A Day in Day Hospital (Better Late Than Never)

Well we finished Anna's day hospital therapy program on Friday.  So, as I said, better late than never.  When all was said and done Anna did really well with the program and left the program not having lost or gained any weight.  But her tube was weaned 50% and she was maintaining.  We ran into minor medical issues when she started vomiting when they increased her oral intake.  They are assuming it was a cross between reflux (which she has been diagnosed with but wasn't currently on meds for) and her motility issues.  They got everything worked out and she left the program taking all of her "bites" and no vomiting.

So far she continues to well at home and the transition has been smoothe.  We are doing three structured meals a day of 4oz of food each and then she has regular dinner with us as well, but whether she eats then or not is up to her and it is a no pressure situation.  Generally she does eat pretty well at dinner so she is basically getting 4 meals a day.

So here are a few pictures from our day.  I got....uhhh...reprimanded by hospital security for taking pictures in the Atrium area...so I had to sort of cut some stuff short LOL

We made the same trek every morning from the garage to the Children's Seashore House.

Our first stop would be to the Day Hospital room where we would meet Miss Cheryl.  She was the nurse in charge there.  Once a week Anna would have her vital signs checked and twice a week she would be weighed.  I also handed in daily calorie counts here.  Anna loved Miss Cheryl and she was the darling of Day Hospital.

This is also where our "Separation Time" took place for Anna.  So the children could get comfortable being taken by the therapist I had to drop her off fifteen minutes before her sessions would begin.  The nurses at the Day Hospital room would take her for walks and play with her and then the feeding therapist would pick her up and bring her down to therapy.

During "separation time" I would go down to the therapy area.  I would sit on one side of a two way mirror.  I would have something to eat, check my e mail, stuff like that.  You can see Anna's therapy room on the other side of the mirror. Each session was recorded on my little TV there and we have them on cd.

That is Anna's little eating chair and her bin of special meal time toys.

This picture came out dark, but once Anna's therapy session was complete her therapist would take her out to the lobby to wait for me.  Anna loved looking through those windows....below them was the PT swimming pool.

After her first session we would have a 2hr window of time to fill up before her second session.  So usually we would play a little and watch some cartoons in the lobby there first.

Peek down at the pool some more...

Then we would go for a walk through the courtyard here.  We later found out there was a duck pond within close walking distance and we would often walk there instead (we only actually ever saw a duck there once though....lots of turtles and fish though).

After our walk we would head to the Atrium where there are a few interactive sculptures and some room to run around.

Recently they installed a radio station in this Atrium as well (funded by the Ryan Seacrest Foundation) and whenever the studio was in use the sculptures were turned.  Well they were in use often unfortunately.  It really bugged me to be honest because the sculptures served so many more children then the radio station which I never saw more than one or two children in there at a time.  This morning the sculptures were off for a change.

A little out of order, but we liked to visit this panda in the courtyard.

WE would usually make our way up to the Day Hospital toy room and play there until it was time for Anna's nxt sessions.

After her second session we would go to the Connelly Center to get a nap room and thankfully Anna would sleep for this two hour stretch before her last session of the day.

The nap rooms were really nice!  They were like teeny tiny personal hotel rooms!

So we would wake up all groggy and cranky and then head to the last session of the day before we got to go home.  And that is basically what our days looked like!