The not so serious stuff

Now that Jerry is home and healthy (aside from a wound that still needs to be dressed twice a day), I can reflect on some of the less dramatic aspects of this ordeal.

Our surgeon was a caricature of  surgeons portrayed on tv.  Two surgeons came to speak with us and it was clear out of those two who was in charge.  He came into our room in the ER with an authoritative stance and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to listen to him.  This included the attending ER doc, who prior to the surgeon's entry had clearly been top dog.  He was a tall African American man in his late forties who had huge biceps.  Robbin and I decided that on the tv show that portrays MCG, we would see his character in the gym when not on rounds or in surgery.   After we spoke to him, we overheard him scolding the ER attending, "I need to understand what happened between when they came here at 6am and when I was called at 8am.  Green vomit is a surgical issue until I say otherwise."   The doc he was talking to was the one who got the ball rolling minutes after seeing the stained onesie though, prior to even talking to us. However, in my limited understanding of a hospital hierarchy I think that the first doc may have worked for her.

The other surgeon went over history with us.  I told him we had given birth at University Hospital and he asked who was my ob.  Turns out it was his wife.  And then a nurse was asking if I had notified my peditrican yet what was going on.  (no, aside from the call to his office last night).  She offered to call and notify him and when I told her his name, the emergency room doc chimed in, "Oh, I'm best friends with his wife, I'll just call his cell."  Augusta isn't that small of a town; but apparently the medical community shrinks it a bit.

Once we got to the ER, we were told not to feed Gerald anything else.  I knew this would be hard for him because through all the throwing up he still had his appetite.  I did not appreciate what effect there would be for me.  I'm not sure when it started but by the time he was in surgery I had leaked through my bra, t shirt and  sweatshirt.  Apparently this is what I looked like on the trip to and from radiology and while speaking to the surgeons.  The ER doc brought me some makeshift nursing pads.  I was so focused on Gerald I failed to appreciate what they were for at first.  They sent us to the NICU lactation room while Jerry was in surgery.

Hospital grade breast pumps are amazing.  I think I have a slow let down so I would still pump for 20 minutes; but I would yield twice as much than I do at home with the Freestyle.  And speaking of pumping, the first day, after we knew he was okay, every other person told me to take advantage of this opportunity to get more sleep.  I think I looked like a particularly overtired new mom at that point since Wednesday I barely got in a nap and then barely slept Wednesday night.  The other half of the people I spoke to reminded me that I still had to set an alarm to get up to pump.

The NICU was an interesting place.  There was a yellow sign hanging from the ceiling that reads "QUIET PLEASE".  Attached to a noise sensor, it would light up every time it got loud in the room.  70% of the time it lit up because a baby was crying.  Apparently, they couldn't read the sign.

We were there far more often than other parents, probably for a variety of reasons. Most of the babies had much longer stays than Jerry so their parents had returned to work.  Other babies were so new, their mothers were still in the hospital.  And some parents lived far away; MCG is the hospital babies with complications are transported to for the best care.  We were lucky that the hospital was not only in town, but also only a mile and a half from our house.

You had to take off all jewelry and wash your hands for with a scrub brush and sponge 3 minutes before entering the NICU.  After that, you donned a yellow gown and rubber gloves. The hospital personnel had to change gloves and gowns between each patient.  We had the first crib off the door which was really convenient since we were there so much.  Because we had the first bed, we could see him before we scrubbed up or ask each other what was going on if one of us had stepped out.  This was usually me since I had to pump every 2-3 hours.

All of our nurses were great, but one really stood out.  I'm not sure if it was timing or if she was just someone who put more effort into her job.   Ida did many things for Gerald.  She pushed the resident to up his morphine dose which meant that Jerry went from fitful angry sleeping to being calm and awake or deep sleeping.  She removed one of the IVs when his PICC was put in.  I'm not sure if the line wouldn't flush anymore or if she did it because two IVs, a gastro-nasal tube, heart and oxygen monitors and a PICC line are a bit visually overwhelming on a 5 week old's little body.   Ida was also the first nurse to make sure we held him, saying, "that boy belongs in his mother's arms, he is used to being held."

We have friends here and in Chicago who brought us/ sent us food either at home or in th hospital which really helped.  I might not have eaten or just have had really unhealthy fast food otherwise.  Our fridge broke the week before and our new one was being delivered that Friday so we were short on fresh whole foods in the house.  And speaking of friends, everyone should have an NP for a friend.  It was really reassuring to run what was going on by Kathy.

Other than Kathy, we only called our moms/ Robbin's work to tell what was going on and then only after we saw Jerry post-op.  It was too emotionally draining to tell the story without knowing the outcome.  I knew some of my closest friends read this blog so I posted here.

I then decided to put on FB so people knew about the green vomit thing.  Really, I knew it meant call a doctor.  I did not know it meant he could lose part of his bowel or die.  I'm surprised it isn't more well known because an estimated 1/500 people are born with a malrotation of the intestine and I believe that 90% of those people develop a complication such as volvulus.