Day 10: Edmonton

Sunday, February 24

So Saturday was rough. The events of the day  had a profound impact on how our day began today. After our fitful sleep we were both incredibly anxious to see how the night had gone. We basically sprinted from the hotel to the hospital, yet the ten minute walk to her station still felt like it took an  exorbitantly long time.

We arrived to find Ellie very drowsy. She had been give a fairly strong anti-anxiety sedative in the middle of the night to help her finally get some sleep. We were both very thankful that nothing new had changed in the few hours we were away recuperating.

The plan for the day, at least our hope for the day, was for nothing new to happen. A boring day is what we needed to encourage our spirits. 

During morning rounds the doctors decided to reintroduce food and see what happened.  This seemed like a good idea at the time but as she started feeling better throughout the day, it only seemed to aggravate her more.  If this is our biggest concern for the day, we are laughing.  Therefore our day consisted of entertaining, singing, rocking and anything else we could think of to take her mind off of food.

It was a long day as neither one of us wanted to leave her bedside while she was awake.  We took turns going for lunch and the nurses finally talked us into leaving together for dinner.  On our return we found Donna, Ellie's favourite nurse, and it was a fantastic surprise! We were able to sponge bathe her (which she loves) and Dan was able to finally fix her hair the way he likes it!  She was given a sedative to try and "reset" her sleeping patterns.  (One of her drugs causes her to be anxious and the weening of this drug is causing her some issues.)

About 10 minutes after the administration of the sedative she passed out so we went back to the hotel and did the same.