Delayed Reaction

It’s been a few days since I have added anything to this space. In that time a few people – more people than days have passed – have asked me when there will be another update. I guess people actually read this occasionally? I am not going to be so foolish as to claim an audience, but I will be sure to watch my language, and change names of people who may not want to be mentioned. I should probably be careful not to insult anyone I work with; try not to point out the annoying habits of people I interact with daily. It’s a good thing this is about Molly.

If you’ve never been to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia you probably don’t know it’s home to a 24 hour McDonald’s that is said to generate more revenue than any other in the country. It’s also notorious for having the worst service of any service-based establishment. I must say though, my last two visits (there have been three total: one the very first time we came here – 10/17, I believe, one Saturday evening when I realized the cafeteria closed an hour early on weekends, and one just a few minutes ago) have proven the poor service label unwarranted. Granted the first time we waited 12 minutes for a cup of coffee and an employee berated a customer who claimed not to have enough strawberry in his chocolate/strawberry shake, but seriously the last two times have been great. Actually the most recent one was also just plain weird. I went down for coffee. I ordered a large coffee with milk. The young lady went to the refrigerator and took out milk that would go in a Kid’s Meal and handed it to me. Then she grabbed a large cup and said, “you know this one is 75 cents? The small is free.” You’re telling me the highest grossing McDonald’s in the US would just hand me a coffee if I walked in and asked for a small coffee? And could she have possibly thought when I said “coffee with milk” that I meant a coffee and a milk? Then I asked for an apple pie. She said, “two for a dollar?” I said sure. So I am standing there confused for a lot of reasons. First, I am sure the commercial says you get any size coffee for 69 cents. But apparently the small is free and large is 75. I still can’t figure out why she has handed me a plastic container of milk, but I use it for my coffee and leave the rest on the counter, and now I have two apple pies when I wasn’t even sure I really wanted the one I ordered. Bottom line I spent $1.75. If I had gone with the small coffee and walked out before succumbing to the urge of a tasty apple pie I would have spent nothing. Even if I had gone for the single apple pie I could have snuck out for 50 cents. Highest grossing McDonald’s in the US.

So what’s going on with Molly Bear? Well she is currently sleeping comfortably. She didn’t have a great night last night so I am hoping she has a better one tonight. She started eating on Saturday afternoon and they’ve been increasing her volume every twelve hours. After three days she is up to 13 mls/hour. A normal feed is 60 mls/hour so we have a ways to go. But the good news is that she is tolerating the feeding well, she hasn’t had a fever, and in general she seems comfortable. No one seems in any rush to make predictions on when she will be going home. Today they mentioned that they wanted to keep a closer eye on her incision as it is starting to look more red than they’d like. Since immediately following surgery we’ve heard nothing but good things about the way her incision was healing, so it’s a little frustrating to have it flipped when you’ve started to focus on the road toward home.

Molly’s three month birthday was last Friday - pretty cool. Today we’ve been in the hospital for two weeks – not as cool.