My Comment to Adelynn's Journy

I was inspired to write about the first time I had to turn into a bitch for Penny's sake, by Adelynn's mommy's post. When Penelope was a month old to the day, her wound incision appeared to be infected, so we went to the cardiologist office (it happens to be in the children's hospital here) and she was put on PO antibiotics. At 3 am the next day, I could tell the infection was getting worse so we brought he to the ER at the children's hospital for a course of IV meds. She hadn't gotten a fever at this point so we knew that everything was going to be alright.

Penny's first IV was put in at the ER and to my knowledge, that 1st dose at about 6 am went in fine. With her noon dose, it was clear that the IV had infiltrated so the IV had to be removed. The doctors didn't feel they needed to do anything until her next dose was due so around 4:30 this TOTALLY HOT SWEDISH resident, Dr. Thor Thorenson (I am not making that name up, I swear to God), came in to tell me that he is really good with babies. I told him that she is a hard stick and could we just call the NICU nurses? He replied that they were too busy. So, 35 minutes later I could still hear her screams down the hall since I had to leave to room at some point. I came running back in to stop the evil torture, but learned that Dr. Thor had ceased as well. I asked him what the plan was. Even though I had been up for 14 hours at this point and it was only 5pm, I knew that this was necessary so my concerns were more that I wanted her to have her medicine and not so much her comfort. He told me that he wanted me to try to feed her to allow the veins to plump up more and then he would try again. I asked him what other options we had in case he couldn't get the IV in again. He suggested a vein in her scalp, but that usually doesn't work for babies because they shake their head a lot and it could push out the IV. I looked at him and told him that doesn't sound like much of an option then. So he left to give Penny time to calm down for round 2.

As soon as he left the room I tried to think of how I could take matters into my own hands. So I picked up the room phone and I CALLED THE CARDIOLOGISTS OFFICE'S NUMBER. Never mind that it was 3 floors below me. I spoke with Dr. Iyer, and I told him that I wasn't happy with the level of care I was getting. I told him that my daughter was 4 weeks old and that what I wanted was a NICU nurse to come over to do this. He then said the words any mother would have been happy to hear: "I will absolutely do that for you." He also asked why this wasn't already done and I told him that Dr. Thor advised they were too busy over there. I don't think he liked that answer.

About ten minutes later, Dr. Thor then walked in to discuss "The plan" again. I finally interrupted him to tell him that I used the phone to call Dr. Iyer and a NICU nurse was on the way over to do {what he couldn't do.} This was the best reaction in the history of reactions that I have seen in real life: his jaw dropped open and he stared at me for a moment to think about what he was going to say next. I mean, how dare someone call a doctor on a phone while you are in a hospital, it sounds crazy right? One minute later, my favorite NICU nurse Rhonda, showed up with an APRN and they got to work. Within 5 minutes and with no tears the IV was in!!! God those nurses are good!!! I am sure Penny appreciated the change in venue too.