All Moved In

Yesterday's big move from the old Children's Memorial to the new Lurie Children's Hospital wound up being far less crazy for Tim than we had feared.  Of course it helped that Tim was no longer in any kind of critical condition and so his transport was low risk and therefore low stress for everyone. Tim spent the morning waiting by watching Justice League cartoons and telling jokes to everyone that would listen.  He even got to tell his joke to an ABC7 news camera, although we don't think it was used during any of their coverage of the move. Finally at about 1:00 the transport team arrived to get Tim moved to the new hospital.  All in all it seemed like getting him onto the transport gurney in the small ICU room took longer than the actual drive to the new hospital if only because there was so little room to maneuver while they got all his pumps put somewhere they wouldn't hurt Tim while they moved him onto the gurney.

 getting Tim ready to move

 on the elevator heading downstairs

 getting loaded onto the ambulance

coming off the ambulance at the new hospital

Once in the new room Tim instantly became more at ease.  Other than the fact there were so many people in the room initially he settled right in, trying out the new TV and relaxing.  Tim is very excited about the new TV since he traded in an old tube TV with about 5 channels at the old hospital for a big 40" interactive flat screen.  New there are about 24 channels, including lots of Disney and Nickelodeon stations so he knows there is always something for kids on.  In addition to this the TV has about 30 movies he can stream from Captain America and the latest Transformers movie to Dolphin Tale to the Phineas & Ferb movie.  Tim's first pick was the Smurfs movie, which made him quite happy to be watching. Plus, Tim can surf the internet, and check out what's going on in the hospital all from a wireless keyboard, regular TV remote or a newer version of the classic hospital TV remote.

 finishing off the move

all settled in and relaxing at last

As the afternoon moved on Tim got to take a relaxing nap and ordered in a tasty meal of ravioli, buttered noodles, garlic bread and chocolate chip cookies for dinner.  Tim's appetite continues to improve and he ate more than he has since going into the hospital.  It still isn't a lot of food, but every meal he seems to eat a little more which is great to see.  This morning he polished off an orange juice, an entire yogurt and about half a blueberry muffin.

Last night Tim finally had a restful night of sleep.  Its amazing how much better he could sleep in a room where he could close the door to shut out any of the ambient sound, pull a curtain to block out as much light as possible and just worry about getting a good night's sleep.  Other than a middle of the night potty break Tim was able to sleep most of the way through without issue.  It also helped that his nurse last night, Meghan, knew that Tim hadn't been sleeping well and seemed to bother him as little as possible which was also a nice treat for everyone involved.

As far as the new hospital is concerned, it's a beautiful facility.  If you need to be in a hospital it is about as nice a place as you could hope for.  The large private rooms with much improved sleeping accommodations for parents are just the start.  Every floor has a family lounge with a TV, play area, refrigerator, microwave and vending machines along with comfortable seating and plenty of space.  The 11th floor is a bustling area with a new and improved gift shop, a rooftop garden and a nice cafeteria that includes lots of options for families and staff to choose from at meal or snack time.  The menu for room service isn't any different from what was at the old hospital, but after seeing the meals Tim has ordered it looks like the quality of the food has improved.  Everywhere you can walk that is a public area is decorated nicely with soothing colors, interesting artwork and consistent themes for each floor.  We haven't had a chance to make it to the Family Life Center yet, but based on everything else we have seen its safe to say it will be amazing too.  Having not even seen the more medical parts of the building it is obvious that all the money spent on the design and implementation of the vision of the hospital was well spent.  

The other big plus is that it is obvious that the staff are all very excited about being in the new building too.  Their excitement is the only infectious thing we've come across so far.  They are somewhat disoriented as to where to find some things and what some of the rules are, but they're happy to be here.  This isn't to say they weren't perfectly happy to be at the old hospital, but one has to wonder how much the antiquated nature of the old building impacted the staff's attitude from time to time.  New isn't always better, but in this case it seems as if new is definitely an improvement for everyone involved.

Finally, Tim was mentioned in a couple more articles that were published today.  Check them out at the following links:

Daily Herald:  http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120609/news/706099858/

Naperville Sun:  http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/13075395-418/childrens-memorial-move-over-staff-families-say-goodbyes.html