Searching for Answers
We arrived back at the hospital the night of July 3rd and it was around 5 am on the 4th of July when she finally fell asleep - after almost two days of being awake and miserable.
This was not a fun way to spend Independence Day...but I knew it was the card we were dealt so we had to just make the most of it.
I tied a red and white ribbon in her hair while she slept. It was perfect.
On the 5th we had exciting news: Donald and the girls were coming to visit! When they arrived Elisabeth actually woke up, which was amazing because mostly she was just sleeping due to sedation. And oh, what a difference having them there made! She seemed so content, so happy.
Daddy missed his little girl:
After spending some time with Lizzy, the big girls went down to the rec room and painted some posters to decorate her room:
Elisabeth's ROOM
Oh, what a difference a little bit of color makes!
The doctors and nurses were all quite impressed.
The next few days we were in somewhat of a holding pattern. She would sleep and sleep. Every once in a while she would wake up, but mostly she would sleep. I did get her hair detangled and combed, so that was good.
Also, Elisabeth had a few visitors while she was there of the canine variety:
But if sisters and dogs weren't there.
Or if I wasn't pestering her by trying to detangle hair, she slept:
Mostly I just took pictures of her.
On Wednesday afternoon they mentioned sending Elisabeth home in the morning. The problem I saw with that was that we had not resolved any of the issues, we had merely found a successful way to sedate her and I didn't feel that sending her home sedated was the best option. I suggested that we first let her wake up so we could gauge where exactly she was at. Everyone agreed and so on Thursday morning we stopped the sedation drugs.
It went as smoothly as we could hope. She woke up and seemed rather calm. By that night I thought, 'Yes, she is okay to take home' - though I was still haunted by what had happened the first time around.
Why had she exhibited such strange behaviors? Why was she thrashing? Why couldn't she sleep?
With still so many questions I agreed to take her home - a second time - on Friday.
Up next: Part 6, The Homecoming, Take Two!
