Day +26 - Our first PASS

Today was a really good day for Olivia. The doctors are continuing to decrease her steroids so she is not waking up as grumpy as she has been for the last week. Olivia's nurse was able to meet with the doctors very early this morning. At the beginning of every shift each patent's nurse sits down for a one-on-one with the doctors. Our nurse returned with the great news that we would be allowed out for our very first PASS. We would be allowed to leave for an hour. I don't know if Olivia was excited about this or not but I definitely was! During the week I usually only get the chance to leave 5200 once and that's usually just for a run down to the cafeteria. We were up early so we got started on our daily walk around 5200. After our walk we came back to our room and Olivia settled in for a nap. She woke up just in time to see the doctors and then we went to Bingo. After Bingo we stayed in the playroom for Music Therapy. As soon as music therapy finished we went back to our room and started to get ready for our pass. Olivia was unhooked and we were off. When Olivia leaves 5200 and it's special air purification system she has to wear a special mask. She wasn't too happy about putting it on but as she realized that we were getting to go someplace new she didn't seem to mind as much. Since today was Olivia's first day out of the hospital in almost 6 weeks I wanted to take it slow. We just walked around the 5th floor for a bit and then we went up to the 9th floor to see where the helicopter lands. We went down to the atrium in the lobby and Olivia enjoyed looking at the fountains. Olivia was very well behaved, she seemed to have a good time exploring and people watching. We didn't start our pass until around 5:45pm. The nurse encouraged us to start later in the evening so that the hospital would be less crowded and I'm glad we waited. We did still see quite a few people and they all seemed to have such different reactions. Several people told Olivia how adorable she was, she got smiles and waves from almost everyone. I did see quite a few people tear up at the sight of her. Then they would look at me, I'm not sure what exactly they were thinking...I don't blame them at all. I get teary eyed 100 times a day, it's just part of who I am now. Here are just a few pictures from our pass!

I didn't end up doing Olivia's labs last night so I will give it a try again tonight. I did change her dressing on her tubbie though and the nurses told me I did a great job!