Moving Day

Today, Tuesday we moved to South Davis Medical Center is Bountiful. She just wasn’t quite ready to engage in 3 hours of intense therapy yet. This is place to wait for Maddi to go to the next level and to get stronger. I have been dreading the move. I was hoping that she would be ready. I have never been patient when I have a road to walk. I am “a put the soles to the pavement and make some tread” kind of person. Waiting is not my strongest suit but we will get there.

South Davis is so different from Primary’s in that patients have shared rooms and most of the time it is for long term/permanent care. This is the only facility in the state that has a pediatric unit in transitional care. The staff was telling us that usually they have 2/3 permanent patients with 1/3 being kids just “passing through”, healing from trauma like Maddi. Right now there is only one other patient like Maddi.

It is really noisy here with all the trachs, vents and alarms going off! At first, we were paired with the other transitional patient but her needs and Maddi’s are complete opposites. Maddi needs specific and productive stimulation. The roomie needs loud distracting noise to help her. We weren’t there but two hours and Maddi already started to neurologically retreat meaning she became completely nonresponsive again. That was so hard to watch.

When they finally tracked down a chair for her, I was a little unsure what to think. The only way to describe it was a classic Wal-mart courtesy chair. I did not fit her in the least. Her feet didn’t come anywhere near the rests, in fact we used the calf bar as her foot rests and had to stuff pillows on both sides of her to get her secure. The chair didn’t come with a belt we had to use a restrain belt that we tied on. At Primary's it was mandatory that Maddi get out of bed four times a day. Here we could barely get her out once because we didn't have a chair. So after the noise trauma, the chair almost put me over the edge.

After spending 24 days trying to bring her out, seeing Maddi going the opposite way actually created a state of panic for me! I was highly agitated and it took serious self- control, I felt a little bi-polar in my response. I couldn’t decide whether to go ballistic or go into the fetal position and cry. They just weren’t quite ready for her specific neurological needs; maybe it was me who was not ready for the drastic change. I like to think that it was a bit of both.

At around 6pm they moved the roomie and now Maddi has her own room. My need for Valium has been abated. It took her more than three hours to get the peace back in her eyes where terror was before. I think it took me that long as well, maybe even longer. I know that all will work out fine and it is just a transition but I am not a sit on the sidelines kind of mom either. I need to understand the protocols and what is going on. I expect and look forward to the terror and agitation during the next two phases of recovery but only when it means progress not regression.

Anyway, we lived through day one! I am totally impressed with Doctor Murphy and her plan for Maddi. I think there was just a little disconnect between what we were told would be a seamless transition from Primary’s to South Davis Medical Center. I look forward to tomorrow and moving forward yet again.