera phone. This is my teeny Jilly all hooked up on a stretcher at the emergency room. I can’t explain why, but I was desparate for someone else to be there with me. For someone else to see this ugliness. I wanted her Daddy to see. Why? I don’t know. But the next best thing was to snap a blurry picture. Is that weird? Probably.
After being at the ER for a few hours, they wanted to transfer us to a bigger hospital. So they strapped her carseat onto a stretcher for the 30 mile drive. For the record, ambulance rides are bumpy and uncomfortable.
And for the record (again), having this view is weird and nauseating. Before you think: “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe Jeannett was taking pictures while her baby was in an ambulance!” Jill was totally stable. She was fine, albeit worn out and tired. And honestly, I find that I oftentimes need a distraction from things like this. A sense of normalcy. Something to keep my mind from wandering too far. And snapping pictures lately is a totally normal everyday thing for me. It brought me calm. Weird? Probably.
Painted piggys and a heart rate monitor. I want to eat them up.
Chillin’ in her hospital gown.
Baby Low Jack.
Andy snapped this picture. Our anniversary date. We have another one of these floating around that says 2007. Perfect.
And since it was our anniversary…and our options were Hospital Salmon or Hospital Roast Beef for dinner…we ordered from our favorite steak house and had shrimp and steak out of sytrofoam boxes.
Which, by the way, still tasted BEYOND good. Not to mention neither of us had eaten all day with all the hub-bub.
But I promptly dropped my bacon bits. And I almost cried. For reals. These aren’t those fake soy bacon bits. But real, deliciously sweet bacon hunks for your potato. Lucky for me Andy shared. What a guy. (Because so you know, I may not have shared with him had the tables been turned. They’re that good.)
The ambiance was a little different than the restaurant. But Jilly was mostly back to herself and begging for bites of food. And I’ll trade that for dim lighting any day.
On Wednesday, Jill was GRUMPY. She seriously cried and whined the whole day. I think she was just DONE. She wanted to go home. And the SECOND we loaded her up into her carseat (strapped to a stretcher) the girl lit up and flirted with the paramedics like her old self. Poor thing. Little did she know that she was only going across the parking lot to her MRI.
Her scrunchy nose Jilly face. A sight for very sore and very tired eyes.
Another ambulance ride you say?
Oh let. me. tell. you.
The red star is about where Jilly’s room was. The blue star is the MRI place. Same property. Different building. Considered a different campus. Thus, requires an ambulance ride.
The red line? The quick, simple WALK out a door, across the parking lot. A few hundred yards. I’ve parked further away at WalMart. The hospital isn’t huge. Notice how many parking spaces you would pass by. SO not far.
Instead, we had to walk all the way across the hospital (further than the walk across the lot!), ride an ambulance out onto the street, around the corner, PAST the MRI offices parking lot…and back into the hospital parking lot.
Like 10 feet from her room.
Strapped into her carseat. On a stretcher. No, they couldn’t just lay her on the stretcher. I had to haul the carseat up from the car.
That was parked right next to the MRI building.
Lawyers. Liability. A $2,000+ bill I’m sure. Sweet. Love it. Annoyed.
They cut her clothes off at the emergency room, and when I went home to grab some clothes for myself, I didn’t think to get any for her. So I asked my friend Lindsey to bring me something from when her girls were little. The only thing she could find was an Easter dress. So Jilly got to wear a pretty party dress even if she was in an icky old hospital. Yay!
And I typed this in last night’s post, but I’m going to copy/paste it here again. Because looking back at all of these pictures reminds me:
As I sat in a hospital the last few days I couldn’t help but think of how lucky I was.
That my daughter had the equipment and doctors and medicines and resources available to her that she did.
And I couldn’t help but think of all the other mommies out there in the world who instead of watching their babies hooked up to an IV (which is awful enough on its own merit)…but those mamas watch their babies seize uncontrollably.
No ambulance on the way. No pediatric neurologists. No MRI’s. No fancy monitors.
Just sheer panic and helplessness.
And it killed me inside.
I’m crazy lucky. It’s not even funny.
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that ambulance ride/possible walk is the perfect picture of what bureaucracy has done to this country, and yes i had to look bureaucracy up on google to spell it right! But seriously! Thank you for sharing a such crazy time in your life with your readers.
.-= Krystina Montemurro´s last blog ..Have a Gorgeous Weekend! =-.
You don’t need to feel weird about taking pictures at ALL! You did what you had to do to keep your compusure/sanity and I can totally see how snapping pics would help ease your mind a bit & just distract you temporarily.
What a draining, exhausting experience. But I’m so, so glad to hear that it turned out okay. (Btw, I would have almost cried too if my bacon bits were dropped. :))
Whatever calms you and gives you a sense of normalcy is good, plus we get to see your journey in pictures. What a difference in Jill’s pics from the listless look to her happy, little flirty self. So glad things went well. Another anniversary you won’t forget. You made me hungry with the food pics – both my favorites. Sorry about the bacon bits, but you have a good hubby who would share with you. He’s definitely a keeper. love you guys and hugs to you all
.-= Robbin´s last blog ..Outside my door…Spring has sprung =-.
So glad you are home with that sweet girl. I will continue to pray for all of you…and um, I so get it about the bacon bits…I would have cried. Hugs!
.-= Carol´s last blog ..Back by request….my guest blogger…Benjamin reviews Toy Story 3 =-.
Oh girl… just seeing those pictures reminded me of many emotions Trav and I experienced during Bella’s last surgery when some things went wrong. Same ambulance ride. Same crib bed. Same scrubs. Such heavy things for a mother’s heart. ANd yes, I understand the feeling of gratefulness and thankfulness. You are blessed. Glad everything is okay.
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..a slight variation on book review: June 2010 =-.
Your baby girl is a trouper. Happy Anniversary and sorry about the bacon bits but the rest looks yummy. The whole ambulance thing is crazy though. I am so glad she is doing ok and that we do have the resources in this country.
Continuing to pray for you. It’s all in perspective, isn’t it? And don’t feel bad for taking pics – when my daughter was coming out of anesthesia, her anesthesiologist asked if I had my camera and I said yes. He said YOU may not want to see these pictures later, but when she gets older SHE will. I had never thought of it that way – and he’s totally right. Job well done you picture taking momma! I’m going to bring my camera to the hospital with us next week and snap away.
I pray all is going well for you guys now. Do you have any idea what would have caused it or if it is more likely to happen again?
.-= Lindsay´s last blog ..New {Addie} Developments =-.
Praying, praying, praying that this was a one-time event!! So glad it actually ended well, and that you were able to get a little anniversary meal in. :) Hopefully you have had a bday party since then as well! Have a great weekend!
.-= Jennifer´s last blog ..Could be better, could be much worse! =-.
I have followed your blog since Jess was a guest here. I admire you for the journey that you have been on. I just wanted to say that I understand why you took each of those photos. Our daughter was born at 25 weeks gestation and we took photos everyday. Some nights I would lie in bed and compose a specific photo that I wanted to take the next day. Some days it would be photos of the blood transfusion that she was having. I used it as some form of control and coping with what was scary. It’s not so scary when you are behind the lens. Maybe it’s like taking yourself away for just a moment to escape the reality? My prayers are with you.
.-= Marnie´s last blog ..Disrupted Nights and a Runny Nose =-.