Chips, chips, chips

Hi Everyone,

The Queen is trucking along here. Earlier this morning they did another thoracentesis to drain out fluid from her lung. This time, they kept the tube in her right lung so that it could continuously drain the fluid out. Hopefully this will make breathing easier and slow down the amount of breaths she is taking per minute. Again for tonight: prayers and good vibes for the fluid drain thingy to work and make her breathing easier! Friday night, she overheard her night nurse saying that she doesn't actually fit the qualifications to be in ICU anymore (but now that she has the drain thing, she needs to stay). The Queen does in fact still need a lot of nursing attention and it is best for her to stay there right now. Well, ever since she heard this, she is really, really, really wanting to get out of ICU. We all tried to tell her that the doctors and nurses are so great in ICU and that she really is receiving the best one-on-one care she could possibly get. She told us that, "she was going to leave but we could stay here." Hahaha. She is as high as a kite on pain killers and is saying some funny things that are making all of us laugh. She is being very secretive and is trying to sneak ice chips, or "chips" as she calls them. She is allowed to have a few ice chips at a time but it only amounts to about 1/2 a spoonful every now and then. Well, this just drives her crazy. She constantly says, "chips...chips...chips..." She puts on Mean Jean eyes when we tell her she can't have any chips. I was the one holding the chips a.k.a. gold this evening. When I left the room, she motioned for my dad to come closer to her and whispered that she wanted him to give her the chips. Needless to say, she did not win. The DR's worry that she could aspirate (choking and making the water go into her lungs) which would put us back at square 1. That being said, we aren't breaking any rules on that DR's order.

So, if you know me you know I love fascinating things. The postal system, airports, hospitals (newly added), etc. Well, within the hospital I have found my favorite new fascinating thing. In the picture below, you can see a cut out thing in the wall. After some investigating, I learned that this is essentially a way cooler version of the tube in the drive-thru lane at the bank. This tube can catapult medicines, paperwork, etc. ALL over the hospital. You put a tube in the box, enter where you want it to go, and BAM! It is sent wherever you want all over the hospital. So cool. I would love to see a behind the scenes TV episode on how that works.

And finally, just so that you feel like you are with us, here are the doors to the ICU. The woman who I like to call the "keeper of the door" has a very important job. You have to pick up a phone anytime you want to go back to the ICU, tell them who you are going to see, who you are, and then they check with the nurse to see if you can come back. Quite the process. It's like a fort. The Queen's fort? Yes, of course. Why am I just now thinking of this?

That's all for tonight.

Hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Love and hugs,

The Queen's Royal Court

It's doing this weird underlining thing again...sorry.