we got a phone call from our Dr in FMU today....man i have never been so nervous on the phone in my life.
He received a letter from the red cross, it was regarding the blood from Rileys first IUT. Mind you this IUT was in August! Anyway, he went on to tell me that the donors blood tested positive...my heart sank, as a parent i obviously went to all the really bad things that it could have been. Anyway, for some reason they failed to inform the Red Cross they had been to a malaria infected region and their blood tested positive for the antibody.
They retested the blood and it seems that it came up negative so they were saying it may have been from a past infection and the chance that it will have been transmitted were remote. He emphasized the remote part, saying that is the exact word that they had used.
Thankfully she has been well, no fevers or anything like that so it is highly unlikely that anything has been transmitted.
He is sending a copy to her paed so he can follow up in how he feels necessary. If she is going to have blood taken for anything else then throw in the malaria test but otherwise there is no point taking some blood...although as horrible as it sounds it would be nice for peace of mind.
But WOW!!! I am still a little shaky from the whole call and of course now i am going to be super paranoid of any temps she gets, no matter how little they are!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Gestation - it is just a number
This is how i am feeling more and more each day. People seem to focus on the number so much that they fail to see the actual child that is the barer of that number. It seems that a baby born at 35 weeks surely isn't as sick as a baby born at 25 weeks. While that may be the case in a lot of scenarios it isn't always true and the baby that is born closer to term shouldn't be dismissed, nor should their fight be pushed aside as not as important.
Plenty of times i have heard that Riley was so close to being term, she was born at 33 weeks and honestly since when did 7 weeks early come so close to being term. That is 7 weeks she missed out on purely growing, she had to survive and do all the things that she wasn't meant to be doing. That 7 weeks puts her at risk of things that may not show up now but could very well show up in the future. Whilst we worry about all the germs and consciously stay away from places, other people don't have those worries. The likelihood of their little one ending up in hospital with a cold is quite low, for us it is a reality that we may just face this winter.
Apparently she wasn't premature enough to be considered a premmie, and people don't understand why on earth she would need steroids - she wasn't premmie she was just a bit early!
Big premmie babies don't get serious infections...this is something that bothers me as well. Why did they think and test Ethan for N.E.C if "big" babies don't get it? Why did they think Riley had sepsis if "big" babies don't get infections?
SO.....if she wasn't premmie then why did she need CPAP, why did she stop breathing right after birth and need some assistance to get her going again. Why did she not know how to feed, or maintain her temp? Why did she need to stay in hospital for 3 weeks?
I honestly do not think that people understand how hurtful it can be to parents, when you make them feel that their childs struggles aren't important. Each parent and each child suffers through different issues during their NICU journey. Sure, my child may not be as sick as someone elses but you know what, that is MY child. I can worry and be concerned about what i want and no one has the right to say that my worry isn't worthy.
So please be mindful of others when you make comments - their child may have only been in hospital for 2/3/4 weeks and not months but you know what that was hard for them, they still left without their child and they still had fears and concerns. Everyone needs to respect everyones history and understand that it is NEVER easy to leave your child, no matter what!
Plenty of times i have heard that Riley was so close to being term, she was born at 33 weeks and honestly since when did 7 weeks early come so close to being term. That is 7 weeks she missed out on purely growing, she had to survive and do all the things that she wasn't meant to be doing. That 7 weeks puts her at risk of things that may not show up now but could very well show up in the future. Whilst we worry about all the germs and consciously stay away from places, other people don't have those worries. The likelihood of their little one ending up in hospital with a cold is quite low, for us it is a reality that we may just face this winter.
Apparently she wasn't premature enough to be considered a premmie, and people don't understand why on earth she would need steroids - she wasn't premmie she was just a bit early!
Big premmie babies don't get serious infections...this is something that bothers me as well. Why did they think and test Ethan for N.E.C if "big" babies don't get it? Why did they think Riley had sepsis if "big" babies don't get infections?
SO.....if she wasn't premmie then why did she need CPAP, why did she stop breathing right after birth and need some assistance to get her going again. Why did she not know how to feed, or maintain her temp? Why did she need to stay in hospital for 3 weeks?
I honestly do not think that people understand how hurtful it can be to parents, when you make them feel that their childs struggles aren't important. Each parent and each child suffers through different issues during their NICU journey. Sure, my child may not be as sick as someone elses but you know what, that is MY child. I can worry and be concerned about what i want and no one has the right to say that my worry isn't worthy.
So please be mindful of others when you make comments - their child may have only been in hospital for 2/3/4 weeks and not months but you know what that was hard for them, they still left without their child and they still had fears and concerns. Everyone needs to respect everyones history and understand that it is NEVER easy to leave your child, no matter what!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
5kg!
At 8 days shy of being 4 months old Riley has done it, she has tipped the scales at a whopping 5kg! It is well and truly over double her birth weight, i think it is roughly 2.2 times!
Of course, in true Riley fashion she is happy about it as well!
Of course, in true Riley fashion she is happy about it as well!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)