making a break for it

When we were in the PICU last week, Ellie suddenly wanted to have liney chips (you know, the chips with ridges).  Well for some reason, hospital room service only has non-ridged, flat chips.  Ellie scoffs at those texture-less chips.  They simply will never do.  During one of our stays, I questioned whether room service could walk over to the cafeteria and pick up some Ruffles for us.  For some reason, which I cannot now recall, that was not at all possible.  So when Ellie requested chips, I knew that it was up to me to obtain those chips.  Ellie was sitting in a "cardiac" chair.  It is a big chair on wheels, with armrests, that can sit up as a chair or lay down as a sort of (probably somewhat uncomfortable) bed.  I strapped Lotta into her baby carrier and we made a break for it.  Unfortunately, the vending machine on our floor had no Ruffles.  Since we'd made it that far, we decided to go to the first floor to the snack bar.  Getting the chair off the elevator was more challenging than getting it on, as the wheels did not maneuver easily and became stuck in the elevator doorway.  Luckily, people seem to like helping pregnant women and moms with newborns.  And success!  The snack bar had liney chips (they have also started stocking more big as your head chocolate chip cookies just for Ellie).

On our sojourn back to the PICU, we ran into Peter, our oncology nurse.  He appreciates Ellie's jokes and words and uses them as an excuse to do what he loves, wholeheartedly laugh.  Ellie was busy telling Peter one of her new jokes or words when Peter let out one of his laughs.  Ellie's face lit up.  She had that wonderful feeling of tickling some one's funny bone.  Really, who doesn't love that feeling? Words fail to describe the power of the moment witnessing the two of them connecting.  It was magical, marvelous.

Ellie continues to do well today.  She is slightly colder than yesterday (96 degrees).  Just got news that her sodium has shot back up to 159 (normal is 135-145).  Endocrine rechecked for accuracy and found it at 168.  So we may or may not be heading home today.