Thursday, May 15, 2008

Home, SWEET, Home


We are home. Augh! It feels so good to not be limited by any wires or machines! Bryce lived in a 1 foot radius of the sofa bed cot, and it feels good to walk around with him, sit on a comfortable sofa, and be able to dress him. The little things, right?

Our week in Pictures:

Sunday at my mom's house. Now that I look back at this picture, I can see just how sick Bryce actually is.


Waiting in the ER once he was stabilized. He hated the oxygen, and so did I. They had not yet taped it down so he wiggled it off constantly. Just when he would fall asleep, the darn thing would move.


Being moved to the room we would be in for the next few days. I never imagined he would get much sicker before he got better.


Once my Dad woke up, he came down to give Bryce his "blow by oxygen" treatment. See the cup on the wall? There is oxygen coming out of it; real high tech, huh? Shortly after, they decided he needed the oxygen directly so they put the nose line in instead. I have to admit I fought this one a bit. He hated it so much down in the ER, so I saw him not sleeping at all with it on. He actually felt much better once he did not have to fight so hard to breathe.



One of his many breathing treatments. Smoke comes out and blows in his face. It almost looks like he is smoking hukka.



His little IV in his arm with my brother Justin. They put plastic over it so he cannot pull it off. I have to give a big shout out to Justin. He hates hospitals so much that it was a true labor of love for him to come up and see us.



This monitoring device was the source of my frustration. Basically a heavy wire attached by a band aid. It's no wonder it fell off so often.



The Doctor. I cannot remember his name, but he was very nice. They had just deep suctioned his nose and cleaned his face so he was not very happy.



Getting better!



This was the nurse we had - Stacy. She made the stay even easier because she really knew what she was doing so I trusted her judgement.



Waiting for daddy to get the car. We are going home, yippee!


__________________________________

I do have a situation that I need your advice on, blogger nation. When we first found out about the heart condition, it was because our nurse came in to inform us that something odd showed up on the XRays. I asked him if it was serious, to which he replied that it was. I asked him if it was cancer? He said that was not it, but that it would require surgery to fix and he could not elaborate until he confirmed it with the attending physician. He excused himself and apparently confirmed the double aortic valve was the finding.


So, he came back into the room and told us what they found. He did not know that much about it since he had never personally seen a case of it, but he did some research and found out that in order for Bryce to live he would need this surgery. I, of course, got all panicked and asked him specifically, "He will live, though, right?". Well, this nurse kind of looked funny and would not answer the question. I guess being the woman that I am, and wanting more details, I probably asked him five other ways to assure me that it was not life threatening. All he would say is that it was not life threatening right now. He then proclaimed that surgery can be very risky, etc., but that Bryce could be stabilized for the month or so we would have to wait until they did surgery. I asked him if the XRay could be wrong, and he said no way it was wrong because he personally knew the radiologist that read it.

Long story short, for about 40 minutes I questioned him about this illness, and he really made it out that Bryce did not have a good chance of survival. The next fifteen hours were spent crying over this news.

We now obviously know that the diagnosis given by this nurse was completely wrong. So, here is my dilemma. I have no desire to get this guy in trouble, but I would absolutely hate for some other poor mom to go through this unnecessarily. Would you say something to someone, or just let it go? I would appreciate your thoughts!

8 comments:

Michelle said...

Praise be to God your little precious is home and feeling so much better!

He looks so good and is getting so much bigger! I can't wait to see him (and you) again. :)
I am glad you had the love and presence of you family around you during this time. I hope you felt the love and prayer going out for you. Chase told me that his class prayed for "Mr. Bird's baby" :)

have a good weekend, see you soon!

Unknown said...

I am so glad to hear you and Bryce are home. Praise God for answering all the prayers that were said on your behalf!!!!

I know what you meant about all the wires and monitors. That was one of the things I liked least when the twins were in the NIM just after they were born. I was always sounded the alarms.

Anyway, get some much needed rest now that you're home and hopefully we will see you soon.

Praise be to God!!!!

Katie said...

Oh precious little Bryce - its so sad to see him hooked up to all of the stuff like that. So glad that he is doing much better and you can be at home now. He actually looks quite happy in the picture where he is in the swing hooked up to the oxygen though :) Hope everyone in your family gets well soon!

Nicole said...

I can almost feel the stress you were under while Bryce was recovering...and I am so incredibly glad to hear you guys are home..Can I bring you a meal????

I would definitely contact someone at the hospital about Gaylord Folker....In all seriousness, I would almost feel like going back to the hospital and kicking his butt! Yes, mistakes happen, but it doesnt mean they can't be recognized and prevented....BTW, when is the last time a nurse delivered that kind of news? To save another mother that kind of grief (and possible unnecessary life-threatening surgery) is worth the phone call...

Anonymous said...

The hospital should be told, for sure!~ Sounds to me he might have overstepped is authority a bit and that needs to be addressed.

Joan

Mary said...

I am so glad you all are home, poor little guy looked very sick:( On a positive note, you look fabulous for just having a baby!

I would probably talk to someone at the hospital about what that Dr said. I wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble either but that wasn't right the way he said it, he's not God and cannot be 100% after just one look at an x ray. I am really glad he's ok though.

Triplet Mom said...

I'm so glad you are home again! The hospital is no fun at all. Praise God Bryce is beating the RSV!

I believe nurses shouldn't give you the results of any x-ray that shows something serious. Although, thinking back our nurse told us that they saw brusing around Olivia's neck in her x-ray (from the choking). He had to tell us though because they had to put a neck brace on her in case her neck was broken. Again needless scare because it was just a shadow. However, they told me not to worry yet and that they would do a CT scan to confirm. They told me it could be a shadow.)

Anyway, I think it would be good if the nurse was confronted (in a kind way of course) so he could learn from his mistake. We all need the truth in love sometimes!

zoos said...

So glad that you are home and Bryce is on his way to full health! When our oldest had his hospital stay it was so scary to see him hooked up to all the machines and lying in the cage bed...I totally feel for you!

We had a somewhat similar situation, which has given me no faith in the pediatric er at all! Anyways, we were sent home from a miss diagnosis, which if it hadn't been for my gut feeling my son may very well have died. I also didn't know how to handle it, I felt like someone should be responsible just so that this didn't happen to another child. So I actually talked to my doctor on the peds floor and she was so angry she went down to the er and confronted the nurse who took care of him. I don't know if it did any good, but I think they need to know and learn from the mistake. Hope that helps!