Prozac 2.0 - Heart Surgery

Did you name him Urist?

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Prozac (and the little tablet). I hope your joy in his presence soon eclipses the hardships of his arrival.

As has been mentioned above much more eloquently than I can say, your wife didn't fail anything even though I know she's going to feel that way. Just take care of each other and your sprout.

Glad everyone came out of it mostly intact.

Congrats on the new addition, and sorry that the delivery didn't go according to plan.

We were in a similar situation, and I'm so glad that our doctor was the on-call OB that day/night. Our daughter was delivered 22 hours after we started inducing. It took a long times for things to develop from the induction, and we discovered after a while that our little girl wasn't in the proper position to make it out neatly. The doctor came in and talked about options for assistance (he recommended forceps), but he said that the decision was ours and he was comfortable waiting for a while unless we were ready to intervene at that moment. My wife (who was just a superstar throughout the process) finally pushed our little girl out the natural way, with no assistance, after pushing for 3 hours (though she did come out on her side with a fist up). After talking to our doula and several other nurses, they were all amazed that our doctor was willing to let us continue to try, without intervention, for as long as we did. So, in that regard we were very fortunate, as we had wanted to avoid a caesarean or any other intervention, if possible (we did get an epidural, though).

Congrats on the new baby, Prozac!

As a twice-instanced dad, I have to warn you about the incoming post-delivery blues, and how they're made worse with the C-section and everything. My wife had C-section twice and she was all neurotic about being a failure and what not, even though she's a doctor and she knows that none of that is true.

My best advice would be to deal with the problem proactively. Give your wife a little extra TLC for a month or so. Bring her breakfast in bed, do extra chores, massage her back, and give her and do her the things you know she would want. Remind yourself to tell her how awesome she is and that you love her on a daily basis. Put an alarm on your phone as a reminder - 8am worked for me. Whenever you think you're bordering on ridiculous in complimenting her, you're about halfway there.

I assure you that all this is worth the effort. You'll make it all back tenfold.

Does this mean I now have to watch my wife and my daughter around the prozac family?

Latest update sees our battle with the medical professionals continue. The boy is staying mostly in the special care nursery (SCN) and I spent a lot of time there yesterday while Mrs P. was bedridden. This morning Mrs P. made the trip via wheelchair to the SCN.

Neither of us had been informed that a feeding tube had been inserted. It's not an issue that it was done, just that no one warned us.

Yesterday in the SCN a doctor decided to give Prozac 2.0 a canula, not because he needed but because he 'might' need it in the future as his white blood cell count was up. She inserted the canula, took a dozen goes at getting it in right, then got called away to see someone else and remove dthe canula before she went. so I was left managing a distressed baby bleeding from his forearm for the best part of half an hour. She came back and started again, this time on his wrist. she took so many attempts at getting it sited that saying 50 is an exageration, but not a gross one. Another, older doctor came over to investigate what was going on and had a discussion with her in front of me grilling her as to why she was doing it. He disagreed with her course of action as it was uneccesary but said he wouldn't countermand her decision.

she kept trying to get the canula inserted until the poor boy's body formed clots and then she gave up and just drew the blood she actually needed from his heel.

The nurse and I took him to visit his mother with the understanding that I had to take him back to the SCN to go through it all again in a few hours the nurse said she'd try to get a different doctor for it and said that she understands that the junior doctors have to learn but that was getting ridiculous.

So I took him back a few hours later and was seen by the same doctor. She informed me that she had discussed it with her supreior and had decided not go ahead with the canula as it was normal for a baby that had suffered the trauma he had to have an elevated white cell count.

This brings us to today when Mrs P. finally made it to the SCN in a wheelchair and the same doctor came to speak to us. She managed to use a lot of words to not say anythnig and tell us enough that she upset Mrs P. indicating that the things they were observing him for may be indicators of an abnormality, but danced around that poorly enough as to make it seem worse than it really was as the same indicators were just as likely that he still had the general anaesthetic in his system from the emergency cesar.

We met with the head of the SCN nursing staff and diplomatically expressed our concerns and requested a new doctor. she was very good and we went out of our way to name nursing staff that had been fantastic. she advised that she would take it to the medical supervisor and see what she could do. When I go back this evening I'll find out if we got a different doctor or not.

I have to say that all the midwives, nursing staff and ancilliary specialists we've had contact with have been fantastic and done everything possible to make the process as smooth as possible. We have just had a poor experience with 2 doctors.

The Hippocratic Oath forbids me from saying anything bad about those doctors. That said, best of luck in your efforts to find someone who is more... ...er, suitable for your preferences.

boogle wrote:

Did you name him Urist?

In Dwarf Fortress terms using the limited Dwarf language file the best I can come up with for David Roy Spittles is

David = Beloved, Synonym of Beloved is Venerated. Venerate = Lanzil

Roy = King = Etar

Spittles = Surname traced back the Knights of St. John the Knights Hospittaler (this is why my Steam profile pic is the Maltese cross)
Spittle in DF = Lashid (close enough)

So he's Lanzil Etar Lashid

IMAGE(http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/f7ee824ffb5fc0f3ac8ec6ab85a9fe0b72523da81079a33741e367f35eaadee05g.jpg)

Turns out that Mrs P. had previously seen the doctor we complained about today.

She had seen the doctor for an obstetrics appointment during the pregnancy and had to demand a different doctor then when the bad one was unable to answer Mrs P's questions and then googled an answer in front of Mrs P!

Look at cute little Proz 2.0 on that pic, his hands look as if holding Baby-Mollies to throw at papa! Congrats my good friend, sorry to hear about all the crazy medical drama.

Prozac wrote:

She had seen the doctor for an obstetrics appointment during the pregnancy and had to demand a different doctor then when the bad one was unable to answer Mrs P's questions and then googled an answer in front of Mrs P!

Yikes. I was going to blame the canula problems on the fact that all the interns have just started, but maybe she's just not very good.

On to important issues: which race are you going to start 2.0 off in for Blood Bowl?

The cannula thing is a policy problem, specifically having to do with training and skills rotation. Back when I was rotating in Peds as an intern, we had a common standing policy of two tries per person, period, unless there was no one else available in a timely matter, and it was a life or death situation (which unfortunately happens).

This policy was formed because it was thought that the adjusted probability of success on third and subsequent attempts by the same person on the same patient was so low that it just wasn't worth the pain and the equipment; and each failed attempt makes it progressively more difficult for the next person down the line.

That and we really didn't have the luxury of essentially standing around for hours with nothing to show for it except for possibly introducing infection to an otherwise healthy baby. If you can't do it, you go do something that's actually useful, like sweeping the floor.

Result. The bad doctor has been informed that unless it is an emergency she is to stay away from our boy. I do think she tried, she's just not very good. Her bedside manner was horrible too because she tried to update us on what was going on and left us expecting him to have a genetic abnormality or defect. All the test results came back good and her replacement had a Much better bedside manner.

also team Prozac had a massive victory as baby proz had some success latching and I managed to express a substantial amount of colostrom that was injected through his nasal feeding tube. (i'm better at expressing than Mrs P. Guess It's all the years of practice :))

Well, off to bed to start it all again tomorrow.

There are many doctor's in a hospital, and not having the same experience, but I would demand, not ask, for a new doctor. You deserve to feel comfortable and confident in the hands that your son is in, and maybe that doctor would be wonderful for someone else, but clearly she is not for you! Get second, and third if you have/want to opinions. They should e very understanding/sympathetic to your heightened emotions/questions and really take the time to explain things.

I had a doctor when I was pregnant, and I was having really ad cramps when I was 10 weeks with the twins, so I went and saw this guy, and he was very dismissive of my fears over the pain (I was convinced I could be losing the babies, turns out round ligament pain) but he was VERY concerned over the 1.5 pounds I had gained in the last 2 weeks. From then on he was known as Dr. Douchebag and I refused to be seen by him. Maybe others liked him, ut he was not the doctor for me!

Missy9579 wrote:

There are many doctor's in a hospital, and not having the same experience, but I would demand, not ask, for a new doctor.

This 100 times over. My wife and I had to switch nurses a few times because we just were not happy with they way they were doing their job. It was never about their actual performance as a nurse, but more just a personality conflict. We ended up having some of the best nurses and mainly because we asked for a different nurse, or asked to have specific nurses reassigned to us.

Weird, that kid doesn't look anything like a pineapple!

We have a much better doctor now, but at this point baby and mum will be in hospital another 3 days at least. They're running a gamut of tests to ensure there is nothing wrong with him.

The brave and powerful Mrs Prozac, trying to smile through the pain.
IMAGE(http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss157/apspittles/Baby/2012-02-21211703_resized.jpg)

Babies first bath yesterday.
IMAGE(http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss157/apspittles/Baby/2012-02-22114305_resized.jpg)

The whole gang, back together again
IMAGE(http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss157/apspittles/Baby/425411_10150544693241560_703376559_9655068_1357210736_n.jpg)

All those big smiles are great.

NathanialG wrote:

All those big smiles are great.

A thousand times this. They're both beautiful, Prozac.

NathanialG wrote:

All those big smiles are great.

Bigger than pineapples even

First off, congrats. Not every birth is going to be a fun time, but you went through a seemingly poor experience. My sister went through a very similar situation where she wanted to go all natural, but after 30 some odd hours she gave into being induced. Then they went through another 10 hour or so of her getting close, but not close enough. Finally, when they were just about to wheel her away to go have a c section, she delivered. According to my mom, my sister was literally about to pass out and that's why they were going to do the c section.

So, I'm glad that at the end of the day, 2.0 is out and looking good and the wife is on the road to recovery. I do hope for both of them nothing but the greatest of health. And pineapples.

Looking good!

My one piece of advice from experience:

If they do a newborn hearing screen, don't worry about it if he fails. The false positives far outweigh the true positives at that age even with high risk babies. No one explained this to us, so we briefly worried our child was deaf (not fun).

Well latest update is not a fun one as they have found a heart murmur.

Mrs P. was born with a hole in her heart and survived experimental (at that time) surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. (The Peter Pan Hospital)

Lets hope 30 years of medical advances has made the process better.

My thoughts are with you and your family, Prozac. I'm sending lots of virtual hugs your way.

Prozac wrote:

Well latest update is not a fun one as they have found a heart murmur.

Mrs P. was born with a hole in her heart and survived experimental (at that time) surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. (The Peter Pan Hospital)

Lets hope 30 years of medical advances has made the process better.

I've participated a fair bit in those kinds of surgeries. If it's just a hole in his heart, and it's manageable, it's not too much to worry about. Medical science has advanced a good deal since then, particularly in the area of heart surgery. I don't know anything about your son's case, but the fact that it was not immediately audible at birth suggests that it's not that bad.

There's also the bit about him being pink and not dying immediately - those are good signs, too. Not a smart-alerk remark. The fact that he's still alive rules out some of the more problematic congenital heart conditions.

Some of those septal defect surgeries are about as routine as heart surgeries get these days.

And also, there's a lot of things that don't require surgery anymore. I went through this with my daughters and they scared the crap out of us for 16 days but it was just that the foramen ovale (a hole in the septum that's supposed to be there before you are born so the baby's circulatory system can work properly with mother's) hadn't closed completely yet. It fixed itself, all by itself. A friend of mine had a little boy with a rather spectacular valvular incompetence a couple years ago and he's just fine now with medication and monitoring.

It's something to watch, but try as best you can not to worry too much until they start putting names to the cause of it.

And feel free to keep talking here. Nay, I command you to do so! All three of you are in my thoughts in and prayers.

momgamer wrote:

Nay, I command you to do so!

Grovel before Her Most Terrible Momness!!

NathanialG wrote:

Her Most Terrible Momness!!

Momgamer, I'm totally going to bow and call you this whenever I see you from now on.

::

Prozac, I'm glad everything's working out so far... you guys are serious troupers. Congrats!

I had a heart murmur when I was really young (not sure how long after I was born before it was noticed) but it went away on it's own.