Monday, June 8, 2009

Tanning bed at 2 days old?


So my little princess decided to be quite a handful the morning after she was born. All my kids have high levels of jaundice, for whatever reason and usually have to have a bout with bili lights their first week. Well Isabella proved no different, however, she was quite the extreme of all my kids. And not just with the bili. Right after she was born they noticed her O2 levels weren't quite where they wanted them and so they put her on oxygen and kept her in the nursery for the first 6 hours. Then I went to go feed her and to my surprise she was all hooked up with ivs. Apparently she also tested positive for an infection and they were filling her with antibiotics as well as the iv since I still hadn't nursed her and they wanted to try flush her system. So by the next morning she was off oxygen but they'd have to continue the ivs for at least 4 days, until another they got back a test result and Her bili levels shot to 18.7. Usually bili doesn't get this high until a couple days old. Well if you read my last blog, the hospital was hoping that day with 8 new babies born that morning and me and my sweet bella were not high priority. The doc came in at 7 that morning and told us they were gonna put her on lights right away. At 1pm the nurses still hadn't brought the lights. Around that time I buzzed for a nurse, probably for the 10th time that day but this was the first time anyone answered. Izzy's anitibiotics were done and beeping to be taken out of the iv. The nurse who came in, came in while talking on a cell phone, and not only took out the antibiotic but turned off the iv. Well she wasn't supposed to be off the iv, just the antibiotics. But like I said, she was on a cell phone, didn't even look at me and left. So I called for the nurse. 2 hours passed and still no nurse, so I finally went out and pulled the nurse out of the nursery and asked her to check on Izzy. Well no surprise but her iv had clotted since it was closed for 2 hours. So now they had to do another iv on my poor baby girl. Not to mention since her bili levels were so high they had started doing bili serums every 4 hours, so by the end of her second day her poor little feet looked like hamburger all cut up and swollen it was so sad. The next 2 days her levels jumped as high as 22.8 . The doc said at 25 you have to worry about brain damage and should do a type of dialysis that filters all the bili out of her blood and then puts it back in. But of course, they don't have the capability to do that out her and she'd have to be transferred to primary childrens' hospital in slc. So the next day is spent on pins and needles waiting for her levels. They stayed the same, even under the lights, didn't go up but also didn't go down. By the next morning she went down to 22.1 and doc said as long as she doesn't go up we will keep her here. Which had me torn, cause I obviously didn't wanna have to go to slc, but on the other hand, if they could give her better treatment, maybe it would be worth the ridiculous medical bills we'd have to pay. Of course, since I had no complications at all, I was released the next morning 36 hours after I'd had her. But she was to stay. There is nothing so lonely or empty than going to the hospital pregnant and leaving without your baby. The doc put her on formula since breast milk sometimes causes jaundice to go up so I wasn't even nursing. It was really depressing. Matt was already back at work by the time I got home. She was supposed to be fed every 2 hours, but of course I go home and try and get some rest and when I went back almost 5 hours later she hadn't been fed. You see my reason for wanting to take her to slc??? SO i went back every single 2 hours to make sure she was getting fed. Now matt went back to work, so I was awake pretty much constantly. Next 2 days her levels stay in the low 20s and never went any higher, but also weren't going lower. So the doc ordered more lights and put her on 3 banks of lights, and upped her feedings to every 1.5 hrs. We finally got her levels down to the mid teens and were able to bring her home, but had to bring lights with us. Doc said I could nurse finally but I'd have to only take her out of the lights for feeding and put her right back in and go back every day for another bili serum and weight check. First day home her levels were down to 13 and so doc said take her off the lights. So we did, next day levels jumped to 19. So back on the lights another day. Then back off, finally her levels were at 13 for 2 days in a row and he said we could ditch the lights but it looked like she was losing too much weight and I needed to feed her every 1.5 hours. If you ever nursed then you know it takes at least a half hour, to nurse 1 side, change them, nurse other side. And then you supposed to start from when you first started feeding, so me and her weren't sleeping more than 45 min to an hour at a time in between feeds. Went back to the hospital the next day and the scale had been off, she had actually gained more than her birth weight and she wasn't even 2 weeks old yet. I was excited, yet mad that me and her were up all that time for no reason! So finally she was home, off the lights, and I could hold my little yellow baby whenever I wanted. O ya, the infection seemed to respond to the antibiotics and the culture came back negative, so everything seemed ok. I thought finally I'd be able to get some rest and relax at home with babies. Little did I know that the madness was just beginning!!!



4 comments:

Becky said...

What an imcompetent hospital! I would be furious if I were you. I'm glad that everything turned out OK, despite everything that went wrong!

Anonymous said...

Wow what a nightmare of a hospital! That makes me mad just reading about your stay there. I sure hope things have gotten a little better for you. What a woman. I love the name Isabella, she is sooo precious!

Thomas the Train comes every year on Memorial Day Weekend from what I have heard.

bsrogers said...

Wow! I didn't know about the complications and the cruddy care at the hospital. Glad all is well. She is a doll! Congratulations!

Shelly Rogers

Rebecca Fuller said...

Oh My. You should have been much more forceful at the hospital. I've learned that. You just have to be very persistent. That sounds like a very hectic beginning to what should have been such a sweet time. She's cute!