"He looks fine to me"

After taking Joseph up the mountain to cub camp I headed over to the hospital. I talked with his nurse to find out what happened during the night and looked in on Aaron. He was very red and clammy. He was finally maintaining his temperature better but was still knocked out. When I did his cares at noon he barely moved around. I asked her what meds he had had and she said he had received Adavan earlier in the morning but nothing other than that. His last dose of morphine was at 7:00 p.m. the previous day. The nurse said it would be a really good idea to be there for rounds so I could talk to the doctor. So I waited, they didn't come until 1:30, by then I was exhausted.

They started with the nurse practitioner giving his stats. At one point she said, "a cbc was run just after midnight because the mother was worried" as if I was worried unnecessarily. Hello, I'm sitting right here and it was a combined concern between the nurse, night nurse practitioner, and me!!!! At the end of her report she then said, "I looked at him this morning and he seemed fine to me." I was miffed to say the least. This n.p. has not ever had Aaron before so she wouldn't know what "fine" is. The Attending then looked at me and said, well we have Mom here, lets hear what she has to tell us." I was grateful for that.

I explained that being completely placid was atypical behavior for him. I told them that my boy was feisty and fussy and a complete stinker when you messed with him. I told them I liked that my boy was a stinker and when he lays there for over 24 hours without opening even his eyes that I knew something was wrong!!! I told them that Aaron is currently wimpering and then would "give up". That was not my boy! I also pointed out that he had no drugs in his system that would help him with pain, yet he looks un-bothered by his many fractures. He also should be showing signs of morphine withdrawal and wasn't. All night we struggled to keep his temperature up and could only do that by piling 8 blankets on top of him while his father was holding him skin-to-skin and that 4 of them were heated and when he was put back in his heated isolette another heater was brought in to help. The doctor looked at me and said, "I'm concerned he is getting an infection and we should do a full septic work-up on him!" I about jumped out of my chair and hugged him. I don't like it when Aaron needs the IV's and spinal taps, but this time I felt like I was begging them to do the full work-up.

The doctor asked me if I had any other questions or concerns and I told him that I was told there would be paperwork in our basket for me to sign for Aaron's immunizations and it wasn't there. The n.p. then said, "It wasn't there because I took it out." I asked her why she did that and she said she had to talk to me before I could sign it. I told her Aaron's previous n.p. had already spoken to me about it and had left it for me to sign when I came in. (By this point I realized that this n.p. and I were going to have some issues!) The doctor started to tell me the benefits of the immunizations and I stopped him and told him I was pro immunizations and that I had 4 other children who have all had them and that I have read the paperwork several times over and if they would just give me the paperwork to sign I would happily do it. The n.p. wouldn't give it up and left without giving it to me. grrrrr! The doctor asked me who our primary care doctor would be after we left the hospital. I looked right at the n.p. and said, "Actually I need a few recommendations because my other kids see an N.P. currently but I would much rather have Aaron see an M.D. ! I know it wasn't nice but she set me off when she started her power trip! She doesn't see him every day, she doesn't know what "normal or fine" are. Seriously, every other n.p. has either called me or come to talk to me when I am there and always asks if I have concerns about Aaron, don't just show up and act as if you know better than his mother what "fine" is!

So far the blood work has come back with only slight elevations of his white cells. The n.p. who has Aaron today has already come in to look at him and the first thing she said was, "this isn't my little peanut, what is wrong?" Thank you! She thinks he may have something going on with his heart and is ordering an echo today. I'm glad to have an n.p. who recognizes something is off with him and wants to get some answers. We are heading up now and will post later.