Marek not doing so well

[pne]

Stella came back this afternoon and, apparently, hadn't told me the whole story.

She had barely slept that night, since Marek—even though he was on supplemental oxygen ("70%", though I don't know how to interpret that figure), he had trouble breathing and could basically only sleep sitting upright on Stella's lap. So she held him all night and got next to no sleep herself. The fact that he cried most of the time he was awake didn't help, either.

And when she said, in the morning, that she wanted to spend the next night at home, since she couldn't sleep in his room anyway once he's in intensive care, the nurses told her "You can't do that".

Basically, Marek needs so much looking after that one nurse said she was spending most of her time with him, even though she's got quite a few other children in the ward who need her, too; and also, Marek's not a newborn any more, who basically notices attention more than who, specifically, is providing the attention, so he's a bit lost now among people he doesn't know, and having Stella there would be comforting for him.

So she asked me about it, and thought about it, and finally made the decision that she'd go back this evening. She'd spend the night in a room in the regular children's ward, one floor below the children's ICU, and they'd call her whenever he needed something.

She wasn't too enamoured about the prospect of another sleepless night, but she said she figured Marek needed her now, and if it had been our own child, we would have done it, too, and she doesn't want Marek taken away from us because we can't care for him enough, so we have to go through this now.

Then, she did something that touched me: she called a friend of ours to ask whether they could take care of Amy tomorrow. Because she knew that I can't really handly being around people for too long at a stretch, especially with Amy, where I need some alone time after spending some time playing with her, and after basically being alone with Amy for two days now (Monday and Tuesday), she wanted to give me at least some time on Wednesday. And a friend of ours said she'd discuss it with her husband but she could probably take Amy for at least a few hours.

She also asked what we'll do for Christmas Eve dinner—whether we wanted to ask someone else whether we could eat dinner with them so that it wouldn't just be Amy and I eating soup from a tin or something.

She did say she would try her best to be here on Christmas Eve in the evening and spend the night here until Christmas Day, but she did add the caveat that it may not be easy to get leave from the nursing personnel. So we shall have to see.

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In unrelated news, Amy and I went out to a "Schweinske" restaurant in Harburg today. We arrived just a bit too late to take advantage of their noon meal deals, so I had a "Schweini" meal (the "Schweini" is their version of a hamburger: a slab of "Kasseler" style pork in a bread roll with some special sauce), and Amy had spag bol. Though she mostly ate the fresh bread rolls and less of the spaghetti. Also, she wanted a high chair but she's really growing too big for them: she had a hard time fitting her shoes through it while getting in and out.

Comments

[ex_xo956]

wow. poor marek. i am praying for him. please keep us updated.

[yvi]

:( I hope he recovers, and fast.

[falena]

Oh no.
You'll all be in my thoughts.

[schnurble]

Poor little chap! I hope he'll recover soon and Stella can be home with you at Christmas!
How is Amy reacting to this? Does she consider Marek as her little brother?

[pne]

I hope he'll recover soon and Stella can be home with you at Christmas!

It's unlikely right now that he'll be out of hospital for Christmas; however, Stella said she'd try to be home in the evening of the 24th until the morning of the 25th.

How is Amy reacting to this? Does she consider Marek as her little brother?

Brother, I think not yet. I think she likes him, but more like a friend, visitor, daycare child sort of thing.

But she's handling the situation really well; she's being really understanding about her mother's being away so often, being nice, being helpful around the house. Stella said she's growing up quite a bit through this situation.