I woke up this morning bawling! I was not feeling good at all. My boobs hurt. I was hot. I was cold. My body ached. It was not a good morning. I thought I should try taking my temperature again. Mark asked me what it was. I said 105 degrees. His response was of course "get dressed... we are going to the emergency room." I was like huh, what? He said "Leah, 105 degrees is like deadly!" Oh yeah, right, I'm sorry honey... I mean 100.5! Well he said you still need to get checked out. So I called my Dr. up as I expected I had mastitis. Ahh mastitis... what is it? This is what I know... it is an infection that breast feeding moms can get and it comes with flu like symptoms. The Dr. perscribed antibiotics for me without having to see me. Oh I was so relieved that I didn't have to go in. I was just feeling miserable!
So Mark and I decided to leave the hospital for a little bit. We were told that when we got back the nurse was going to be the same one that we had last night. I was fine with that. The nurse we had last night was nice and seemed to know what she was doing. Well when we got back the nurse said she needed a break from Ethan! She pulled her shoulder some how. So it was a nurse that has never had Ethan while he has been there. She told me she has been there for 10 years though. She seemed nice. Nice isn't what we are looking for in taking care of Ethan though. Sure it helps to deal with them but in all reality it's how they handle him. Ethan had been dropping his heart rate quite quickly that the Dr. decided that the nurse that had him for the night only had him... no other babies. They usually have 2-3 babies a night but since he was a little high maintenace they decided that there should be a nurse right outside his door at all times. Well I was pumping in the room and Ethan started to drop his heart rate. Mark got up and started to get in Ethan's bed to wake him up to breath, another nurse drops in the room wondering where the nurse is because she saw his heart rate drop too and then when his heart rate started to come up the nurse assigned to Ethan comes rushing down the hallway yelling "I'm watching him I'm watching him." Yeah come to find out she was down the hallway talking to a breast feeding mom because she is also a lactation nurse. Well I am sorry lady but if you are assigned only 1 baby that means he needs your full attention. I know the nurses can watch multiple babies on the monitors in the rooms but seriously... it's not ok to watch his heart rate drop and think that I will be ok with it because you were "watching" him. You need to react woman!
I wish that is all I have to say about that nurse but it's not. Once she got in there she started taking his temperature and started to change his diaper (this is what we do in cares.) It was about 15 minutes before his care time. It's fine to start early but we didn't know what she was doing. Mark starting washing the bottles from pumping because the nurse and the respiratory therapist were both in Ethan's bed and I could tell he was a little upset with the ordeal we just saw. Well then the nurse says well are you going to be a part of cares? I said yeah I usually let dad do his cares when he is here because I am here a lot more but it looks like you already did his cares. She said "well the parents need to be involved here." What! Are you kidding me! I am in the hospital day in and day out helping with his cares and now it looks like we need to do the nurses job too and you are telling us that we need to be involved! I have some non lady like words that I could put here but I won't. It made me a little upset! So Mark got in there and changed his diaper and she stood there and watched him. That's it. Nothing left for him to do. So she got back in there. Mark and I were seriously considering spending the night in his room. The other idea was to talk to someone to request another nurse but we didn't know who to talk to on the night shift for this. After we left I called to check up on him and told the nurse that I would really like it if she stayed close by him and if she needed to leave for any reason to ask another nurse to watch him while she was gone. Of course we plan on telling the hospital we didn't want her as a nurse in the future.
Hi hon - I'm so glad you posted a pic:) he looks like Mark says Mike! He's so handsome! Hoping you feel better soon Leah
ReplyDeleteSome nurses are aweful!! If you don't like them or don't feel comfortable with them talk to their suprivising nurse or DON and request they not be in there! Usually there is a charge nurse on duty. I hope you don't have her again!! I hope you get feeling better! I was guna tell you if you need anything just give me a call! I usually shut the alerts on my phone off and just set it as "phone calls only" Don't ever worry about the time! Great pictures!! He is absolutely adorable!!
ReplyDeleteHe is so cute when he is cranky!!!!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your poor boob, I hope it is feeling better.
I'm sorry if I nurse isn't going to do her job right then don't do it at all. There is a baby whose life is in your hands, you can't take that lightly. keep speaking up when your not happy with something Leah. Ethan deserves only the best!