Through the patient's eyes

[bananapancakes]

As I mentioned before, yesterday I gave a presentation to the board of directors at the hospital where L was born. It is a tiny, level 1 hospital with birthing suites, staffed mostly by midwives (with two OBs on call) and only "healthy moms delivering healthy babies" are supposed to deliver there. Only 244 babies were born there in 2014. I was supposed to be a healthy mom delivering a healthy baby but that of course didn't go as planned.

Because our experience was so rare to the hospital, I was asked to give a talk about our experience "through the patient's eyes". 

I'm so glad I agreed to do it. It was a really therapeutic experience for me. I basically just told them our whole birth story from the BPP on the morning that L was born, right to when we finally got discharged from the hospital. It was definitely emotional and I teared up a few times but overall, it went very well.

The best part is that we got to see the OB, my midwife, and one of the nurses from that day. They call L their "ice baby" since he had the cooling treatment and when I took him to the nurses station, all the nurses starting singing "Ice, Ice, Baby" to him. The one nurse said that L's birth was a career changer for her and that she had never seen anything like it in her 15 years on the job. She also spoke at the meeting and it was interesting for me to hear her perspective. She was able to fill in some of the blanks for me. I knew things were serious but I'm not sure at the time that I recognized just how close we came to losing him. She told me yesterday that when they got him out, she absolutely thought he wasn't going to make it. She was so happy to see him and see how well he is doing now. She doesn't get that opportunity very often.

Everyone loved seeing him and they were calling him their miracle baby and poster child. He of course, ate up the attention and was just a delight even though he wouldn't sit with the nurse so I had to give the presentation while holding him!

Overall, it was a great day! Oh, and I didn't wear jeans!

[pinotgrig]

I'm so glad you had the chance to do this. So glad. I teared up reading your post. I can't imagine how emotional that must have been for you and the people who took care of him.

[bananapancakes]

Apr 23, 2015 13:38:43 GMT -5 pinotgrig said:

I'm so glad you had the chance to do this. So glad. I teared up reading your post. I can't imagine how emotional that must have been for you and the people who took care of him.

Yeah, I'm not sure who was more emotional: me or the nurse. There were definitely some misty eyes among the board members too.

[momin2013]

Wow, what an amazing thing to do! I think it would be so cool to hear the other perspectives to really get an idea of the whole picture of your story, which, thankfully, had a happy ending.

I bet the staff learned a lot from your experience, which will hopefully help others in the future. Good for you for doing this!

[ringstrue]

That's awesome!

[dana2006]

I like this on so many levels. Good to hear it was therapeutic for you.

[lilac05]

It sounds like a wonderful experience for everyone. So glad you had the opportunity!

[AlpineSlide]

sounds like a great experience! I'm glad it helped you as well as them.

[countthestars]

I'm getting misty just hearing about it. I'm glad you had that experience!

[jorja]

I'm so glad it was a positive experience for you!

[kershnic]

I'm so glad it was a positive experience for you.

I'm not sure if you've shared this here, but what was L's condition/diagnosis that caused him to need the ice and other emergency care? Obviously ignore if you don't want to talk about it!

We met two couples who had babies in the same NICU as we did at the same time who both had surprise terrifying birth experiences after reduced fetal movement. One of them had a transfer from a smaller hospital like you. I often wonder how they're doing. I hope as well as you and L!

[bananapancakes]

kershnic, this is copied/pasted from an email I sent a few friends after he was born.

Lachlan was born by emergency c-section at 11:49pm on Monday, April 14th. Earlier that evening I noticed that he wasn't moving around in my belly nearly as much as usual so I called my midwife and she had me come to the hospital for monitoring. We got to the hospital at about 9:30 and when I was hooked up to the monitors, we discovered that his heart rate was not great. They also did an ultrasound and saw that my amniotic fluid level was very low. His heart rate was falling quickly so I was rushed into the OR for a c-section under general anaesthetic. Lachlan was born with a heart rate of only 40, an apgar score of 1, and it took 4 minutes for him to take his first breath. He was covered in meconium and had aspirated a great deal of it.

The team from Sick Kids was helicoptered in and they were able to stabilize him before transporting him to Toronto. Because of the lack of oxygen to his brain, they did a 72 hour medically induced hypothermia, therapeutic cooling treatment to help preserve brain function. They also ran many tests and so far, everything has come back with good results. Thankfully, they haven't found any indications of permanent damage.

He keeps making great progress and we are cautiously optimistic that he will face no lasting effects from his very rocky start. We will be closely monitored by the a Sick Kids team to track his development.

[kershnic]

Apr 23, 2015 18:26:24 GMT -5 bananapancakes said:

kershnic, this is copied/pasted from an email I sent a few friends after he was born.

Thank you for sharing.  You must have been so terrified.  Did they ever find out why your fluid level had dropped so much?

Medically induced hypothermia seems to be an amazing treatment for babies. 

[crazygame]

Thanks for sharing. I am so glad the experience of sharing your story was positive.

[mcfelix]

Sounds like an incredible experience. Glad you were able to do that, and get some additional information you didn't have before.

[Pilsy]

I had never read the story of his birth, either. Thank you for sharing.

I'm so glad today was a positive experience. What a miracle your L is!

[bananapancakes]

Apr 23, 2015 19:08:11 GMT -5 kershnic said:

Apr 23, 2015 18:26:24 GMT -5 bananapancakes said:

kershnic, this is copied/pasted from an email I sent a few friends after he was born.

Thank you for sharing.  You must have been so terrified.  Did they ever find out why your fluid level had dropped so much?

Medically induced hypothermia seems to be an amazing treatment for babies. 

No, they never did. I had a biophysical profile that morning around 10:00 and my amniotic fluid was on the low side of normal, but still considered normal. A normal amniotic fluid index is 8-18 and mine was a 9. When they did the ultrasound 12 hours later I had almost no amniotic fluid left. Because there was no amniotic fluid to dilute the meconium, he aspirated on straight meconium which as you know if very thick and tar like. He had so much meconium in his lungs when he was born that he couldn't breathe and had to be intubated. One hypothesis for the low fluid is that he was in some sort of distress so he was taking big gulps of the fluid but his kidneys were not functioning properly so he wasn't urinating it back out. He was catheterized for about the first week of his life before that starting working normally again.

[yellowbrkrd]

What an awesome opportunity for you!

[Deleted]

I am so happy when I think of you.
And I am also so happy that Sick kids sends a team. That's amazing. Horrible, but I would assume that it's so fast, there would just be no further hope. Glad I am wrong.

[wavepool]

That is so great for all of you that you were able to do that! I imagine it was really nice to have her fill in the blanks for you. I got a little teary reading this....so glad he is doing so well!