Sleep

I think it's funny that I blog about sleep.  It's just that the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. We have relied on a good nights' sleep to get us through the roughest moments of Erin's Leukemia. We are extremal thankful for the continual care that we receive, yet good sleep can sometimes be so difficult to get in a 24-hour hospital.

Most people have suggested that we use an air mattress in our hospital room, but we have bad luck with air mattresses (plus they take up a lot of space) so we use a 3 inch thick foam mat on top of the pull out chair in our room. We keep the mat rolled up in the corner to conserve space. It is very comfortable. By nighttime, I look forward to curling up on that foam mat. 

This hospital stay we've been blessed to be in a bigger room.  The bathroom is actually almost the same size as the hospital room and it doubles up nicely as an office while Erin is sleeping.  This hospital room also has a built in couch.  We LOVE the couch!  The back folds out into a bed, and it's almost the size of a twin bed.  We are so spoiled to get this room. Every hospital room should be built like this.  I wonder if we can make a reservation to stay in this same room for our next stay?

Our nursing staff is very skilled and caring, and they work very well with kids. The night nurses do however, come ranging in different levels of quietness; from quiet as a mouse to disruptive like a symphony goer with a noisy candy wrapper. It seems to be that when we swap our Erin shifts we always share something about how our night nurse was. Our favorite night nurses slip in and out silently and she uses a mini LED light hung around her neck to do her duties. She opens and discards the cellophane wrappers for the saline flushes (for Erin's central line) at her desk before entering our room. The more disruptive night nurse opens the door and doesn't seem to notice it slam behind her. She turns the floor lights on so that she can see what she is doing and then she noisily opens the cellophane wrappers on the saline flushes. We have found that a little chat with the night nurse before going to bed always seems to help. It is always better to know what they expect of us and what we desire of them. 

Last night I slept so well. I didn't wake until 4 am when Erin's blood pressure cuff started beeping.  I slept through our amazing nurse coming in at midnight.