Greetings from the hospital

I am so happy to find out that the hospital was wi-fi!! This gives me something to do while Camden is sleeping. So, Camden has been doing really well. I think for the most part the hardest thing is the fact that he is so cooped up. He doesn't act sick and he doesn't really complain about pain too much. The docs did his first bandage change today, and they didn't give him Morphine since they had to take his IV out last night. So they just gave him Tylenol with Codeine, and they said that he did really great and didn't even cry.

When they were trying to place his IV, they couldn't get it into his hand, even though they tried many times. So they put it into his foot instead. This bothered him a great deal and he tugged at it in the beginning to try and get it out. He finally conceded that it was there to stay. But after two and half days, it wasn't working anymore for some reason, so they just took it out. The IV has been what Camden has complained the most about, so they didn't put a new one in. They just gave him some Versed and the Tylenol orally and apparently he was good to go!

The day of the surgery he was sure funny. After feeling crummy for a little while, he finally perked up. Or should I say, he transformed into a different kid! I left for a few hours to take care of Audrey, and when I came back, Camden was running up and down the halls yelling "Old MacDonald had a Farm" as loudly as he possible could. If we put him in his bed, he would jump up and down and shake the rails. He was bouncing off the walls. We're still not sure if it was the Codeine, or all of the sugar that the nurses gave him. He wouldn't eat any food, so they were trying to get him to eat something. So, after two popsicles, some apple juice, an entire Gatorade, jello, cookies, and good ol' Codeine, we had a wired little kid. We took him outside to play on the playground so that he wouldn't bother his roommate with all of his antics. It was over a hundred degrees, but we had to do something!

Fortunately he has calmed down, and it seems that today he is very tired with the Codeine in him, so I think it was the sugar that did it to him. Now we just hang out here in the hospital. We watch lots of movies and have been playing with some of the other kids on the burn floor here. Camden is on the Pediatric Burn Floor, so it is all kids here with different kinds of burns. Today they let him go down to the regular Pediatric floor to play with other kids in the play room. I'd take him outside more if it weren't 112 degrees out there!

There is one funny story. My parents were so sweet to bring me a birthday cake to the hospital so I could have some sort of celebration. My mom started to break out the candles and matches when we told her she probably shouldn't light any fires here...ON THE BURN FLOOR!! She asked the nurses to see if she could, and they had horrified looks on their faces and told her no, that wasn't allowed. So funny.

My eyes have been opened to the many ways that kids get burned. One 18 month old little girl simply followed her mom outside, but she didn't have shoes on. The scorching Phoenix heat blistered her feet so badly that they had to admit her. Another little girl who is about 4 or 5 fell into a campfire and burned her arm very badly. Camden's roommate has been here for 10 days. He burned his hand on some hot grease from a frying pan on his stove. There's another little girl here who's legs and arms are burned. I'm not sure what happened to her, but she rides around in a wagon because she can't walk.

My new best friends are the child life specialists. Their sole job is to make sure the kids are happy. So they bring in coloring pages, crayons, teddy-bears, bubbles, etc. It's so nice of them to do. They also run the play room on the Peds floor. When I grow up I want to be a child life specialist and help out kids at the hospital.

Yesterday the Peds floor playroom was closed because they didn't have the staff for it. So one of the nurses here on the burn floor moved an empty bed out of our room and brought a bunch of toys in here. A few kids came in here to play with the toys. Oh yeah, they also have a Wii that our roommate plays almost non-stop. It's the only one on the floor, but for some reason he seems to get it all the time. It keeps him happy, and at times I wish Camden was old enough to play so that he could be entertained so endlessly.

Aaron has really been the one who has been here so much. I have had to tend to Audrey, so Aaron has spent the nights here at the hospital and has really been around non-stop. I took over for about six hours yesterday, and have been here for about four hours today. I have to pump for Audrey when I am away from her, and the nurses always make a funny face when I give them the milk to put in their fridge. My parents came in on Friday evening, so they have been helping with Audrey whenever they can and will do so more after tomorrow morning when Aaron returns to Tucson to work for the week.