Genetic Defects, pt. 3 - Post-Procedure (384 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.22 on 11 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by SmalltownSally (View user info) at 2009-03-19 23:06:53 EDT
http://www.ubersite.com/m/121439 The Procedure
"She tried really hard to die on us," her night nurse, Samantha, said as I blew into the NICU. I raced down the sterile hallway to her room, number 15. One of Emma's cardiologists was in there, as well as her neonatologist and respiratory technician. They had a breathing bag attached to her ventilator, pumping. All of the digital screens were lit up with numbers that I had not yet learned to read. I was bewildered, half asleep, still living with that underwater feeling. Dr. Holt saw me through the window that was her wall.
"Emma is a very sick little girl," he began. "Her procedure today was a success, but it caused some complications..."
He went on to explain to me that Emma had developed pulmonary hypertension. I took a shocked breath. In 2004, by aunt passed away due to complications with the hypertension she'd battled with since my oldest cousin was born. She'd even had a heart and lung transplant in 1986.
"Don't look like that," he said as reassuringly as he could manage. His eyes were red-rimmed, I noticed, and his hands were incredibly cold. I couldn't look at him. I pressed myself against Emma's window and watched them rub my limp, pale baby with warmed towels. "Hypertension in an infant is reversible in 99% of cases." I didn't feel any better.
"She's on high doses of pain killers and sedatives. That's why she's limp. She's as stable and as comfortable as we can make her." I could see her crying without making a sound. I'm glad that I didn't know then how many times I would look at her as she cried silently around her ventilator.
The days wore on and turned to weeks. I sold almost everything I had to scrape together enough money to buy a car so that I could see her every day. They'd projected originally that I could bring Emma home on October 15th. My heart started to crack and fall away when that date came and went with no possible change. Every question I had was answered with the same refrain, "We don't know. We'll have to wait it out."
Emma's hypertension was causing her to have poor circulation. Her kidneys weren't getting the correct bloodflow and it was causing her to retain fluid. Fluid that was slowly drowning her. She was 9lbs, 10 oz the day she was born. At 8 days old, she was 15 lbs, 6 oz.. I'd wake every morning as the sun came up, drive to the hospital, and sit in the recliner in her room and watch her. I couldn't hold her because of all the tubes and IV lines. I couldn't touch her because one of the drugs she was on for her heart function made her skin so hypersensitive that she couldn't even wear clothes. So I read to her. Or sang to her. Or told her stories. Anything to make sure she knew I was there.
I knew all of her nurses. I knew all of her doctors. In a matter of days I knew what every number on every screen in her room meant. In a week and a half, her nurses stopped running to her room when an alarm went off, because I knew how to handle almost anything she threw at us.
On October 19, I walked into the NICU to near-silence. None of the nurses greeted me cheerfully. No one asked how Emma was doing. Her day nurse, Thuy, met me in front of pod 15. The curtains were closed. There was a crash cart outside the door. Her cardiologist wouldn't look at me.
We had a problem.
User Reviews
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2009-03-23 10:51:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2009-03-23 10:51:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2009-03-21 15:58:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have sobbed at each story. If it is not true you sure know how to pull on the ole' tear ducts.
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-03-20 23:05:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Who took these photos?
This sounds like you kept a journal of this ordeal and wrote this story later.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2009-03-20 22:36:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by TLawrence (user info) at 2009-03-20 16:07:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Didn't read it but I know it's a lot of sappy horse shit so I won't bother. Heil Hitler!
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-03-20 15:04:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I'm beginning to believe this is fiction and the story is gripping.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2009-03-20 11:47:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-03-20 01:46:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"She was 9lbs, 10 oz the day she was born. At 8 days old, she was 15 lbs, 6 oz.."
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Worrisome, this.
Submitted by Sphagnum (user info) at 2009-03-19 23:30:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm not reading or caring about it but +2 for subliminally influencing a recent review of mine.
Submitted by SmalltownSally (user info) at 2009-03-19 23:10:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Pardon the giant picture size. My bad.