Hospital Photo Journey

I feel ready to put Annika's hospital visit behind us, but before do, I'd like to share Annika's photo journey.

When Annika first arrived at Primary Children's she seemed so tiny and fragile.  Just a waif barely visible through all of the tubes.

On Christmas Eve the hospital gave her a colorful blanket.  The Blackhams brought the adorable Christmas axolotl.

Add a baby yoda from Uncle Lance to the treasure pile.

Clinging to her stuffies from home.

Christmas in the hospital.  Many thanks to friends and family for the trees and food.

Annika's siblings all came to see her on Christmas.  It was happy/sad.

All dressed up in red ribbons with painted nails for the holiday.

Truthfully, Christmas was pretty hard.  They held a simple LDS church service upstairs, but I left after twenty minutes.  It turns out Christmas carols are pretty triggering if you are worried about losing your child.  As much as I love music, Away in a Manger and Mary's Lullaby were more than I could handle. Bedside, I kept trying to sing to Annika, but could only manage four or five words before my voice would crack.  While normally a favorite, You are My Sunshine is on the do-not-recommend list.

I did, however, Zoom into our ward's Christmas program right at the moment they were placing a PICC line. (This is a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter that can deliver medications directly to the heart.) Annika was feeling agitated, so they invited me to don a hair net and help calm her during the procedure. The beautiful carols playing in my ear really helped me feel peace throughout.

A visit from Grandma Susie and stories from Dad.

Jason did the kindest thing and printed some large color pictures of Annika to hang around her room.  It meant so much to have reminders of our vibrant Annie nearby.  I really wanted her caregivers to understand a little bit more about the spunky child they were treating.

Fighting hard.

There were a couple times when I walked up into the foothills for a moment while Annika was in a long procedure.  It really helped to breathe some fresh air and remind myself that there is life beyond the hospital.

Annika had so many hospital visitors that we didn't take a picture with each one, but this hospital visit was special.  Here's Annika with her 97 year-old Great-Grandma Hansen, followed by a four generation photo.

I love this photo!  This is the smile Annika gave when I told her she was talking to Dr. Stephanie Goldstein, one of the doctors who saved her life.  

And this is the photo Dr. Goldstein sent to us.

Hard to believe that Annika actually has far fewer tubes going here.  She's been taken off ECMO, as you can tell by the fact that she no longer has a cannula coming out of the jugular vein in her neck.  She also only has one "tree" of IV lines instead of the two she initially had.

Get well soon!

Room change!  After Annika was taken off ECMO, we got downgraded out of the suite and into a shared CICU room.  We also shared a nurse instead of having two nurses assigned to just Annika.  In this case, less attention means progress!  However, these next couple days were some of the hardest to witness because Annika was SO depressed as she came off sedation.  I have to say, I was really worried when she didn't even want to hold her stuffies.  Here she is working with speech therapy.

NomiAnn and Papa Kay finally arrived from Florida, having endured countless flight delays and bad weather.  The cute stuffed tiger comes from Elaine.

Brooklyn, Talia, and Eli all came to the hospital as well.  Here's Talia helping me with "spa day."  These shampooing shower caps are awesome!

Dozing on a giant polar bear from Zizheng.

Yay for Talia's hair help!

Snuggles with Dad.  

So funny story.  When Annika got  her breathing tube out, she somehow yanked out her foley catheter as well with the balloon fully inflated.  Sounds super painful to me, but she didn't seem bothered.  Anyway, they moved her into her new room, but didn't have a commode available before giving her a mega-dose of Lasix (a diuretic.)  About 60 seconds later, she starts squealing about how she has to pee now!  By the time they got the commode ready, it was too late.  Devastated, she confesses, "I went....on Dad!"  Luckily she was in a brief that caught most of the moisture--Jason's lap caught the rest.  

Not even interested in Legos?  Say whaaa?  I think part of the reason Annika was so sad was because she was super hungry but not allowed to eat.  I didn't realize how starved she was until we pulled out a gingerbread house to decorate, hoping it would cheer her up.  The moment I turned around, she popped a gumdrop in her mouth and started sucking on the frosting!

Check out the Golden Poop Annika got from her Uncle Justin!  I never imagined we'd coordinate with her Christmas jammies.

At last!  Food!  Annika downed an impressive amount of macaroni and cheese for her Grandma Susie.  Then she puked most of it up--too much too soon, I suppose.

I think it was sometime after vomiting lunch that Annika ended up with the NG tube back in.  Yeah, UNO wouldn't cheer me up from that either.

More sibling hugs.  She may look glum, but Annika adores her Brooklyn and Eli!

Visiting space was extremely limited in the CICU, so we utilized the Ronald McDonald room as a space for the kids to work on homework and hangout while others were visiting.  They even got to open and complete their Christmas puzzle.

At last!  After a challenging night with an upset baby next door, we got moved upstairs to "the floor."  This spacious new room felt like a penthouse suite.  Annika's mood improved almost immediately.

I asked Annika if she wanted to have anyone come visit and guess who she requested: Amy Jo!

Amy Jo and Diane spoiled Annika with two warmies, a minky, and a Willow Tree statue, but the best present was Amy Jo's hug!

Next favorite visitors: Phia, Stephen, and Milo.  Yay for pets!

Annika enjoyed ordering from the hospital menu, but discovered that the salmon wasn't as tasty as she hoped it would be.

I did find her snacking on her gingerbread house.

When it comes to food though, the real issue is that Annika didn't pass her swallow test so she's only allowed thickened liquids.  Unfortunately she hates the thickener and won't drink the thickened liquids at all.  The resulting dehydration is what necessitated the NG tube.  Definitely a bummer, but overall Annika was doing amazingly well.

At least she can still have Tic Tacs, right Papa Kay?

Papa Kay went to church down the hall with Annika and I.  Annie even walked back!

Coming out of church, she got to choose a gift and selected this enormous bear, Anico.  Stuffies combined with sole control of the remote: maybe hospital life isn't so bad after all.

Aubri and Robyn Christensen came to visit as well, bringing a lovely card from the Primary.

Annika sure liked getting to Facetime with Lucy and Rose!

For me, a favorite moment was playing Primary Music Jenga with her siblings.

While Annika had far fewer tubes than she did in the CICU, bathroom trips still necessitated some extra equipment.  Speaking of bathrooms, Annika's first priority when she got to her new room was a shower.  I'm not exactly sure why, but she wanted to shower so badly!  

Another funny story--when one of her nurses came in for the first time, Annika asked the nurse if she had washed her hands.  She then explained how she's just read one of the "Speak Up" signs on the wall where it says that it's okay to question your caregivers about hand hygiene.  Not only did this make us laugh, but I was thrilled to know that she could still see well and read.

These two look up to mischief.  Where are they headed late at night?

Outside to fetch a cup of snow!

At Nurse Stacy's suggestion, they'd gone outside to get a snowball to throw at Nurse Adrienne as revenge for the NG tube.  Turns out Annika is a really good shot!  Poor Adrienne (who we loved) got doused.  Then when Adrienne tried to organize an ambush on Stacy, Annika turned it around and got Adrienne a second time.  So sneaky!

Speaking of sneaky, Eli helped Annika build this catapult.  No potential for troublemaking here!  However, the hospital gave Annie the kit, so they may have been asking for it...

Time for an MRI.  Turns out Annika really liked the immersive movie going experience and held still for as long as her show was running.

In general Annika preferred the chair to her bed.

This lion is one of my favorite hospital takeaways.  One of her nurses, Bri, shared Annika's passion for Harry Potter.  Impressed by Annika's bravery, she gave Annie a Gryffindor lion, having fashioned the cape herself out of  a Sharpie and pair of briefs found in the extra clothes drawer.

You may notice Annika's smile seems a little winky-wonky.  There's always a concern about stroke for ECMO patients, but we've had multiple consults with neurology, and it seems like everything else is fine (except swallowing.)  There's no left-sided weakness and the smile is improving with time, so the trauma may have just exacerbated a crooked smile to which she is naturally predisposed.   

Dinner, popcorn, and a movie.  I don't know if this makes her lucky or unlucky, but she barfed up the NG tube after eating the hamburger and they didn't make her put it back in.

Fancy nails, a bracelet, and a new scrunchie from Danyn.

These pictures are probably all out of order, but somewhere in here she had her ICD (Internal Cardioverter Defibrillator) inserted and her atrial septum repaired.  Here she is coming out of surgery.

Her ICD incision site.  It actually looks way worse now with all the bruising around it.

As a recovery present, she picked a blender over a blanket.  Too bad it turned out to be broken.

Next fun: a field trip to the gym for physical therapy.

Who knew therapy would look like sand art at a standing table?  Too fun!

More movie time during her echocardiogram.

Then, it was up to the playroom for some air hockey and slime fun with Grandma Susie.

By this point in her hospital stay, Annika was feeling well enough to enjoy all the spoiling.  While Brooklyn was off visiting BYU, a professor sent back this incredible 3D printed axolotl for Annie.

She decorated this stuffie all by herself.

Plus, her Girl Scout sisters sent her an amazing care package.

Perhaps her very favorite surprise was a trip to the School Zone where they happened to have the exact book she wanted from the Keeper of the Lost Cities series.

During Annika's last couple days, she got lots of visits from hospital Pet Therapy dogs and even started collecting their "trading cards."  I worried she might not want to go home.

However, when we were finally cleared for discharge, Annika couldn't wait to reunite with her brother and sisters. There really is no place like home.

Infinite thanks to Primary Children's Hospital for taking such great care of our little girl!  I wish I could say that we'd left hospital life behind us, but I think PCH is going to be a regular part of our future.  We've been back for multiple outpatient appointments and unfortunately spent last night in the ER.  (Nothing too serious--just extreme constipation from the thickened liquid diet.)  Turns out Annika's quite famous around Primary's.  Even in the ER they were familiar with her story.  Just glad she's here to tell it too!