The Forgotten Ones

Our family blog seems to have been commandeered by Ellie's updates this month. It may appear I have completely forgotten about my other three children, but that is definitely not the case. I often think about how much easier this would be if Ellie was our first and only child. But she's not. There are three other kids who must be taken care of too. I constantly feel torn. When I'm here at the hospital with Ellie I miss Mason, Brynn, and Miles and desperately want to be home enjoying life with them. When I am able to slip away from Ellie and spend a little time with the big kids then I am worried about Ellie and feel guilty being away from her. I am anxiously awaiting the day when our family will all be together in one place. In the mean time we have been taking advantage of some of the amazing resources they have for siblings here at Primary Children's. First we were introduced to the Forever Young Zone. This is a playroom that is full of toys and play areas that are like a small scale children's museum. There is also a craft table where they have endless amounts of crafts and projects for the kids to do. Mason thinks he has died and gone to heaven every time we go and he gets to do things like paint wooden cars and ceramic figurines, make silly putty, and make bead pets to name a few of his favorite projects.  Brynn loves the little kitchen and doctor's office play areas.  Miles likes the big tower he can send cars down but mostly just throws things at people. The kids love coming to visit us in the hospital and never complain about the hour drive each way because they love visiting the forever young zone so much.

Another really awesome thing we got to do was a "Sibling Session" with a child life specialist. Mason and Brynn got to have a little private class to teach them about Ellie's trach so they would feel more comfortable with it and not be scared. They started off by showing them pictures on an ipad of Ellie with her trach and her room in the PICU. The kids got to ask questions about any of the equipment or anything on Ellie. Then they pulled out a doll that had a trach in it and them them touch and explore it so they could understand how it works. Then they talked about ways they can help take care of Ellie and some of the things Mom and Dad will be doing to take care of Ellie with her trach. Then they each got a "Buddy Doll" along with a bag of hospital supplies that they could use to take care of their dolls (Miles got one, too.) That night Brynn and Mason came home and set up a little hopsital for their buddy dolls using the guess who game as monitors. Watching their roleplay was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It really opened my eyes to what has been going through their minds during all of this. Apparently these child life specialists have done this a time or two and really do know how to help siblings through this process.

There was even something for the biggest kid in our family. Scott enjoyed the slurpee machine in the PICU :)

Ellie is currently in surgery for her g-tube placement as well as a Nissen Fundoplication. The Nissen consists of wrapping her stomach around her esophagus. It is being done to stop Ellie's severe reflux that is damaging her upper airway therefore prolonging her ability to outgrow the laryngomalacia as well as putting her at huge risk for aspiration. It is an invasive and permanent procedure, but after much consideration we feel like it will be best for Ellie. If all goes well we should only be here until the end of the week!