First full day of observation... Happy Labor Day!

Squeaky shoe rounds

Playing in the toy room

In short... nothing to report.  Muriel had no heart rate pauses last night, and none all day today.  Our biggest problem all day today was keeping her occupied.  No self-respecting toddler wants to spend the whole day in a hospital bed.  Mainly she made regular circuits around the floor, to the adoring admiration of the nursing staff.  A number of times while wearing her "squeaky" shoes that make a loud horn-like sound with each step, which was probably endearing the first time and possibly even the second, but it was pretty clear that we should limit the squeaky-shoe wearing by the third time around.





As usual you would never know there is anything wrong here.  She ate like a horse all day, produced the normal number and size of diapers, and even took her normal naps.  It's late here now - 10PM - and it is hard to get her settled for the night.

Eat hospital food?

I'll try it

Ok, it was good

Medical-wise she did have a visit by Dr. Shetty - her new Cardio Electrophysiologist (managing the pacemaker installation).  She assured us she was reviewing the logs from her monitor and was the one that told us Muriel was doing fine so far.  She also mentioned that tomorrow we should expect a number of visits and that some decision on scheduling the surgery would be made.  Other than that visit we have only seen nurses today on their normal vital rounds.

Protected IV access

Last night, after my blog entry, was a bit rough.  We had been told earlier to expect an IV insertion; a measure to ensure rapid response ability if there were to be any serious events.  She has always been a troublemaker for the poor nurse / tech / doctor unlucky enough to be given the task.  Two nurses had been selected last night, and they admitted that after seeing her scoot around the floor amazing everyone with her cuteness, no one wanted to do it.  They must have pulled the short straws.

Worn out from IV struggles

No difference this time.  She screamed like a banshee, and her veins are just tough to find.  She totally wore herself out by the time it was done (only two sticks, but still took a good half hour).  Drenched in sweat and passed out, we at least got to put her straight to bed and she slept for a few hours.  When she did wake up in the middle of the night, she realized what had been done to her poor right hand.  To keep her from pulling anything out, it had been taped, boarded, taped again, wrapped in gauze, taped again, with some tape on top for good measure.  She wasn't altogether happy about that.  She spent the rest of the night lying on daddy in the recliner he attempted to sleep in.

Sleeping on daddy in the recliner

Tonight, after I finish writing and she finally goes to sleep, I'll be heading over to Ronald McDonald house.  Megan will stay here tonight, but intends to get up early and actually go to work tomorrow.  I'm going to do my best to attend a few conference calls and do email from the hospital.  Tomorrow should be eventful and I promise to update everyone here tomorrow night.