Hilary's Dad
November 19, 2005
Nov. 13, 2004 Connie and I both spent the night at the hospital the night of Hilary’s surgery. We sent older sister, Meagan, home to get some sleep. I don’t think she slept much that night, either. The Methodist Hospital’s Neuro ICU staff was very accommodating, and had a folding cot in the room for Connie before Hilary even came out of surgery! Apparently they don’t get too many children in there as patients. The nurses told us later that they “fought “over who would get to take care of Hilary. Meagan hand made a really cool guest sign-in book for Hil’s hospital visitors to sign and some of the neatest entries were written by the nurses and various therapists who took care of her. That week in the hospital was a blur to me. Each day Hilary would make a little progress. One day the doctor ordered the arterial line out. The next day, Hil’s IV fluids were stopped because she was eating / drinking enough. The day after that she got transferred to the pediatric ward and Physical Therapy started working with her to ensure all the muscles and nerves were working together, walking Hilary up and down the halls and stairs. She liked the regular floor better than the ICU, because she got to paint ceiling tiles and watch movies on video for “free”. This whole week she was not allowed to wash her hair. Finally, on the last or next to last day in the hospital, they let Hilary take a shower - you would have thought she was in Heaven! She still had the skin staples in her scalp, so she couldn’t wash her hair for another week, but that was an euphoric experience as well.
Getting Hilary home was an experience. I was back to work by then, but Connie and our good friend, Mary Guerrero, got her and all the plants, balloons, and stuffed animals home without too much mishap. Before her surgery, Hilary slept with our two small dogs in her room. Dr. Bogaevs’ nurse, Fara, informed us that NO animals should be in Hil’s room for eight weeks, so, while she was in the hospital, her room got a spring cleaning. Needless to say, our dogs were ecstatic to see Hilary return, even if they couldn’t sleep in her room. She’s always been an “animal person”. On one of our camping trips to Medina Lake, Hilary came walking back to the campsite, and following her was a deer, a squirrel, a rabbit, and a bird, single file, like Dr. Doolittle or something.
After a week or so, the school district set up a homebound teacher, Mrs. Peredes, for Hilary, so she wouldn’t fall behind in her academic work. She is still one of our favorite people. In addition to her regular, full schedule at the Middle School and all her regular teaching responsibilities, she agreed to routinely come after school to work with Hil in order to keep her up to date with the rest of her class. We enjoy seeing her and her family at Church every week. The homebound schooling went on for 6-8 weeks and Hilary maintained her straight A average throughout the whole ordeal!
Having many of her activities restricted, Hilary found that she enjoyed preparing and cooking food in the kitchen. When she wasn’t doing that she was watching Emeril or Rachael Ray on the Food Network. This eventually led to Hilary writing and Connie editing “From MRIs to Lemon Pies”, a cookbook published by Heritage Cookbook! (on sale now via Paypal!! CLICK HERE for more cookbook information, or CLICK HERE for ordering instructions.)
(more to follow)
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