Extraordinary Outdoors: The Hospital Visit, And A Great One At That!

Mia having a good time at the doctors office with Froggy and her computer bedside!

Miss Mia did wonderfully on her visit to the hospital! She no longer starts to scream as soon as she recognizes the parking lot. She hapilly gets out of the Jeep and skips through the parking lot with me hand in hand. This time, she carried her new hiking pack with Froggy in it. Froggy makes things a bit easier for her because what ever needs to be done to Mia, gets shown to her through Froggy first. And, Froggy plays Mia's favorite tunes like the Alphabet Song, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, as well as a classical medley that she loves!

We walked into the main entrance of the hospital this time, instead of the entrance to the building that houses her pediatricians office. We were greeted with a lovely little indoor pond of sorts, with small running towers of water in them, and coins littering the bottom. A wishing well!

I grabbed a coin out of my pocket and gave it to Mia to toss in. Before I could even start the phrase, "make a wish", she had already thrown the coin into the water creating a small splash. She grabbed my hand, looking for more. I handed her another from my pocket, and told her that when we leave she could put more in.

We continued into a lovely corridor filled with big bright paintings, a cafe, and nice bright lighting. I read the directions I was sent on where to go in the hospital, when I noticed it said follow this hallway to the............elevators. Eh, I was on the look out for stairs.

When we got to the elvator area, I looked around for a door showing stair access. The harder I looked, thr more I realized that there wasn't one, at least not here. I started to walk away to look for the door, but Mia pulled my hand that she was holding in the opposite direction.

As shocking as it was to me, she actually wanted to ride in the elevator this time! For years, she has avoided these vertical moving carts like the plague. And to be honest, I was ok with it. I'm not a fan of them at all. Though I tried not to encourage her in this fear, we were always happy to take the stairs. But, she saw another little kid waiting for the doors to open, and she even went over and pushed the button to signal that we were waiting for a ride up (even though the button was already lit!). We heard the *ding* anouncing the arival of the elevator, and I swallowed the lump in my throat and followed her in.

She was smiling from ear to ear, and seemed to be pretty proud of herself for not being scared. My uncomfortableness subsided a bit as I watched her look at me with excitement, and as she jumped up and down when I told her that she was so brave!

When we got to our floor, we walked through the halls looking for the nurses station that we were to check in at. One of them showed us where our room would be, and took Mia's height and weight, checked her temperature, and attempted to listen to her heart and lungs in addition to getting her blood pressure. This is an area that I've been working on a lot with Mia. She just does not like anything foriegn touching her. She's pretty good about letting people touch her, and she doesn't shy away when someone grabs her hand. But when it comes to a stethoscope or anything of the sort, she wants nothing to do with it.

This, and when there were three doctors at once in our room, ended up being the hardest part of the trip. After they left with all of my answers to their questions, Mia calmed back down and went back to playing with Froggy and her "computer".

The nurse that was assigned to Mia was great, by the way. And because she took the time to talk to Mia and to get down to her level, Mia was instantly smitten with her, smiling at her every time she entered the room. She allowed me to give Mia the syringe full of medicine that would make her sleep for the tests, and didn't do anything without telling us first. There is something to be said for nurses here. They usually always take the time to make their patients feel comfortable and informed. Though this nurse was one of the best we've ever seen!

Wakey wakey Miss Mia!

Mia quickly drifted off into a deep sleep, and we were off for the catscan and ultrasound. My eyes got misty when I put her on the child sized stretcher. Every year that we do this, she fills these stretchers so much more than the last. Where had the time gone? I still feel like I just brought her home from the hospital and should still be comfortably holding her tiny eight pound self.

We did the catscan first as it's the loudest, thinking that if the medicine did wear off, it would be easier to get ultrasound images when she was awake. I stayed by her side, and watching her laying there under that machine brought back memories of our first few weeks together. When she was in an incubator under oxygen because she had a hole in her lung at birth. I fought back the tears again as I remembered all of these years that have passed and how much she's been through.

We then went for the renal ultrasound. I watched as the technician marked things here and there, more noticablly in the right kidney. I will never claim to be a doctor, but I've seen enough of these images (and asked more than enough questions) to know what I'm looking for. She then used the device to check her bladder and it's function, and then we were heading back to the room to await the rearival of Mia's perfect blue eyes!

It took a while for her to come out of the medication, but when she did it wasn't long before she was mostly back to her normal self. Smiling, happy, and very thirsty and hungry! She was wobbly for most of the evening afterwards, so I stayed extremely close to help her along.

When we got the discharge papers, we headed out of the hospital, and Mia hovered over the fountain before we left. She didn't care about the coins this time, she was just happy to see something familiar before she realized that we were right near the doors to head out!

We headed over to the local McDonalds so Mia could have her favorite chicken nuggets and apple slices so she could further fill that empty belly of hers! She liked being able to go out with mom, and I loved seeing my little girl happy as can be, even after an all day event that I know she hates.