Today has been a very emotional day. The nurses that have been taking care of Charlie and Henry arranged a going away party for Charlie in one of the meeting rooms. It was really nice of them. Dayshift and Nightshift were there on their time off, there was cake and presents and Henry even got to go on a wagon ride so he could be there too. We saw people from The Pavilion including Dr Marvelous. We talked about how helpful everyone has been and we were flattered to hear how much people had got out of looking after our boys.
Henry isn't home tonight but he will be soon. I called the day emotional and one of the reasons is that we had to leave Henry in the hospital again, but he is healthy and will be home in a few days.
Aly is much more sociable than I am. She chats to people and gets to know about them in a way that I can only participate in but never start. The nurses are an example of that. At the party, one of the nurses asked Aly if one of the nurse managers was pregnant. Aly knew the answer and plenty of details. (Twins, 13 weeks, one boy one TBD). Another example is a family that came over to the tower with very premature twin boys a few weeks ago. Aly said hello by the milk bank and got to know them, so I did too. They are lovely people and the mother is very articulate about the difficulty of communicating with the outside world in our situation. We know that people care and want to help but it is so difficult because nobody knows the fear and nobody knows what to say or do. It's impossible. She also said she was happy to know us, a family that was going through the same thing.
Today, as we were getting everything ready for our party, that family were getting terrible, terrible news about one of their boys. Today, Charlie left the NICU and represents a happy story about a boy that nearly died but today rode in his mom's new car and met his dog. 30 feet away from this happy story is heartbreaking sadness. I don't know what to say or do. It's impossible.
So, today we are happy and sad. The NICU is an emotional place and today we saw all sides of it. I don't know how the the people that work there do it but I am, and always will be, grateful that they do.
(D)
I have read this post 100 times since you have published it and I cry every time. I just read it out loud to my husband, vice president of the fighting fitzies fan club and my voice wavered and shook. There are no words, it is impossible, but dammit this is one the MOST eloquent posts in the history of blogging. Sending love and light to the other family, and to the nurse pregnant with twins and of course as always the fitzies. xoxo
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