Thank God for Humor!

Along the journey of Mackenzie's recovery, there is the crazy, no, insane, activities that happen in the background to Eric and me, her parents.  We handle our stress with humor.  A hopital stay never fails to provide the crazy material neccessary.  

Here is one of those moments...Since the day after surgery I have requested an unflavored toothette for Kenzie.  I happen to know that toothettes exsist that are unflavored or if you're lucky you can find a toothette that is purple; those are the rare and much sought after (at Children's Hospital anyway) grape flavored toothettes.  For those who don't know, a toothette is a spongie swab you use to moisten and clean someone's mouth who is unable to drink liquids.  The pink toothettes are flavored with mint (remember; pink, bad).  These were the first toothettes to arrive.  I asked the nurse to find any toothette that wasn't mint.  Kenzie hates to have her teeth brushed to begin with and having the mint toothette hospital memory and mint tooth brushing relationship will only make matters worse (at least this is my rationalization in my mommy brain)  The first nurse was stumped by this request.  Having not realized the toothettes were flavored at all.  Due to years of OT therapy at Children's Hospital under my belt, I know for a fact other toothette flavors exist and live here among us.  

My requests for an unflavored toothette continued and increased when Kenzie had to go on the n/g tube.  One nurse really did go all out to find an unflavored toothette and found the closest replacement she could, the "oral care and suction kit" with 3 steps of oral care "formulas", attachments for the suction system, and to her credit, an unflavored toothette!!!    

All along however, when a request is made, orders must to be written.  The nurses' desk secretary found a brown paper bag with Mackenzie's name on it on her desk this morning and delivered it to our room.  Look what fell out!...............

Any guesses how many times I asked for an unflavored toothette?

(wonder if these will all end up on our bill?  Probably!)

If you have to be at Children's Hospital, the holidays aren't the worst time to do it!  Kenzie was doing great today, her tummy felt much better and PT was thrilled to have the opportunity to get her up and moving.  She started by walking in her walker down the hall 15 mommy paces (yes, I actually just went out to see how many paces.  I know, I'm weird, but accutate and frankly a little bored!).  She was then able to participate in the "23rd Annual Harley Toy Ride"  She got to go downstairs, listen to the roar of 3000 Harley Davidson's, and MEET SANTA!  Yippee!!!!

To top off the day, she had a visit from her 3rd grade teacher!  She lit up, and had to show-off how well she was doing.  She sat up over and over again, did a little snorting and smiled those great melt your heart Kenzie smiles!!!  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the moment.

Wow, what a day!