Yep, the social worker has been checking in on me daily now since Monday afternoon.
I made the mistake of sitting on that bed earlier, I was asleep practically sitting up in seconds. Got about an hour nap in, then came back up to sit with my daughter until she sleeps for the night. Then I have a date with a queen!
Modern medicine is grand. Without it, my son would not have been born, in all likelihood. His shoulders didn’t fit. His head fit, but then he was stuck, and had to be pushed back in for a c-section. They even tried special forceps for his case. Didn’t work. In the middle ages, the midwife would have let me labor until he died, then removed him in pieces, possibly nicking me, and causing me to die of an infection. By about 1800, the technique was to break the baby’s collarbone, and deliver, something that left about 3 in 10 babies with different degrees of paralysis in the arm on the side that had been broken.
Then, my son had meconium in his amniotic fluid, so he was suctioned, given antibiotics, and put in a germ-free isolette for 12 hours. I know someone for whose baby such precautions were not taken, and her baby caught pneumonia, and was in the NICU for 6 weeks. My son was “just a normal newborn” after 12 hours, according to his doctor."
When he was 4, he came down with croup, and was gasping to breathe. We called 911, and they helped him right in the ambulance, which was there in about 2 minutes. His pulse ox was 79, but steroids and oxygen in the ambulance brought it up to 98 in a flash. He ended up staying in the hospital overnight, and he has no after effects, other than what he considers fun memories of being the center of attention in a children’s ward with only one other patient at the time. They let him have pizza for breakfast, and watch TV which he ate in bed.
He had pinpoint hemorrhages all over his chest from when he’d struggled to breathe, but he thought they were “cool” as well. He had no idea how seriously ill he was, and we didn’t let him know until years later.
He is now just 14 (birthday two weeks ago) 5’9 (really), 212lbs, and had a beautiful bar mitzvah last year-- managed to turn 13 before COVID, thankfully. The shoulders are so wide, I don’t think an elephant could give birth to him.
Just thought I’d post that to point out the wonderful things medicine can do. It’s not just a matter of luck and palliative care.
Science and hard work on the part of doctors and other med professionals can do so much for Kron’s daughter, even things they couldn’t do back when she was born, they can do now. And it sounds like she is in a place where the best of the best is available.
I’d say “Good luck,” but it sounds like I don’t need to.
I realize this is the bbq pit so anything goes but did you really have to describe in graphic detail the horrors of birth trauma and such. This is a thread about a convalescent hospital stay and you brought grisly gore into it. You should have edited yourself. Just saying.
A night of sleep did me a world of good!
Today we took a walk around the ICU, and she needed almost no help, just had to stop for a rest about halfway through. She also got up and washed her face, brushed her teeth, put on deodorant… “Normal” stuff!
She has a CT scan scheduled for noon today, hopefully we will have a better idea of what we are looking at going forward.
Also, I got a call yesterday, and have a new job when I get back! Temporary, doing deliveries for UPS during the holiday season, but it pays fairly well and beats this 7+ month stretch of unemployment.
That’s double wonderful news!
Get off my lawn!!
good pit news!
Great news about your daughter’s progress! At 17, your daughter is probably very motivated to move as much as possible and recover so you get out of her room!
Awesome news on the job front as well! The UPS job might not be temporary, COVID isn’t going away, online ordering isn’t going away and you will prove to be such an excellent employee that they will want to keep you. (Unless you hate it, in which case, you will be such an excellent employee that they will be sorry that they can’t keep you on but will be good references.)
I disagree. The “grisly gore” that @RivkahChaya referred to was a fact of life before the advent of modern medicine, especially the use of safe and effective antibiotics. It is good to remember this sometimes, especially with the growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the specter of a possible future where antibiotics no longer work.
The OP’s daughter likely would not have survived without antibiotics. Nor would many of us…I’ve gotten many “minor” infections over the course of my life that were quickly cleared up with antibiotics. Also, I don’t think people realize that most surgeries would no longer be possible without antibiotics.
And yet we keep needlessly feeding them to livestock and handing them out to people with non-bacterial infections…
Anyway, all the best to the OP and his daughter. Best wishes on a fast recovery.
Yep, I took it as just a “modern medicine is awesome” post. And it is, because my daughter definitely would not have survived without it. Frankly, I think if I would have ignored her even for a few hours it may have been too late.
On the good news front, we are moving out of the ICU today! Things are definitely improving all around.
Her brother is taking advantage and has managed to skip school all week, and there will be hell to pay when I get home. Hard to parent from 350 miles away, especially when the kid shows no interest in being remotely responsible. I’m almost positive he’ll end up a high school dropout, despite my best efforts. /sigh
So glad to hear she’s moving out of the ICU! I know the nurses there are going to miss both of you~I always did when a baby left the NICU. Send them a Christmas card with her happy and laughing with her friends at home or all of you around a snowman, it will mean a lot to them. Graduation announcements too.
You keep feeding yourself adequately and sleeping enough, alright? It’s still a long haul. A walk outside every day while she’s taking a shower or off for an X-ray for you to get 15 minutes of sun on your face Is a gift to yourself and her. Helps you sleep and keeps your circadian rhythm sort of/kind of in the same hemisphere as your corporeal being.
Do not envy you the parental task with your son and school. The come-to-papa talk when you get home should be colorful though.
Pediatric nurse/mom/Grandma/‘Doper friend signing off now…going to go enjoy her getting better and moving out of the ICU.
Great news on your daughter!
Is counseling an option for your son? Maybe that would help him get more motivated.
Woot! Wonderful news.
I hope the discussion you’re going to have with him when you get home puts him on the right track, but sometimes, all you can do is your best and then you have to let the kid fail. They need to learn that their actions have consequences, and they also need to learn how to deal with failure.
That’s all I meant it to be. Maybe my friends and I are a little TMI in our personal conversations.
Mazel Tov on the great progress!
I know money is tight, but I have always sent cookies or doughnuts to the nurses’ station after I’ve had a relative in the hospital. I was a candy striper, back when they had those, and maybe 1 in 15 relatives sent something to the nurses, and Wow, was it appreciated.
But I concur that even a letter and a picture would be appreciated. It lets people know that the work they do carries on.
RE: your son. Is there an alternative school in your system? Many school systems have a high school that is specifically for students who are struggling in the “regular” school, but don’t qualify for an IEP. I used to work in special ed., and I’ve seen these schools work. When the system I worked for started one, the retention rate increased by something huge, like 15%-- it went from like, 80% to 95%. That’s really impressive. The alternative high school had a very high graduation rate. I don’t remember what it was, just that anything would have been good, since almost all the students there were high-potential dropouts, so ANY graduation rate would have been good, and theirs was extremely high.
I know your plate is full now, but maybe you have time to Google this when your daughter is taking a nap. Just to see if it even is a possibility.`
I always thought that TMI regarding medical issues was pretty much acceptable here? I fondly remember the pages-long threads about zits and abscesses (which used to kill people too).
Anyway… yay for progress! I’m glad your daughter is doing better. For your son…some people just don’t click with high school. When I was growing up, these people often ended up dropping out, with not much effort made to make them rethink this. (I remember the day a friend of mine turned his books in and left; the school secretary thanked him, and that was it.) There should be programs in place to help your son, as others have said; that’s definitely worth checking out.
Nope, I read your post and it was spot on, completely on topic. Keep it up. Sharing is human and the grumpieton shoulda just quit reading and moved on. To each their own.
This is a much kinder and better idea than mine was, for which I now apologize.
I thought the same.
And great news, Kron! Make sure you keep caring for yourself, too.
Just reiterating the second part. You can’t care for anyone else if you aren’t looking after yourself-- taking care of you IS taking care of your kids.