“Are you in the medical field?”
For months now I’ve been a bit uninspired to blog…sorry! Maybe uninspired isn’t the right word, the real explanation is that my kids went from two naps to one and my husband has an insane schedule and so blogging has taken a back seat. That’s not necessarily an excuse, just a reason why I’ve been MIA. On top of all that, I felt like anything I had to share might not be worth reading, but, let’s face it, I’m writing this blog as much for me as for anyone willing to read it, so I should probably continue writing, especially if I consider my emotional state the last few days…It’d probably be healthy for me to share our latest drama.
In the last four months, Rylan, our little dude, has spent 10 nights in the hospital. Six nights were spent in the general pediatric unit, 1 night in an acute care unit, and 3 nights in the pediatric ICU. Eight of those nights were spent at the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital and 2 of those nights were spent at the Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, Texas.
Each hospitalization began with a trip to urgent care because the little guy had a cold and seemed to have labored breathing. His breathing was never so difficult that it was alarming (before we arrived), but his oxygen saturation levels (which should be in the high 90s or at 100%) was down in the low 80s.
Hospitalization #1, UNM Children’s Hospital:
3 nights in the general pediatric unit on oxygen, reaching 2 liters on a normal nasal cannula
Tylenol as needed for general grumpiness and low grade fever
Negative RSV test
Hospital stay #1, the maddest boy you’ve ever seen.
Hospital stay #2. This is what a sick New Mexican baby looks like in Texas.
Hospitalization #2, Dell Children’s Hospital:
1 night in the acute care unit
1 night in the general pediatric unit
On oxygen, reaching 6 liters and 80% on a high flow nasal cannula
Negative RSV test
Hospitalization #3, UNM Children’s Hospital:
3 nights in the pediatric ICU
2 nights in the general pediatric unit
On oxygen, reaching 25 liters and 90% on high flow nasal cannula, IV hydration, oral steriods, albuterol inhaler, flowvent inhaler, and tylenol as needed for general grumpiness, not allowed oral nutrition for around 12 hours.
Negative RSV test
Hospital stay #3, on his way to getting really, really sick. He didn’t rock that regular nasal cannula for long!
I wrote the above at the beginning of May. Today is the 29th…yeah. I have twins, that’s how it works. And, 5 whole days after Rylan was discharged from the hospital, we were back again with Neala!
The saddest of sad girl faces you’ve ever seen.
We spent three nights in the hospital with Neala and her never ending stream of boogers (which she loves to show me by jamming her finger as far up her nose as possible). Her oxygen saturation was never too low, but she did have a high fever and her respiratory rate was super high (in the high 60s at one point…try breathing 60 times per minute, its hard!).
Several times while our children were hospitalized I was asked, “Are you in the medical field, because you really seem to know what you’re talking about?” The answer is no, no I am not in the medical field. I’m a mom with preemie twins and husband who is in the medical field. I’m lucky to be educated and can’t imagine what it’s like for parents who are unfamiliar with medical terms and hospital timelines and who don’t know that they can advocate for their children. I hate to think that part of the reason I’m so comfortable in the hospital setting is because our children seem to be frequent flyers, but that’s our reality, so I might as well be embrace it, right?
And finally, the real reason I wanted to write this post in the first place: to say THANK YOU!! There were sooo many people who helped us while our kiddos were sick! My family and Patrick’s family have been amazing, cooking and cleaning, taking our well child (and I’m sure, spoiling them rotten), caring for our (terrible and filthy) dogs, and landscaping our backyard!!!! For Rylan’s first hospital stay, we had a friend visiting from California and she ended up taking care of Neala and also keeping me company in our very small hospital room! My family in Austin was also incredible, even staying with me both nights at the hospital! My brother flew to Austin and flew home with Neala, and then my amazing cousin drove back with Rylan and me so we didn’t have to make the trek alone. I mean, seriously people, my family is awesome!!
And then there were the playgroup mommas who brought me meals for a week (some of which included wine and dessert) even though we’d only been to the playgroup twice!! Amazing. Seriously.
We also had food and coffee deliveries by resident wives. One wife (and super fantastic friend) brought food for us to have at home, and food in microwavable containers for us to heat up and eat at the hospital. Now that’s what I call planning for the situation! Dang!
Hellllooooo summer!!!
This is turning into a bit of an Oscar’s speech and I can hear the music coming on now, so with that, I’ll wrap it up. Here’s to a healthy summer!
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
One of the reasons I love living in New Mexico is that we typically experience all 4 seasons, though I’ve learned living in Albuquerque that the 4 seasons are not always winter, spring, summer, and fall. The seasons we tend to experience are better described as the following: kind of cold, windy, summer, and fall. The winters are pretty mild and the spring is just dusty, but we like it anyway.
Every once in a while we’ll get a really cold snap (down to highs in the low teens) and that really freaks everyone out. Every news story is about keeping pipes insulated, pets indoors, kids in jackets, faucets dripping…you know…usual cold weather stuff. It rarely snows, and when it does it usually maxes out at about 3 inches and melts within hours of falling. Don’t worry, that doesn’t stop the entire city from shutting down, there are still snow days all the time (unless your husband is a resident…then there’s no such thing as a snow day). Well, about two weeks ago (geezzzz…I meant to write this post right after it snowed) it started snowing, and snowing, and snowing! We got around 9 inches of snow at our house!
It was glorious. It was more than enough snow to cover the dirt and copious amounts of dog poop in our back yard. It covered the weeds in the front yard and made the whole city look like a winter wonderland. It was the most snow that Albuquerque has gotten since December of 2006! Naturally, I had to take the babies out!
It didn’t take long for me to realize how entirely unprepared we are for a real winter storm. Luckily we didn’t have any freezing pipes, our dogs were inside, blah blah. But…we don’t really have any waterproof clothing for our children, so, I improvised. And it was ridiculous. I knew we wouldn’t be out too terribly long, but I thought they might want to trudge around in the white fluff for a bit so I wanted to make sure they were warm enough. In my mind, warm enough meant dressing each of them in the following:
cotton tights
long sleeve onesie
ziplock baggie taped to each foot (what the what?!)
fleece footie pajamas
pants
jacket
vest
mittens
hat
shoes (little soft soled leather shoes, because that’s all we had)
Faceplant!
Dear mom, the snow is terrible. Why are we out here and how do you expect us to move with all these clothes on!?
It did not go terribly well. They pretty much hated it because they couldn’t even stand up they had on so many layers. There was some immediate face planting, a bit of crying, some dirty looks directed at mom, and then we loaded up in the stroller and pretended we were a snow plow and headed out for a walk. It was all pretty silly, but I’m glad our kiddos got to experience the Great Snowstorm of 2015, ziplock baggies and all!
CAN NOT MOVE! TOO MANY CLOTHES!
This is fun, right?
They’re Still Alive, One Year Later
A year ago today we walked into the back of the NICU/ICN at UNM Children’s Hospital for the last time. We had high hopes of getting to bring our babies home on that February day, but as the hours dragged on…and I do mean DRAGGED, we started to lose hope. It seemed like everyone who had the power to send us home kept disappearing and when they were around, they were especially quiet about the possibility of us going home. I had spent the last 11 weeks trying not to get my hopes up and not asking when we’d get to go home, but I felt that we were finally ready and I remember thinking that they were going to make us stay just one more night…just for fun. I decided it was because they liked us and liked our babies. I mean, they were some cute little chickens!
But alas, at almost 7:00 p.m., the nurse practitioner appeared with our discharge paperwork. We had to borrow a cart to help us get all of our belongings, 2 babies, several gallons of breastmilk (literally), and our emotions to the car. It was a bizarre time…we’d been there for so long, 78 days to be exact, and then they just sent us home with our babies. There was clapping and crying but no oxygen, no monitors, NO NURSES!? Yikes. It was terrifying, but we made it the whole 3 miles home without incident. And then we made it day by day and night by night after that. Our babies have been home for one year today.
On our way home. As you can see, they didn’t care what was going on…
I’ve gone on and on and on before about how thankful I am for our doctors and nurses during our stay in the NICU & ICN, but I have to say it again: our babies would not be alive if it weren’t for these incredible people. It’s hard to explain to someone who’s had a baby full term with little or no complications, but our babies literally did not know how to breathe when they were born. They didn’t have a suck reflux and couldn’t eat at all for several weeks (they were tube fed). They weren’t suppose to be out in the open yet, but they made it because they received awesome care.
A lot has happened in the past year, and I’ve shared many things on the blog, but a few stories and photos here and there don’t really show how far we’ve come. Unfortunately, I didn’t start really documenting things until the kiddos were out of the hospital (a year ago today!), but here’s a little compilation of photos for each babe. Sometimes I think they haven’t changed or grown in months and months, and then I see these photos all together and I realize that they’ve grown from preemies, to babies, to toddlers! I think the current category might be better described as “drunk midget,” though that might be a bit offensive, so I’ll go with “miniature zombie” instead.
These two slideshows are not long (like the last one I made), so you don’t need to worry about setting aside half your day to watch. I cried after I made these, so…if you’re the crying type, get a tissue or two. Enjoy!
Sick Kids and Radiothon 2015
Last Wednesday night I put the kiddos to bed like always and they went down pretty easily. Rylan had been a little sick for a few days. It seemed like it was just the sniffles with a bit of a cough that occasionally made him gag…maybe it was more than a “bit of a cough.” Patrick arrived home a few hours later and Rylan started coughing. Daddy went to check on him and he gagged and threw up all over both of them and then wasn’t breathing too well. Patrick sat with him for a long time and then put him back to bed. He came out of the room and said that he didnt’ think Rylan was breathing too well.
Our sick, sad little man.
I was slightly terrified. This is a preemie mom’s nightmare! I know my babies don’t have the strongest lungs but I’ve always felt that they are so, so resilient anyway. We decided I’d take both kids to the doctor first thing in the morning. Both kids slept really well and I woke up with a start at about 5:30 because I hadn’t heard either of them coughing or moving around at all. But alas, they were fine, just sleeping soundly.
I loaded up the car and headed off to urgent care as early as I could…which, as it turns out, was close to 10:00. What was I doing for 4 and a half hours?!
When we got there they did their usual triage: weight, temp, and oxygen levels. Rylan’s oxygen levels were below where they needed to be. The doc took a good look and listen and sent us to radiology for a chest x-ray to be sure that our little guy didn’t have any pneumonia. His breathing was clearly labored and he had a bit of a fever. He was put on oxygen almost immediately and we were admitted hours later.
Sweet Neala, waiting patiently as we waiting for a room for our little man. Clearly, she wasn’t feeling like her spunky self either.
Oxygen is no fun.
We spent the next 3 nights in the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital. The same place where our little guy spent the first 78 days of his life. It was so hard being back there with a sick little one, and even harder because we had another, less sick, kiddo at home. Poor little Neala didn’t know what was going on!
Even though essentially every bed in the hospital was full and the staff was clearly stretched a bit thin, we received the best care possible. Our little guy healed as quickly as possible and we are so thankful that his respiratory virus is mostly gone at this point and we are home and happy.
His timing provided a lovely intro for my other reason (besides just telling you that my kid was sick) for writing: 100.3 The Peak Radiothon 2015.
Every year, one of our local radio stations hosts a fundraising radiothon for the UNM Children’s Hospital. They interview parents and kids who have benefited from the services that UNM provides to families and tell those stories while raising money so the children of New Mexico can continue to receive the best care.
DJ Rylan would love for you to donate to the radiothon to help the children of New Mexico!
I will admit, this radiothon has been happening for MANY years and I’ve always ignored it, up until last year. The 2014 radiothon happened the week before our kiddos got out of the hospital and listened as much as I could. This year, I’ll be listening even more, and hoping that my friends and family make a small donation.
About a month ago, I was interviewed by the DJs and our story will be told sometime during the radiothon! If you’re in Albuquerque, tune in to 100.3 to listen or visit http://www.1003thepeak.com/features/radiothon-to-benefit-unm-childrens-hospital-153/ and click the “listen live” link!
Home sweet home, and causing trouble again already!
Brush Ranch Reunion Registration is Live!
As you all know, from my last post, we are hosting a Brush Ranch Camps Reunion in July in Albuquerque.
Registration is live! Click the button below to register, and for more information about the event, please see click the tab above called “Brush Ranch Camps Reunion.”
If you’re friends with folks who you think might want to come and are not avid blog followers or on Facebook, please, please pass this information along!
Save the Date: Brush Ranch Camps Reunion!!
When you think of Brush Ranch Camps, what come to mind first? The laughter of your friends, a hug from your counselor, the warm summer days in the mountains of New Mexico? Maybe all of that and more! Would you like to experience that again? Come to this summer’s Brush Ranch Camps Reunion!
July 31, August 1 & 2, at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town, we will reminisce with old friends, tell endless camp stories, share traditions from the different decades, enjoy each other’s scrapbooks and pictures, and laugh and laugh and laugh. Don’t miss out on the fun. Besides, if you don’t show up, we will talk about you!
Watch for more information here about the weekend’s events, costs, how to register, etc. Rooms are being reserved at Hotel Albuquerque. Reservations can be made by calling 800.237.8782. Specify that you are with “Brush Ranch Camps Reunion” to get our special rate.