Payton's been in the hospital for a couple of days now and I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She has been so tough and really only had a few meltdowns (which in itself is amazing!). I took her to the doctor concerned she had a bladder infection and before we left the office they were scheduling her for a chest X-ray because of her cough. I wasn't even worried about pneumonia because I didn't think she sounded bad, but turns out she had double pneumonia and ended up in the hospital. Sure enough, once they started the breathing treatments she really started coughing and hacking, so it definitely was a blessing we went to the doctor's appointment and he heard her cough.
Payton has become the greeter and the entertainment of the hospital. No one can walk by her door without her yelling "Hello!" or "Come on in!" and if someone does come in, they get the question "Where's my present?" Yikers :) I was concerned about her getting the breathing treatments because she hates her brother's nebulizer (the noise) but it's so much quieter it hasn't even bothered her. She usually ends up coughing so much she throws up when she's having a treatment, but she's done fantastic with it!
The nurses are shocked how well she can swallow her pills and take her liquid medicine, and usually are so good to her that they receive a "Aahhh, you're so nice" or "you've been good, you're going to get presents!" before they leave the room. She is loving the socializing in this place! She is also loving the warm blankets they can give her at the drop of a hat (instead of having to put it in the dryer like we do at home and wait a bit for it to get warm).
The only time she's really given us any trouble is when she is ofcourse tired at night or when she passed by the physical therapy room and saw all the treadmills. She has quite the obsession with treadmills and she gave us quite a meltdown over it. Eventually, she and Bob went and watched the treadmills for about an hour while other's were having their therapy. Thankfully the nurses allowed her to do that, otherwise I'm not so sure she ever would've calmed down about it until she went to sleep.
Right now she is sleeping peacefully and we're hopeful she'll be checking out tomorrow - just in time for Christmas! However, if not, the nurses have reminded her there is a chimney here and that Santa will find her. Much love to all of you and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
