We called the pediatrician's office, but the woman who answered the after hours line told Mike we were not "established patients" so there was nothing they could do for us. Mike was angry when he got off the phone, but more than that we were confused. If your baby is only three or four days old...and hasn't had the opportunity to have his first regular visit yet...who the hell were we supposed to call?
I told Mike to call the 800 number on the back of our Cigna cards. There's a nurses line through that number and we would be able to talk to a nurse. Mike got through to a nurse and went through a bunch of questions. That nurse thought we should take Blip to the ER...but we weren't happy with that idea at all.
I asked Mike to call our pediatrician's office back and tell the stupid after hours lady that we ARE established...we were seen twice by Dr. O while we were in the hospital. She is the one who released him. When Mike made it clear to the after hours lady that we weren't going away without help, she said she would have the nurse on-call call us back.
When the nurse did call us back, she asked Mike a bunch of questions...which he answered. She then asked us to take his temperature. We told her we had taken it, but under his arm. She asked us to take it rectally...which I told Mike he would have to do. I knew Blip wouldn't be thrilled with the idea...and I just couldn't be the one to bring in the tears at that point. The two temps were close, but too low for the baby's health. The nurse said with his temperature lower than it should be, we had no choice but to take him in.
At this point I started crying...and it didn't stop. My emotional roller coaster was driving me crazy by this point, but the tears just kept coming. I was upset that the baby was sick. I was already stressed out about the baby not eating as much as he should be. I was exhausted. But mostly I didn't want to take my brand new baby to the ER with all the other nasty, sick people. I told Mike I didn't think I could take the baby in to that place and sit with him for hours around dirty, hacking, sick people.
Mike didn't want to take Blip there either, but at least he was emotionally stable enough to think clearly. We pulled up to the ER at Banner Thunderbird (they have a pediatric unit, so we didn't feel like we needed to drive all the way to PCH this time) and parked on the curb. He told me to wait with the baby. Mike ran inside and told the chick at the registration desk that we had a four day old baby and wondered if we could wait in the car with him until we were called back. She told Mike she would get us back quickly.
Mike start filling out some paperwork...and before he was even done, they called us back. He ran out to the car to get us and turn the car off. We left it on the curb and went directly back to triage. After that was all done, the nurse asked us to wait in the waiting room until someone from the pediatric unit came to get us. The waiting room was full of hacking people and a few people that looked homeless...and a few people that looked nearly dead. I stood with the baby in the corner furthest away from anyone. I had him swaddled and then had a big blanket completely covering the baby up against my chest. Then Mike stood in between us and them.
Luckily, this only lasted a few minutes until someone from the pediatric unit took us back to a private room with a door. It wasn't long before the nurse came in to check on us. Another lady came in and did a bilirubin check with a machine that she touched Blip's face with and it gave her a reading. Based on that reading, his levels were 15.4...putting Blip in the high risk category. Awesome.
A while later the doctor came in. Based on the bilirubin levels, she wanted to draw some blood to more accurately check his levels. The doctor was also under the impression that at that time, based in the information she had, Blip would be admitted to the hospital, so she wanted the nurse to start an IV at the same time she did the blood draw.
The nurse and an aide came in to do the IV. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle my tiny infant getting an IV...and I think the nurse could tell how anxious I was about the whole thing. She had a small syringe and a little vial of sugar water with her. She explained to us that to an infant, sugar water acts like Morphine. I almost laughed...really? Morphine?
Well...I was proven wrong. I syringed a small amount of sugar water into Blip's mouth prior to the nurse starting. As she did her thing, I continued to syringe small amounts of sugar water into Blip's mouth...I continued the entire time the nurse was trying to stick him.
The nurse had to try sticking Blip three different times...twice on one hand and once on the other hand. The nurse couldn't get the IV, but she did get the blood she needed. The nurse even had to use a light on the underside of Blip's hand to help her see his tiny veins.
The most amazing part- Blip never made a peep. He never moved...never flinched. He slept through the entire thing.
We were shocked. That stupid sugar water worked.
After a while longer, the doctor came back in and told us they did not want to admit Blip. They did not think his jaundice was bad enough at that point to need hospitalization. We also had an appointment a few hours after leaving the hospital with our pediatrician.
We finally got home between 5-6am. I was exhausted to the point my leg muscles were twitching and I was in tears (again). Mike let me sleep and he stayed up with the baby. Mike finally got the baby to sleep and came to bed around 7:30am...we had to be up at 9:30am to make our appointment. Mike thought our appointment was at 10am, but I reassured him our appointment was at 11am.
We headed to Sonoran Labs for another blood draw. One of the employees there was hacking up a lung...and without washing her hands she tried to draw my child's blood. Luckily for her, all I had to do was look at Mike and he jumped all over it. He was very nice, but asked her to get someone who wasn't sick to draw our infant's blood. She didn't take it well, but the woman who did draw his blood was great. There was no sugar water, but when she pricked Blip's heel...he didn't even flinch.
My baby is a rockstar.
His bilirubin levels had lowered on their own. That was what we needed to hear.
3 comments:
Quite a tough little fellow you got there. :)
I wish they had given violet sugar water when she got her vaccines. You could hear her scream across town!
Um who the freak wud hack up a lung and the it wud b ok to touch a baby?! Wow. Sorry girl. Quite an ordeal.
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