Frequent Flier

You know you're a frequent flier at your children's hospital when...

• you have so many trial size bottles of baby shampoo, baby lotion, and Aquaphor (like a water-based version of Vaseline) that you've never had to buy any... even though you have 4 kids
  
• you have enough pulse/oxygen saturation probes for each member of your family
  
• you've got a drawer-full of oral medication syringes, full sets of sizes 1 mL up to 10mL
• you have your child's medical record number memorized
• you have your pharmacy phone number memorized
• you know which phlebotomists can get impossible veins... and exactly what time they arrive for work each day
  
• you can tell hospital staff how to find various departments, and even know the staff-only shortcuts families only get to use when accompanied by staff
  
• arriving in your child's hospital room launches a mini-reunion with all your favorite doctors and nurses
• your cell phone address book consists of at least 30% hospital phone numbers
• you email your child's doctors directly... and they actually write you back using your first name
• you take the little plastic bins hospitals give patients for sponge baths back home and have enough to sort and store all of your child's toys
  
• they wheel your child's chart to their room instead of carrying it
• you have an entire kitchen cabinet dedicated to prescription medications
• you know and use ICU-nurse tricks for every member of your family... like alternating acetaminofen and ibuprofen every 4 hours for fever
  
• you have an entire collection of Medela breast pumping kits and know the location of every breast pump in the entire hospital
  

(to be continued)