Cold

I woke up at 4 AM and Ellie's heartrate was down to 53 which is definitely not the lowest it has been, but that tells me that she is cold.  I took her temp and sure enough she was at 92.7 F.  Anything below 93  and she needs to be warmed up.

I am kind of frustrated, I have said at least 3 times during this hospital stay that her normal is 93 to 95.5 F.  I did not specifically tell this nurse however.  Anyway, it will be fine.  It is just a tad low, but does need addressing.

The blanket warmers are ridiculous here.  They used to be good and make the blankets all nice and warm.  But a year or two ago they changed their hospital regulations and now by the time you get them to the patients room they are not warm at all.  They are pointless and a waste of electricity.  We put some blankets in the clothes dryer and those were MUCH better.

I asked them to get orders for the baerhugger from PICU which is a warming blanket.

Last night before bed she started having some sediment in her urine and now it is dark colored.  Her urine output has slowed down so that it is now too slow enough that they did a bladder scan.   I suggested that everything kind of shuts down when she is cold, so let's focus on warming her up and see what happens.

I really hope that she was sleepy yesterday due to the late night last night.

I am trying to convince the Dr.'s to do a shunt series on her which is a CT of the brain and some x-rays of her chest.  It would ease my mind greatly.  She has not wanted to sit up for as long of periods of time which I have been blaming on the rods, but what if it is the shunt.  When she sits up she goes to sleep.  So either she is actually going to sleep or it is a way of communicating.  Perhaps pain or she is uncomfortable.  (A shunt is a 1 way valve inserted into the fluid in her brain to relieve excess pressure).  Also if the pressure in her head changed it could mess up her urination.

Later today (Thurs) they are supposed to send in Urology, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgery.