codes

My friend, Kati, and her husband, Charles, were able to come visit for a bit earlier this week. They had arranged for Andy to come over the same day so that Andy could bring me the little car.

While visiting, Kati mentioned how sad it was when they were here (6 months a year or two ago) to hear "Code Blue" be announced on the intercom. We've been here for over a week now and hadn't heard the code...until this afternoon. The code was cancelled later on, but it took me back to when Daniel was 8.

At that time, we lived in a small house with a small yard. The street was a hill, so the children often wanted to ride their bikes in the flat yard. Just as often, I told the children not to ride in the yard because there was a 6-foot retaining wall to the yard below us.

One Monday, there was no school and the neighbor children were riding bikes with Daniel. Daniel had recently won a nice, sparkling, new bike, but he preferred to ride his old bike. Well, they were riding fast through the yard, and with the old bike, the chain came off. Daniel didn't know how to bail or jump off.

Daniel went over the 6-foot retaining wall, hitting the neighbor's carport support beams and then the neighbor's snowmobile or jet ski with his helmet. He was awake but hurt pretty bad. We ended up needing to call an ambulance because he lost ALL color in his face and lips. Plus, he was seeing a light then he passed out. I thought he was dead.

His injuries were all internal, just a very small scratch down his chest. The main injury was a ruptured liver, which caused him to have to lay still in the ICU for a week and not do any activities for 3 months. The liver "gelled" back to a healthy condition in that time. Daniel received a few units of blood to help stabilize his body from the internal bleeding.

So, anytime we see an ambulance now, it reminds us of Daniel's situation. We hear sirens and start silent prayers for the person(s) who are affected and hope they will have a good outcome. Today, I found out that code calls are just like a siren and elicit the same reflexive response.


Things are going well for the patient. More food intake, which is great. Some of the treatment causes hair loss in the next couple weeks, but it also causes a huge appetite. So, the baby is gaining weight! But, the flipside to that medication is also that it causes mood swings. So, all day today, if I'm not talking straight to the patient's face constantly, I'm hearing whining/crankiness. Walking around the floor with a stroller helps too. So, we're getting my exercise walking around and seeing the sights of the floor. It really helps to know that someday when the treatment is done, the baby's personality will change back to "normal."

We're getting closer to getting to leave the hospital and move into our temporary (6 month) home!