Just when we thought we had cleared all the hurdles of birth, Adam pulls another fast one on us…
We had a “full day” Friday – full of doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, hospitals, and waiting rooms. We started with a routine appointment to Adam’s pediatrician. After going to the wrong office and arriving late, we spent most of the day chasing from one appointment to the next. Three doctors, three hospitals, one lab technician, two receptionists, and countless nurses later, Sarah found herself in the hospital again caring for Adam whose numbers came back extraordinarily high.
Treatment consists of tanning under warm, UV lights (with tiny little sunglasses), eating and sleeping. Sort of like a baby sauna. Momma gets to eat, sleep and feed the baby (not quite the same).
Adam’s numbers came back better (lower) than last night. He has responded to the treatment well. One doctor says they might come home tonight, the other says tomorrow.
Sarah’s having to rough it since we had to rush to get Adam admitted last night. I’ll need to bring over her clothes, toiletries and meds today.
Julie handled the day’s interruptions well considering she went to bed just before midnight. Talk about a long day!
My cold continues to hang on, but my strength has returned.
Andy, Sarah, Julie and Adam
Adam’s Billy Rubin numbers appeared normal when he left the hospital Tuesday. These readings typically rise a few days after birth and then settle down to normal range. When the doctor saw Adam, his skin color obviously indicated too much of this stuff in his system. So, the doctor had us go and get him tested for jaundice. I marked the entire day with navigation missteps (two doctor’s offices and three hospitals) as we drove from one side of the county to the other so we didn’t get the test results back until about 5 pm.
The Billy Rubin number came back much too high at 18. Our pediatrician had told us that 10 or above required treatment and that 28 or higher can cause damage or death. He also warned us that a high number can easily escalate so we needed to treat this seriously. Treatment usually meant some time under a sun lamp which the doctor could have delivered to our home. Since the time has slipped to Friday evening, we wondered whether a delivery would arrive in time.
We didn’t quite know what to do, so after some discussion, we decided to get back home. A few moments later, the on-call pediatrician called my cell phone and directed us to another hospital several miles away. She stressed that we go there immediately and then called us back five minutes later to confirm our progress. We checked Adam into the hospital – avoiding the hassle of the emergency room – and I left Sarah there.
Julie and I went back and forth running errands for Sarah. By the time Julie and I got back to our apartment, it was very late but she needed one more meal before getting to bed. Julie endured the turn of events maturely while Sarah and I scrambled to figured out what to do next.
Saturday morning, after writing this update, I dropped Julie off at Poulain’s house (where she spent time earlier in the week) with all of her clothes and feeding supplies. Then I swung by the hospital to resupply Sarah with her clothes and toiletries. Adam’s numbers had stabilized over night (after peaking at 21) and began to slowly fall.
By late Saturday night, Adam’s test had dropped out of the danger level. Although still a little higher than she would like to see, the pediatrician allowed us the option of leaving immediately or waiting until morning. We left the hospital about midnight, dropped by Walmart and Walgreens on the way home to pick up needed equipment and supplies before getting to bed around 3 am.
I picked up Julie at church on Sunday morning. She thoroughly enjoyed her unexpected stay with the Poulain family. They graciously took care of her and made her feel very special.
I took Adam to the hospital three more times the following week for blood tests to confirm his improvement. His numbers dropped very slowly until I finally received the pediatrician’s permission to halt testing.
Instead of a relaxing and joyful two week paternity leave, I got back to work Monday the 26th more frazzled and exhausted than when I left. Nothing had changed since I left – all the problem servers remained untouched for the two weeks of my leave. No one even tried to resolve the outstanding issues, so I had to start over from scratch.
As for my Greek studies, I lost the entire two weeks leave with hospital visits and other errands, so I didn’t get anything else done. Meanwhile, the professor scheduled to teach the class had to drop out. His replacement – the head of the department – rescheduled the competency test for Monday the 26th. So, I lost the two weeks of study plus the first two weeks of the semester – four weeks study in all. After agonizing for a couple days, I dropped the Greek class and enrolled in completely different classes.
I changed majors in early September so that I could graduate sooner, avoid the language classes, and move forward with life. I hated giving up (and still hope to complete what I started), but I felt I had no other choice.