Our baby girl was really struggling after her head surgery. She had only eaten one and a half ounces in 14 hours because her surgery got postponed 3 (& couldn’t eat in the gap) & was unable to calm down long enough to eat afterward. Our daughter had been crying an unfamiliar & frantic sounding cry for a little more than 5 hours (with moments of rest) when Calixta came in. Right away, Calixta had a confident & kind presence that put us at ease. She put together a detailed plan for pain management & went over it with us. We very quickly had the relevant people in to redo our daughter's IVs & give her the proper medications to manage pain well enough to take a nap & eat. After a long peaceful nap, our baby girl finally ate & had calmed down significantly. Since then, we haven’t had too much trouble with napping & eating. Calixta also wanted to make sure we had time to rest & eat (she was our nurse from 7pm-7am) & made sure we had everything we needed to sleep, that our baby was comfortable, & remembered every little thing that needed to be done (different medicines, IVs, naps & feedings, etc.), offering to help us with a great deal of things. Not just ‘let me know if you need help with anything’, but in the moment specific things that she helped us with. Calixta turned the living nightmare into a manageable situation on its way up.  

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I could write a million things about Calixta. My daughter says, “It’s hard to think of one thing to write because she was so great at everything.” When my daughter broke out in a full body rash & said ice helped her itchiness, Calixta filled 2 dozen bags with ice & helped cool her down. When her oxygen level dropped, Calixta was quick to act & escalated the problem to the ICU team, who rushed my daughter downstairs. When she graduated back upstairs, we requested Calixta because her care was so thoughtful, caring & meaningful. She even remembered all the jokes about ‘everything is D!’ When she had a few minutes, she would come in just to chat & check in. She made an effort to connect with us as people, in a really hard time, that connection was a lifeline.

Note: This is Calixta's 2nd DAISY Award!