6 weeks ago today was the day we named Happy Monday. It was the last day that we had any real hope that Lauren would be okay.
When Lauren first transferred to Alderhey on Saturday 7th Dec she was on a high level of life saving assistance. If, like me, your previous experience of hospital rooms has been a standard room in a local hospital, then critical care rooms at Alderhey would be an eye opener. The NHS is truly marvellous.
Lauren had her own specialised intensive Care Nurse who managed all the equipment she was on. He told us the cost of that alone was approx £2k per day. On top all the intensive nursing he also made sure her hair was cleaned and plaited, and great effort was made to ensure she had a nice patterned blanket, with colours she would approve of.
Although Lauren was clearly very ill, we took relief from the fact that sepsis had been identified quickly & antibiotics administered, and now she was in Alderhey for treatment. We had no doubt she would get better.
Throughout Saturday & Sunday her condition stabilised and the amount of life saving intervention she required was reduced slightly. It all felt like small baby steps in the right direction.
The good news continued onto Monday. It was felt that Lauren could cope with being fed, rather than just a saline drip a milk solution was added. The physiotherapist came round and showed me how to do exercises with her hands & feet. They said this would avoid stiffness "When" she woke up. I happily repeated the wording to my husband later.
We spoke to the consultants. They always downplayed any improvements, we called them the doom merchants! But even they seemed quietly optimistic with how Lauren was doing.
We went out for a family meal that night. A Chinese restaurant opposite the hospital (I recommend it should you find yourself in the area) We joked that we may have to cancel our skiing trip to France, but at least we were having a holiday in Liverpool. We saved a fortune cookie for Lauren.
That night I went to bed thinking about the exercises I'd been shown for Lauren, and how I would do them when I went to see her in the morning.
That's why we called it Happy Monday.