Back to Back Doubles

Has it really been that long since my last update? wow.

Our son Reilly was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis, last week. However, I knew that something wasn't right the way he was projectile vomitting and his abdomen wasn't feeling right. I went with my instinct and took him to his pediatrician. That got me nowhere, they refused to run tests claiming they were "unnecessary" so I took him to the hospital that we work at and within minutes Kerry and I had him in an exam room and I was taking an ultrasound. There it was, Pyloric Stenosis. Kerry called surgery and about 15 minutes later, we were filling out the forms.

I paged Robert and asked him if he'd perform the surgery, we shared a few moments of what the surgery would require and decided upon surgical judgment and my surgical opinion that we'd go with laproscopic because it was less invasive. I wanted to scrub in but was told not to, "parents shouldn't operate on their children" it's one of our hospital rules. I went into the observation area with Mark, our son hit a few complications which got me fretting in the intercom to Robert, the end of the surgery went well and I ended up crying on Mark. We were reunited with Reilly in post-op and I spoke with Robert, I stayed with Reilly until Mark's shift started and was told to go home and get some sleep, and I wanted to be with Ella who was with my Mum.

As I was leaving the hospital Kerry asked me how the Surgery went and called me over to triage. She reached down and lifted up Reilly's carseat with his toys and blanket in it. I teared up, he was going to be fine. There was just a part of me that wanted so much for him to be in it. I thanked her and put his blanket in the carseat and locked it in the base in the car. When I got home I explained everything to Ella who was crying upset that her brother wasn't home with me. I made Ella dinner and she slept in our bed.

The next few days from Wednesday through Saturday were exhausting. Mark and I were taking turns working nights so that someone would always be at the hospital with Reilly. Ella went and saw him on Thursday and Friday, both times she cried. I went in on Friday during my shift and Robert was actually holding him, getting him calmed down a bit. It was the most I've ever seen him interact with a child before. Saturday came around and in the afternoon while Ella was at Soccer practice I went to the hospital and picked Reilly up. He was discharged but he was on a strict diet and heavily medicated.

We came home and everything went well. I gave him a bath and dressed him, then took him to pick up Ella from soccer. She loved it. Some of the parents there have been incredibly supportive and that was nice. We came home and my mum carried him around the house singing to him, Ella helped me with dinner and Mark called at least 10 times checking on him. When he came home Saturday night he spent at least 2 hours with him in the chair in our room, just talking to him. It was the sweetest conversation I had to secretly overhear between Mark and our Son. The days to follow had been nice, he's been eating well and not crying, very little spit up or what I would at least consider normal.

Tomorrow he goes in for post-op appointment (check up) and we're going to remove his sutures. Ella has the rest of the week off due to Easter break, and I do believe Rachel flies home at the end of the week to resume school. Robert and I found out we had passed our certification and are now putting together a training schedule for our Surgical attendings and residents.

Echo Kardio Grahm

I've had the worst luck working in the E.R as of late. I was paged down to the E.R on a consult only to have the patient refuse care because he wanted an American doctor and he continued to ignore my questions and when I approached him for the exam he started kicking and swinging, knocking over the tools and shouting on the top of his lungs. After Mark and Carter got him in restraints I turned and said, "Fine, have it your way, bleed to death" and walked out of the exam room. Upon later exam he didn't need surgery and the entire consult was nothing but a humiliation trip.

Robert and I didn't get our certification results today, hopefully tomorrow. I'm realistically at a point where I just want to know either way. Rachel called Surgery today to ask if I'd come to their class tomorrow to talk to the students about Surgeon's life. Long story short, I've got to be at the school at 11am. That's really the only time I've got between surgeries, hopefully that will go well.

Reilly is still sick, no longer congested or coughing but now spitting up most of his formula and still favoring an on again off again fever. My mum was holding him and kept moving about rapidly which caused him to spit up all over her. Ella has been incredibly good with him, today she sat in the living room with him while he was in his swing she was telling him about the weebles and talking him through invader zim. She kept waking him up to tell him about the show.

Robert left last night for a conference in Las Vegas, this leaves Shirley and I to debate the surgical boards. I got all of our research programs sorted and had time to get notes and prepare for Rachel's class lecture.

To Be Alone With You

This weather is bloody well awful! I really can't believe how cold it is. The time change didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, since Mark and I spent most of the night up with Reilly I was as tired as I would have been if I had gotten 5 hours of sleep straight on.

Before I left for work this morning Reilly had gotten sick but Mark insisted he was going to be alright on his own with Katherine. I got to work and it was a mess of rubbish. I was tied up in the O.R for most of the day, thankfully Jeremy covered the E.R consults. I returned to the E.R to cover for Jeremy and had the worst time. I've never had patients give me a hard time as they did. I was vomitted on, threatened and had a patient throw the suture tray over. Just as I finished Kerry came in and informed me we had a trauma on the way and they needed me.

During the trauma Jerry came in and needed either Mark or I because Katherine was in Triage with Reilly. I left the trauma and went to see what was wrong. Katherine said he was coughing really bad and had a high fever and wouldn't stop crying so she thought it best to bring him in. I took him to the curtain area and Chuny assisted, he had a fever of 101.4 and was getting poor air supply due to congestion, and from crying was dehydrated. We started him on an IV. He responded well to the IV and we put him on oxygen and had to tape it to his cheeks because he kept pulling it out of his nose. Chuny brought over a breathing treatment to use on him. I think everyone in the hospital knew my sons cry after 15 minutes of him screaming.

The breathing treatment made him incredibly sleepy. After the breathing treatment we took him off oxygen and gave him another breathing treatment and this time I took his IV bag and took him down to sutures where it was reasonably quiet. Mark came in and sat with me, he took Reilly from me and held him while Chuny and I removed the IV. Mark carried him around the suture room to get him to stop crying from the IV removal. It was incredibly cute seeing my husband walk the hospital with our crying son in scrubs, that must be a morbid doctor thing?

Reilly had a little more life in him after the breathing treatment and IV. I took the rest of my shift off and took him home, he seemed fine the rest of the evening. He had 4oz of formula, I gave him a bath and he went to bed. Mark came home after 8 and we had dinner, it was quiet and almost felt as if we didn't have children, quite shocking if you ask me. He spent some time with Ella and called Rachel who's staying at her friends house. Mark was sitting in Reilly's room with a breathing treatment which he got from the hospital and said he was sleeping. My mother came home and we had tea, she told me all about the Northwestern Lecture and later went to bed. Mark is going to Rachel's school in the morning and Robert and I are to find out if we passed certification or not.

Rites in Spring

I completely forgot about this bloody American Daylight-Savings time that goes into affect, at 3am? I wouldn't have known this if it hadn't been for Kerry calling the house to remind all Attendings (Mark) that the clocks go ahead an hour and there shouldn't be an excuse for the attendings (Mark) to be late to work in the morning. I honestly don't know how many of the clocks in the house are daylight-savings time ready. I know our kitchen clocks are all digitally programmed. The computers and bedroom clock are set as well as our pagers and cell phones. We've decided to set all of the clocks an hour ahead of the time we're supposed to be up for work just in case.

Reilly is still sick, I spent Friday and Today with him trying to get him feeling better. The only time he seems to feel better is during a warm bath and just after when he's laying in his diaper without clothes on. We gave him a total of 3 baths today, his fever is still in the high 90's low 100's. He's mildly congested but is now favoring a cough that worries me. Mark gave him a bath this evening and afterwards brought him downstairs in his diaper and blanket. He said that Reilly kept crying when he tried to put clothes on him. I fed him and took him up to his room, since his room was warm I put his thermal blanket over him then his fleece and comforter. I checked on him an hour later and he seemed to be keeping warm just fine.

My mother has been in town for 2 days and it's already feeling like a month. Katherine is coming to the house in the morning to watch the kids. Both Mark and I have to work tomorrow and Rachel is staying at her friends house tomorrow for Parent Career Week. My mother is going to a lecture at Northwestern University, so in the least Katherine will be in peace. Rachel asked both Mark and I to participate in her Parent Career Week at her school. For an hour on Monday Mark and I go to her classroom and talk to the students about our career choices and on either Wednesday or Friday the students shadow our job for the day.

I'm in a high debate to not go to work tomorrow if Reilly is still sick. I don't want to leave him at home if he's got the flu, but Mark insists that he'll be alright. Maybe I should stick with my gut reaction? Possibly I'm over reacting. Anyway, we'll see tomorrow.

Adenosine

Robert and I got the notification that our certification results will be sent out on friday and we'll have them on Monday or Tuesday at the latest. We took the boards exams and hands on walk through. If I did well then I'll pass, if I didn't pass I'm going to be so bloody well pissed off I'll be sharing some words with NWU. However, I don't think that's the case, but I'll fret over it until I get the official word.

Mark and I haven't had much sleep lately. Reilly isn't sleeping through the night and in the last 24 hours has developed a cold. He's favoring a low fever with congestion, we put him on a breathing treatment to open and clear up his lungs to avoid fluid buildup and lots of menthol vapor. As of late Reilly has been sleeping in his playpen in our bedroom so his middle of the night crying wouldn't wake up the girls. However, now he won't sleep in his crib. Since he's been sick the vapor treatments have been smelling our room up like menthol which is stomach turning. We put the vapor back in his room and last night let him sleep in his crib. He cried for almost an hour before falling asleep, but since that we've not had one problem getting him to sleep in his crib. I told Katherine (our nanny) to make him take his naps in his crib and use the baby monitor. She said he didn't cry at all, I think we've just solved a problem.

I have to go to the hospital early tomorrow to get a cbc, chest xray and ultrasound. Since the hospital chemical exposure I've been fighting nausea and I can live with that, but my wbc is low and that worries me a little. Hopefully I'll get it all sorted out tomorrow, and if anything get some answers. It's now affecting my work, during an ER round exam on an elderly patient Mark asked for a procedure and turned and I left the room and was in the other exam room vomitting. He came in and asked if I was alright and then said I looked pale and should go home. I stayed until 2pm and it was only 10 in the morning. I got home and Katherine said she'd stay until Rachel or Mark came home.

I went upstairs and took a shower, the last thing I remember is the clock saying 3:10pm. I woke up to Mark's hand on my hand and asking if I was feeling alright. I didn't really say anything because I was half awake. I asked where the kids were and he said don't worry about it and that he made dinner and gave Ella and Reilly their baths. I asked him how work was and he said he was tired. I put my hand on his neck and he seemed as though he needed to relax. I grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to me, he layed down and I turned facing him with my hand in his and my other hand on his head. Within literally a few minutes we were both asleep, the downside to this? Waking up at 3am wide awake. I went and checked on the kids and Mark took a shower, Reilly was asleep in his crib he managed to kick his blankets off of himself so I covered him up. Ella was asleep on the sofa downstairs with the tv on. I picked her up and took her up to her room. Rachel was sound asleep so I turned all the lights off downstairs and went up to the room and Mark called me, I went into the bathroom and we were talking. We found ways of entertaining ourselves at 3am, the irony is that I'm not tired and I have Friday and Saturday off of work.

Watch Over Them

We've got enough medicine in our house to run a third world hospital. I went in to work this morning and found out I was put on Surgical Clinic. I spoke with Robert who thought it was best considering I'm sick and after he threw his ego around for a little while he told me I'd be scrubbing in with him in the afternoon for a procedure. Around 9 in the morning I went to the E.R to get something for my throat and Carter thougth it best to administer it via IV. 10 minutes later I felt like I had been given Atropine, and felt dizzy. Carter said it was nothing and I'd be fine. I went back to Surgery and it got worse. Robert pulled me aside and told me that Carter gave me the right medication, just the wrong type. Basically instead of giving me functionability antibiotics he gave me what would be administered if I were a patient and able to rest. We went to the E.R and Robert ranted at Carter saying, "Because your an idiot, I'm down a surgeon and now we're short staff. Do me a favor, if I need medical attention see to it that I get someone that knows what the hell they're doing" and walked away.

I got home before 10 and Mark seemed shocked that I was home. I told him what happened and he checked my BP. He then informs me that the antibiotic side effect that's most common is nervousness. I was so dizzy that I felt as though I was going to be sick. I went to bed but it didn't help.

Even right now as I type this I feel out of it, I might actually cut this short. I've got to be at work tomorrow morning to perform surgery on Liam the little boy hit by the car a few weeks ago. He needs surgery again but because of the high fever we can't operate until it goes down. Mark and I are in talk with Katherine (our past nanny) to take over for Callie who's depatring due to personal obligations. Tomorrow will be far more interesting than today.

Next of Kin

The word for today is tense. Mark and I were up most of the night last night talking, he's a mess of emotions right now, with his dad being in and out of the hospital and Rachel being sick it's taking it's toll on him. I got to bed just before 4am and the alarm started going off just after 5. I got up and got Ella ready for school, Mark gave Reilly a bath and fed him. Jenn called to let us know that Rachel was going to be at school and would be at the hospital afterwards. Callie came to the house half past 7. I left for work and Mark was taking Ella to school.

Work was hell on earth. I was the only Surgeon on the boards for the E.R and we're running short staff due to student rotation changes and exams. There were a few blow up moments but we had a good staff today and everything went as well as could be expected. Usually Mark and I don't take the same Trauma's but I think we worked on at least 4 today, all went well. That's really what matters. Our E.R and Surgical wards have seperate banquets. Kerry and Mark have both asked if I was going to go to the E.R banquet and I declined both times.

Rachel came to the hospital after school and waiting with Jerry in Triage. Since the E.R banquet was tonight the E.R staff left work at 4pm. Since I'm surgical in the E.R I had to stay until 6. that made absolutely no sense to me, it was slow and I got into a conversation with Frank about the British Troops. I must be the only person who doesn't take his comments seriously.

Marks dad has been at our house since being discharged, He's difficult to deal with. He doesn't follow instructions, never wears his oxygen and insists of fighting over his medication. His vitals weren't looking good around 9pm this evening, I checked his oxygen every 30 minutes and his vitals every hour. It's scary, if he doesn't follow medication and instruction he's not going to live much longer. If his breathing doesn't improve by tomorrow mornng he's going to have to go back to the hospital, and I had to inform Mark when he got home.

Ruth, Mark and I sat at the table and discussed the situation, Mark and I medically clashed a few times but he knows that by miracle of a chance he could be correct. Ruth told us that his father is a DNR and that seemed to shock Mark. Ruth went to bed, I think it was her way of allowing Mark to take in what she told him. We are still without a plan and we're going to take it one step at a time.