Working the crowd

For the rest of our hospital stay we had the most stellar nurses.  The ones who were kind and interested in what Ellie had to say, responding to the call button right away, truly on top of their game.  Thom thinks that maybe we have some kind of special mark in our file indicating that we need only the best nurses or we will complain.  Sounds good to me. 

After almost a full week, Ellie is officially cleaned out (and still doing so).  Ellie was sent home this afternoon after making sure that she was able to keep her meds down when given through her g-tube (the tube that goes into her stomach) because she had been receiving her meds through IV.  It was amazing to watch Ellie go from being upset and asking the whole time to go home on previous hospital stays to being at the point of feeling "jilled" (joy + filled) while in the hospital.  (Her nurse's name yesterday was "Jill" so you can imagine how much entertainment value that had.)  It was as if Ellie suddenly realized there was an entire community in the hospital that knew nothing about her words, worlds, gardens.  A captive audience.  This morning the young resident on our floor (he looked just slightly older than Ben to me but maybe that says more about my age than his) asked Ellie if she wanted the doctors to do rounds in her room (rounds are where the residents, medical students discuss a patient, treatment plans, etc.).  Ellie eagerly agreed.   Thom said when the group arrived Ellie immediately started into her routine, barely giving the resident a chance to say what he was there to say.  I wonder if he'll think twice before asking that question again.