Day 16 of Life - July 4th
Little Sha is once again following in his mama's footsteps. He is now retaining water like crazy. Before Ma was induced, she was retaining water and her ankles, in particular, swelled up like sausages. Her ankles basically disappeared and became cankles! This was due to her incredibly high blood pressure. Thankfully, she's back to normal. For Sha, the docs figure that the water retention is being caused by his PDA being open again. He has a cardiology consult for tomorrow afternoon, at which point they will decide whether they are going to try Indomethacin again or whether they'll opt for surgery.
Otherwise, the little one's oxygen requirements have gone up again, to approximately 47%, which is also due to his PDA. He is still comfortable and behaving well.
When the doctors suspect an infection, there are several tests that they run. One of the most important ones, though, is the blood culture. They take a sample of his blood and "grow it" for 48 hours. If there is an infection present, then it will begin to grow a culture within that time and they can test to see what type of infection it is. Little Sha's blood culture grew a Staphylococcus Epidermidis (staph epi) infection. This infection lives on the skin and items of frequent contact. The good news is that they had already started him on the drugs necessary to cure this infection. Today, they decided to stop the one drug, but will continue with the other, likely for a full 7 days (the usual administration duration).
Little Sha is also being blessed tonight, in the presence of his family. Ma jokes that he gets to wear a "dress". Pictures will follow.
Ma is nearing the end of her fight with HR over her sick benefits. The final decision between all of the agencies involved is that Ma can either take her 15 weeks sick time OR she can take her 17.5 weeks of maternity leave (only 15 weeks of which is paid). If she takes the sick time, then she forfeits her right to her mat leave. After this time, she will still be eligible for 35 weeks parental leave, which she can begin at any time. The real crappy thing about this is that when Sha is finally released from hospital, Ma will only have 6.5 months left with him. This also messes up Ma and Pa's original plan of sharing the leave. Ma and Pa were going to take the first month off together and then Pa was going to take the last month by himself. However, when they are off together for one month, that actually counts as 2 months of the parental leave. Ma has a couple of more phone calls that she wants to make, but it looks as though this is the way it is going to be. I told her that she should make revising and fighting this law her new mission, as she has been looking for one for awhile. Anyway, stay tuned.
Otherwise, the little one's oxygen requirements have gone up again, to approximately 47%, which is also due to his PDA. He is still comfortable and behaving well.
When the doctors suspect an infection, there are several tests that they run. One of the most important ones, though, is the blood culture. They take a sample of his blood and "grow it" for 48 hours. If there is an infection present, then it will begin to grow a culture within that time and they can test to see what type of infection it is. Little Sha's blood culture grew a Staphylococcus Epidermidis (staph epi) infection. This infection lives on the skin and items of frequent contact. The good news is that they had already started him on the drugs necessary to cure this infection. Today, they decided to stop the one drug, but will continue with the other, likely for a full 7 days (the usual administration duration).
Little Sha is also being blessed tonight, in the presence of his family. Ma jokes that he gets to wear a "dress". Pictures will follow.
Ma is nearing the end of her fight with HR over her sick benefits. The final decision between all of the agencies involved is that Ma can either take her 15 weeks sick time OR she can take her 17.5 weeks of maternity leave (only 15 weeks of which is paid). If she takes the sick time, then she forfeits her right to her mat leave. After this time, she will still be eligible for 35 weeks parental leave, which she can begin at any time. The real crappy thing about this is that when Sha is finally released from hospital, Ma will only have 6.5 months left with him. This also messes up Ma and Pa's original plan of sharing the leave. Ma and Pa were going to take the first month off together and then Pa was going to take the last month by himself. However, when they are off together for one month, that actually counts as 2 months of the parental leave. Ma has a couple of more phone calls that she wants to make, but it looks as though this is the way it is going to be. I told her that she should make revising and fighting this law her new mission, as she has been looking for one for awhile. Anyway, stay tuned.
posted by Like duh! @ 6:10 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home