Hospital Stay Stats

bath time tonight

Here we are again, the eve of another surgery, another stay in the hospital with our little girl. Packing, packing and more packing. Trips to the library to ready our arsenal of entertainment. Oh, if I had the energy to calculate just how many nights we have spent in hospitals. I could break it down for you... what the heck...

Bed Rest While Pregnant With Charlotte: 82

Charlotte's Birth: 3

Charlotte's Illness: 5

Heart Surgery: 4

G-Button Surgery: 3

Ryan's Birth: 3

Ryan's PICU Stay: 10

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Grand Total: 110 NIGHTS, since July of 2006 (Approx 10% of that time)

...This doesn't even count the entire time our kids were in the NICU which was approx. 4 1/2 weeks total, or Charlotte's eye surgery (outpatient) and the countless Dr. appointments for all of the specialists involved with the care for both of our children *mostly Charlotte*. By now, we've gotten pretty good at it. If you ever need any pointers or want to know which cafeteria has what, just give us a call, we'll know.

Although it may seem that I am being a bit negative, I would like to change things around and say that there is some light in those many nights. I can honestly say that Chris and I were united in these efforts, 97% of the time, when our children were in the hospital. I can think of four nights that we were NOT together, and those were because Chris was with Charlotte at home so she was taken care of. The rest of it we tackled together, as a couple, for our children and each other.

The other positive I would like to address is that Hopefully this is our LAST surgery that requires us to stay over night. Charlotte has one other outpatient eye surgery, scheduled for September 11. We are not looking forward to doing either of these things but we are looking forward to being done. It seems so unfair that Charlotte has to be so strong and understanding of something too hard for a little one to comprehend at all. "We are doing this because we love you" just wouldn't make sense to her, but that is why. We want the absolute best for her and because we feel so terrible about having to say those things to her, we haven't even told her what is to come tomorrow...

Hopefully tomorrow's surgery will not have any complications and she will be back to her energetic self in no time. We were amazed at how quickly she recovered from Open Heart Surgery. If she can do that, she is my Wonder Woman! We've known we had to do this surgery for a long time and pushed it back last summer because of her hypertension and then this summer so we could focus on Ryan when he needed us. There must have always been a "right" time... I hope that is tomorrow.

Lots of prayers for our little girl tomorrow. We'll let you all know how she is doing.

The Hawns