Homecoming

This weekend is NU's homecoming. We were contemplating attending festivities before the hospitalization struck. That didn't stop Jaisal from supporting his local Big Ten team with some of the Wildcats football players.

We also spent the day at the hospital playing with trains and decorating a pumpkin. The view from our room isn't too shabby either. Jaisal loves the tall buildings. He's definitely in the right city to appreciate skyscrapers.

It was a homecoming in other ways too. It's been nice to be away from the hospital (last time we were inpatient was in March!), but it definitely lessens the stress of being here to have so many "friends."  Nearly from the minute we arrived for the biopsy on Thursday morning, we were bumping into nurses, techs, clerks, residents, etc. that we've met before. When we got admitted Thursday night and arrived on the floor, our room was overrun by people for nearly an hour. We had nurses and residents stopping by just to say hi even though we weren't on their service.  It feels good to know so many people care about Jaisal.

All of this happy socializing helps to balance out the fact that apart from the single larger rooms and nicer TV set-ups, the new hospital SUCKS. They literally removed all of the coziness from the old hospital and made getting anything done in the new hospital more difficult. I have yet to talk to any staff members (including some doctors) that like this place better and as a parent, I am insanely thankful that we were transplanted and stayed the vast majority of our days at the old hospital. If nothing else, transplant probably cost us significantly less than if we had to pay for food, transportation, and parking at the new location. I also don't know if people are still getting settled into new routines here, but we've had a few relatively significant mistakes with meds since being admitted. Thankfully Kirk and I double and triple check everything so none of the mistakes impacted Jaisal.

For those of you transplant parents that come to Lurie Children's Hospital and haven't switched to a generic form of tacro - know that the pharmacy doesn't even keep name brand Prograf in their formulary anymore, so you have to bring your own medication to avoid changes in your trough levels and lots of extra labs. None of the nurses, residents, or fellows were aware of this until we brought it to their attention even though they all know you aren't supposed to switch back and forth between name brand and generic tacro.

None of this should matter in a few short hours because we should be going home. The last dose of steroids are being administered right now and then we just have to wait for rounds to go home. I'm looking forward to a family nap - fingers crossed that the timing works out.