Part Seven---Drain, drain, go away

Of the days we've been in the hospital, yesterday might have been the least eventful.  Janey ran a fever a bit, had some pain and got some morphine for it off and on, took some good naps and just hung in there.  The down side of yesterday was that she noticed her drains, and started to try to touch them and pull at them.  They are tubes coming out of her belly, with bags attached.  They drain out fluids (if you've stopped reading by now because you are a little faint, you are like I would have been before going through this).  Twice a day, a surgeon injects them with the same substance given to people who have had  a stroke.  This is to break up clots and keep them flowing.

Janey is trying to get at the drains off and on all the time now.  When she really gets going, we have to put a soft restraining thing on her arm with Velcro, which keeps her from using her elbow.  She always has one of these on the other hand, to cover the PICC line, as it would be very, very bad if she got at that, so I hate to cover her free arm, but I would more hate for her to infect the drains or pull them out.  The nurses are so wonderfully reluctant to use any restraints.  They try everything else first.  But at times, it's more important than anything else to keep her safe and healing.

This morning, we took Janey for a walk around, which is quite an operation as it's hard to get her to standing without causing her pain, and she gets tired very quickly.  But we walked to the child life room and she enjoyed looking at the fish, then we got a wheelchair and walked to another fish tank.  Then she was very tired out and we went back to the room.  It is hard to see that Janey is that sick, that a simple walk is almost more than she can do.

I slept the most last night I have in a while, thanks to Tony staying awake a lot.  It's strange that this makes me feel more tired today.  I think when I get a little rest, the adrenaline or whatever keeps me going stops pumping out, and I am not as able to run on fumes.

Talking to the surgeon this morning, we decided it was better that one of us be here for Janey during Freddy's high school graduation tomorrow.  I wish we could both be there, but Freddy understands, and we will have other friends and family there.  Tony is going to stay with Janey.  I keep thinking how Janey was born on Freddy's seventh birthday, and in some ways, he's been sharing the time for his big events since then.  He is an amazing brother to her, and we are so proud of him and of William.

So the story goes on.  It's a story that if you had told me two weeks ago we were about to start, I'd have not believed you.  And I do hope before too too long, it all again feels like a long ago, unbelievable dream.