Flood

Day #1 at Primary Children's Medical Center. 

We arrived Monday -- a beautiful warm Spring morning, to smiles and warm welcomes from nurses and WW, our rehab case manager who had worked with me so patiently and worked so hard to get Katie up there early. Katie's private, corner room was all ready complete with a welcome sign on the wall. Her room is directly behind the nurses' station. If you peek out to the left of her window, you see the giant "U" on the mountain. (That's for the University of Utah for you out-of-towners...) If you had a really strong arm, you could probably hit the U if you threw a rock at it. PCMC is tucked up into the mountains here.

Katie got familiar with her room, while the day nurse gave us parents a tour of the floor and the resources and amenities available to the parents. Among them: a shower, ice/water machines, food and snacks, a resource center, and even a laundry! As we returned, Katie had her first visitor, a therapy dog named Molly, that was making the rounds to the children on the floor. Katie was a little anxious about what lay ahead for her, and a friendly, furry face helped to relax her and get her comfortable.

The next goal was to order some lunch for Katie, and then have Katie and I "move in". We had been told to expect a stay of two weeks.

These two small things took the rest of the afternoon to do. So began "the flood". One after the other, with probably only 5 -10 minutes between them, nurses, doctors and therapists met with us. They introduced themselves, heard Katie's story and her symptoms, and talked about what they would be helping her do. My head was spinning; I couldn't keep track of everyone and everybody. I couldn't take it all in. As you can see in the picture, Katie also started in with therapies. It didn't matter that it was our first day -- no time was going to be wasted.

The day nurse finally came in with a grumpy face and made it all stop for a minute so we could order some food up to the room, saying that Katie hadn't eaten all day! The last doctor/nurse/therapist came and visited with us as 5pm approached. We finally were able to get some food in Katie, unpack our things, and have Alex visit in the evening. It was after dark that I was finally able to eat something down in the cafe downstairs. What a day! Katie and I were exhausted and we both slept very well that night. When I woke up the next morning, it took a minute to remember where I was. I was here, at Primary Children's Medical Center, with my daughter, getting help. I laid there for a while, as Katie slept on. A polite little flood of tears came in the quiet of the morning, as I prayed to my Father in Heaven with a heart full and brimming over with gratitude and relief for this blessing.

A flood of visitors in our room that day. A flood of compassionate and expert help available to us. A flood of emotion. The word of the day is "FLOOD". :-)