Reed Family Update

Wow I guess it has been a while since I updated anything. So many people have been asking how work is going, and it is going so well. I love it, but think I am going to dread making the switch over to nights, for right now I am on orientation on days. Three days a week goes by so fast and I love having 4 days to spend with Brian.

As if I had not already announced, I am in the Intensive Care Unit. It is challenging, but I really enjoy having to learn new things every day. I cant believe how much I didn't learn in nursing school. The good news is that it only took me a couple of days to get back into the routine of working 12 hour shifts and doing nursing duties. I had to start my first IV in over 3 months yesterday, and of course got it on the first try, must still have the touch.

The hospital that I am working at is much bigger than where I came from, but it isn't huge. Basically we will see everything in the ICU except open heart surgeries and transplants. Other than that pretty much everything else is fair game. They do a lot of heart caths, so we see several patients like that who will have to be transfered for bypass surgery to our sister hospital Methodist in Omaha, NE.

Today started out pretty slow, but there was a code in the ER and at least one of the ICU nurses has to respond to the code, so I went down to help out. What an adrenaline rush, for lack of a better word, it was fun. (for me, not the patient).

I thought that being around all the specialized equipment and the monitors would bring back memories of when we were at Children's Mercy, but it hasn't really until today when they were setting up the ventilator. It was pretty hard hearing the ventilator, not the alarms, but the actual sound of the air going though the tube. I guess the reason is that because when we finally got to hold Elli, they switched her over to the conventional vent, and I remember everything about those few hours, and the sound of the vent today sent me right back there. Luckily it wasn't my patient, but I am going to have to get used to it, considering it is coming on flu season and pneumonia time, where we will have several patients on the vent.

Brian has been so busy with harvest. He has been working pretty much non-stop trying to get corn out right now. They finished up at my house today, so they have moved on to yet another field. The corn seems to be yielding pretty good considering some of it got a lot of hail damage. I have been keeping Brian company on my day's off by riding in the truck and tractor with him. We have been seeing a lot of deer around and my dad says that he has seen a "huge" buck on every field, although Brian has yet to see any of them. Hopefully he will be able to find one and try out his new muzzle loader he got when we moved up here. He has been so busy he hasn't even had time to shoot it.

Trigger is still grounded, I want to let him and Molly out, but I am too afraid he will run off again, so they have to stay kenneled up when we are gone, which on the days I work is ALL day. Wish that little turd would just stay around the house. Gabby our cat is doing well also, she is so vocal and will sit at the living room door and meow constantly. She still thinks she is supposed to be an inside cat, considering we kicked her booty out when I found out I was pregnant last December.

Hello Elli my sweet. First off I just want to let you know how much Daddy and I miss you baby girl, but we are so glad that you will never have to suffer through any more surgeries, or spend a life time struggling to breathe. As hard as it was to let you go, it would be so much harder knowing that you would have to live a life of pain and suffering, so knowing that you are pain free and able to enjoy being a baby in heaven brings comfort to Daddy and I. I thought of you so much this weekend. I wish that I could have put you in a car seat and we could have taken Daddy lunch and went for rides in the tractor. I can just imagine you sitting on Daddy's lap learning how to honk the horn and pretending to drive and it puts a smile on my face just thinking how cute the two of you would have been. I really like my new job sweetie, even though it is hard to see sick patients, I know that I will be able to help most of them get better, and those that don't, I will be there for them during their entire stay on earth, just like the amazing nurses at Children's mercy were there for you and us during those last days. You know all that milk that mommy pumped for you Elli, some other sick babies are going to get to use it since you weren't able to. I got word today that I passed my blood tests and that I will officially be donating my milk to a bank in Ohio. I am so glad that all that work will help some babies, and not be wasted. I got some pictures hung up this last week, and put two pictures of you in your room. They look so good, chocolate brown frames on the light pink wall. I leave the door open so I can catch a glimpse of you when I walk by on the way to put in yet another load of laundry. Well Elli, I thought on Friday that you were finally going to get your headstone, I was on my way to have lunch with a friend from high school and followed a CLA Monument truck from Henderson to Carson, but it didn't turn to head to Treynor, just kept on going north of Oakland, so I will assume that they were not going to deliver it that day. I keep my fingers crossed that they will be able to place it before the freeze, because if they don't, we will have to wait until the spring. I think about you all day Elli, and especially when I use the hand sanitizer at work. I know that sounds weird sweetie, but we use the same kind that they used at CMH, and after you rub it in, it kind of smells like baby powder. I hope the other nurses don't catch me smelling my hands on occasion just to get a whiff of Elli Smell. I have told a couple of nurses about you Miss Elli, but not everyone yet, but I will in time. I miss you so much Elli, and wish things would have been so different, but enjoyed every minute of those 20 days you were with me. I miss you always. Breathe Easy Elli. Love Mommy and Daddy