Out

My heroic parents left to go back home on Tuesday morning, after having been at my house holding down the fort while I was off trying to care for Ella.

(They made the trek from Illinois to South Carolina in one long shot.  Either they really wanted to get home or they were running for their lives.)

After a morning of testing and poking, Ella went down for a nap and I had the first chance in five days to get out of the hospital and stretch my legs.

Just outside the doors was a beautiful little open air farmer's market with fresh vegetables and home baked pastries.  I picked up a small assorted bag of tarts for the nurses station.

 There was a long line for the Crepe Station.  The smell was amazing.

The weather was gorgeous and sunny, and it was lovely to walk and see the beautiful buildings.  The hospital is only a block from the Magnificent Mile, so I had no fear of getting lost and had no shortage of things to see.

I managed to track down my favorite restaurant on the Mile, the Grand Lux Café, and had a perfectly sinful and delicious lunch of Thai Chicken.

For dessert I ordered their famous beignets.  Fab.u.lous.

I haven't had any gluten (or that much sugar, to be honest) in five weeks, so I paid for my indulgence afterward, but it was worth the suffering.)

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It is a universally acknowledged medical truth, that if you step away from your child's bedside, when you return, something momentous will have occurred in your absence.

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I arrived at Ella's room to find it crammed with frantic nurses and a medical student practically running from the room.

 

My heart stopped.

 

Thankfully, it wasn't anything more than another Niagra Vomit and a Plethora of Poo that had four nurses in hasmat suits yielding baby wipes like ninjas.