Adventures in Wonderland

Well, it has been a busy couple of days. Friday we had Hailey's pre-op appointment. They did a 2 hour echocardiogram where they basically do an ultrasound of the heart. They also put some wires on her and did a regular EKG.  Then, they took us into a little room where they took Hailey's weight and vitals. Then, we went to another room where a nurse from the cath procedure team and a nurse from the cardiac anesthesiology team went over Hailey's health history, medications, and directions for her cath procedure on Monday. It turned out that the anesthesiology nurse did her undergraduate work at BYU-Idaho. We have to skip a couple of Hailey's medications Sunday night, take her off formula around 2am and give her Pedialyte until 5am. Then, she can't have anything until after the anesthesia has worn off. It sounds like Hailey will spend the night in the hospital on Monday night. They usually want to watch them after having had them under anesthesia.  She will probably get to come back to the RMH with us on Tuesday.

After Hailey's appointment we decided to try our hand at using the public transportation to get to Walmart. We had already had one slight hiccup in our day when Hailey ran out of formula just before her appointment. We tried to find some at the gift shop, but were unsuccessful, so the gift shop clerk took us to the front desk where a very kind gentleman made several calls and the hospital just gave us a can. It was so nice of them!  Anyway, we needed to get that and a few groceries, so we set off on one of the Stanford buses. Walmart was about 4 miles away, but it took about 45 min to get there on the bus . Once we arrived, we figured we would have about 45 min to get everything we needed and be waiting for the bus again. We were using an app called Zoute to help us figure the bus system out, but we really couldn't tell where the Walmart stop was on Zoute. We got close to where it was supposed to be on the map and couldn't tell if we were going to miss it, so we got off at the next stop. 

It turned out that Walmart was clear on the other side of the large block where we got off. By the time we walked to it, about 15 minutes had already passed.  We raced through the store grabbing what we needed as fast as we could.  We went to the self-checkout with 3 minutes to get to the bus stop, (luckily the real Walmart bus stop was not far from the front door--we'll know next time). We had a couple of hiccups with an overly sensitive scale on our self-checkout machine, and then there weren't any grocery bags to put thtings in. I was just about to ask the clerk where all the bags were when I remembered that California has some kind of law against plastic bags. So, we had to ask a clerk for some reusable shopping bags we could buy.  Needless to say, by the time it was all said and done we had missed the return bus. The next one was not due for another 45 minutes and would only get us to the hospital where we would have to take another shuttle to the RMH (Ronald McDonald House). 

We were supposed to be having dinner at the RMH. On Fridays they actually have you order dinner from a McDonald's menu and then bring it for everyone.  So, we had hoped to get home in time to eat dinner. We had missed lunch during Hailey's appointment.  We looked on the Zoute app and found a bus that would take us within half a mile of the RMH, so we figured we would do that instead because it was supposed to come earlier.  We gathered our belongings, which at this point consisted of, a stroller, a carseat, Hailey's pump, a purse, a backpack, a diaper bag, 3 bags of groceries, and a gallon of milk and walked to the stop for the other bus, or tried to.  We took a wrong turn and didn't realize it for about half a block, so we headed back.  We finally got to the right bus stop. The time for the bus to arrive came and went.  Half an hour passed and still no bus.  We even saw the bus from the stop we had waited at before go by. Hailey had run out of formula at this point and the pump set had a clog in it.  We had formula powder but no water to mix with it.  Luckily I had one more pump set (a bag that you use with the pump) with me. We loaded that set onto the pump and filled it with Pedialyte, which we had bought for Hailey's cath on Monday.  Finally the bus arrived and we climbed on, relieved to be on our way. 

We arrived at the Palo Alto Caltrain station about 15 minutes later. Once we got off the bus and checked our app again. It showed the RMH being about a 20 min walk from where we were, but made it look like you had to cross the freeway. We couldn't see any possible way to do that, so we tried to look it up on Google Maps and it said we were 3.7 miles from the RMH and that it would take over an hour to walk there.  We were just trying to figure out what to do when a sweet girl about 19 or 20 asked if we needed some help. We told her we were trying to get to the Ronald McDonald House. She told us it was way to far to walk and suggested we call a cab. I asked her if she had any idea how much a cab might be. She said, "Probably about $40." I must've looked as surprsied as I felt (this from the girl who used to pay $1.25 a taxi ride in Panama,  I haven't taken many taxis in the U.S.)  She said, "Don't worry about it. I will call you one.  I have a credit anyway." She used an app on her phone called Urban, ordered us a taxi, paid for it and proceeded to walk us to the taxi. She asked where we were from and we told her Eastern Idaho. She asked where in Eastern Idaho. When we said Idaho Fallls she said that she had a bunch of friends who went to school in Rexburg.  We told her that we met at BYU-Idaho .Then, she told us that she is originally from Provo and she is turning in her mission papers in about 2 weeks.  Her name is Pamela. It was an absolute miracle to me that she found us and helped us. She walked us all the way to the taxi and helped us load everything up. She told us it was all covered so we didn't need to pay the driver. She was amazing! She said that her parents are from Bolivia, so she thinks it would be awesome to go there. 

The taxi took us home in about 15 minutes and we arrived, hungry, and grateful to be home. Our fries were cold,  the burgers had been thrown away, and the shakes were completely melted, but we were so happy to be back we didn't even care. We laughed and laughed about this being our most ridicuous shopping trip ever.  We talked about how humbled and amazed we are for the way that Heavenly Father has been looking out for us though by blessing us with yet another angel on earth to help us in our time of need.  I think He is showing us over and over that He is aware of us and mindful of what we really need.  We ordered some Chinese takeout after we got back, not keen on the idea of trying to take a bus anywhere else.  It was a crazy, but good day. 

Today was calmer! We slept in and took it easy this morning, trying to catch up on sleep before this next week..  At about 1pm we decided to go exploring on foot this time.  (No more bus adventures this weekend!) There is a huge mall right across the street from us. They don't sell groceries at all, but they have some fun stores to go look around in and most of it is out in the open air, so we were able to take Hailey covereed up in her stroller and explore it for a while.  It was nice to be out because the day was a gorgeous sunny day.  It felt like one nice long date because Hailey slept through most of it.  She did like the parts when she was awake and she got to see the trees and the sky and some of that though.  Anwyay, we are so grateful for all of your love and prayers. There are truly angels among us and we have been blessed by so many earthly angels as you have helped and served and prayed for us. Thank you for all you do!