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Praying for you, your family, all the sick kids out there, their parents, and the doctors...........
I'll continue to keep the girls in my prayers, as well as YOU! I'm so glad they seem to be past the worst, and on the upswing. Hang in there girl!
I'm terrified of my twins getting RSV, and I am so sorry that you guys had to deal with it. You are such a trooper!
Hugs and kisses to the sweet little girls (and their handsome big brothers)!
I'm so glad there's good news about Nolia and that she's doing better. Praying that Eliza won't follow. Hope they both feel 100% asap! (and that all nap at the same time so you can too!)
Praying for quick recovery SOON!!!!
I do hope your baby girls are feeling better and you have a nice weekend!
Zak
*hugs*
Glad they are home, and I will continue to pray for you all!!
So many children suffer and are in the hospital... it is so easy to put out of our minds in our cozy homes. My sweet Caleb spent 3 days in the hospital 2 weeks ago, after a frantic ambulance ride. You can be sure I was praying for you!!!
you can find our drama with Caleb here: http://worthwalkingtoward.blogspot.com/2009/02/... will certainly be checking in on sweet Nolia again. Thank God for the health of our children!
Darlene
I have close friends that were forced to have their twins 2.5 months early and I always feared for their health during illness! Thank God for the hard work of all those nurses and drs. they truly do God's work.
Sending more prayers you way. :)
We had to take my DS (almost 21 months) to the ER last week in the middle of the night because he woke up coughing ("barking" like a seal) and could not get a good breath. Then he started shaking - it is the most scared I've ever been. Luckily the ER is just 8 miles away and we were able to drive and at 1am there was no traffic. Diagnosed with croup! Scary stuff. But, after only 3 hrs in the ER, the released him and he's fine now.
Take care and here's to a Happy Valentines' Day with all of your babies and DH!!!
I hope you all start to feel better soon and that you get some good rest. You are in our prayers,
Tricia :)
I am so happy that things are better.
Way to stay strong for the girls and insist that you have a say in what was going on...I am sure that nursing makes them both feel so much better and comforted!
" I spent a good 2 hours praying for the children there that night... I could hear so many cries, screams, yelling to stop, hollering for mama, it was so humbling."
Then I read that! So true, so true.
One of my twins has prematurity induced RAD & Asthma and I go to the hospitals and just PRAY my heart out!
Praying your girls get well and everyone stays healthy for a long time! Spring is almost here!!!
~Rebecca
You certainly have been put through the ringer the last couple of days. So glad Nolia's better and y'all are home.
Nathan has been in the hospital a few times for similar stuff. He has terrible asthma to begin with and had RSV about a year ago. The combination wasn't good. Very scary! So I can sort of relate to what you've just been through. It's so hard to see your babies sick!
I'll continue to pray! Hope everyone is 100% well soon!
Thanks!
Brittany
Glad you could have both your babes besided you and hope you (and they, too) bounce back from the 40 hours of madness!
Nolia looks so chipper in her pictures! xo.
on our knees...
Wo. I'm so sorry for the ick bug that found your girls. Last year I felt like we were sick all winter. It's not fun, and we only made treks to the ER, never to the hospital.
I'll be praying for everything to clear up in your neck. Good job being strong.
Tiff
It makes me sad though to read the responses to your post. Healthcare workers (doctors and nurses) don't go into healthcare because they wish to torture small children and their families. They make the best possible decisions with the information that they have to work with. They don't know your child like you do but they have seen things happen that you have never seen happen. They are cautious. Why? Because many of us have seen lawsuits from families who are unhappy with outcomes. And once you have been in a courtroom facing a lawyer you are much less willing to bypass safeguards that are mandated by JCAHO and the hospital.
When you have given the best care possible and done your best for a patient and the family accuses you of being uncaring or unfeeling or bothersome it hurts.
I will step off of my soapbox now. I have worked a long shift and held a woman who will die of her lung cancer so I know that I am most likely overreacting to people's criticisms of my colleagues. I would just ask that when you pray tonight, please pray for those healthcare providers who go to work every day to help people be well.
Welome back home. :-)
I am so glad the girls are doing better. I will pray for them and all the other babies and children.
You all continue to be in my prayers. Quick healing to all of you.
~Elyse~
Praying for all the children in the hospital. It is a very humbling place to be.
Tarah
As a dedicated Emergency Nurse with 12 years experience specializing in Pediatrics and Pediatric Trauma, let me first say that I am relieved that your precious girl(s) is safe.
I prayed for you, and their, speedy recovery, peace and love. I will continue this prayer until she (they) are better.
While I pray for your familys health and ease, I am also praying for ease myself... Reading your post and the numerous responses left me shaking with a rage. I write this calmly, please don't read this as an attack. We, the dedicated Nurses, Doctors, and other staff who are too numerous to count, work tirelessly for our patients. We go to school for years. We continue with training even after graduation. We attend seminars, we take classes, we continue to learn each and every day. And our biggest challenge are not our patients, sometimes too sick or injured to tell us what's wrong; it is parents who are consumed with the knowledge that they know better than we do, that we are out to harm their children, that we perform... What was it? 'Unnecessary tests' just to increase the insurance bill?
Please, please understand how defamatory that is. How hurtful that is. How unjust that is.
You know your baby best. No one should ever tell you differently. WE know how to care for sick children best. And listening to a parent tell us that is... I don't have a decent response for that.
Was that a wheeze? Or a rale? Is it wheezing or crackles? Does she have Pneumonia, Bronchitis, simple croup? Is it a rare case of myocarditis? Is it RSV orRAD? Does she have a cold on top of an unfortunate case of Appendicitis?
We do not try to hurt children, although clearly many of you feel differently. Placing an IV is difficult at best, and certainly made easier by anxious parents who threaten us with statements of "you only have one chance, so make it good"
You say that you did not appreciate the number of Doctors who evaluated your daughter... Would you rather have just one? And what if he or she misses something? Would not 2 be better, that they might confer on the best course of treatment? Should doctors not have contact with patients unti they are perfect and know everything Or is it okay for them to learn and grow under the tuttelage of others, so long as it's "not my kid" that's the patient. Would you be surprised to learn that residents are helpful simply because of the fact that they are still learning and continously search journals for new and evolving technology?
Yes, breastmilk is best. We love it! Breastmilk is so power-packed with nutrients that most of us consider it the 8th wonder of the world. But breastfeeding is hard work, tiring for sick little bodies who are struggling to breathe. When they are working so hard just for air, they lose their ability to be effective simultaneous breathers and drinkers. Which means that they get food OR oxygen, not both. Remember, the brain can't store oxygen, it needs a continous supply of it. And an O2 sat of high 80's low 90's means that her brain wasn't getting its normal amount.
So that tube near her nose? Yup, its irritating. It also prevents brain damage. And those breathing treatments? Yup, they make kids cry. They also provide Oxygen and medication to open up inflamed airways. And that iv needle? Of course it hurts. But it also provides life saving antibiotics (nope, not in breastmilk, and yes some overprescribe but not NEARLY as often as you think), increased hydration (because sometimes they DO need more than breastmilk) and the critically needed blood sample. Is her white count 7, 14 or 24? Is she septic? Is she hyponatremic? The 5 people who asked you the same questions? We're not feeble-minded, and its not that we didn't bother to read the chart. We ask, they ask, and someone else asks because you (plural) give us different stories. You don't do it intentionally, it just happens. In conversation, in the different way people use words and descriptions. If you take a picture of something, and I take a picture of the same picture from a different vantage point, is our combined picture not fuller - more complete? But was your photo lacking? No, mine just added to it. And if we have a third and a fourth.. That may be tiresome, but it will provide more detail than just one picture, one voice. And that makes a difference. And that 12 hour ER visit? Yeah, we don't have a crystal ball. And there are very few illness-specific "yes" or "no" tests. And they can be inaccurate. And flipping expensive. So instead, we rely heavily on "Time". Is she better, worse, or the same? Has her O2 sat changed? For better or worse? Does she have new symptoms? Is her physical exam changed? Can we rule out more
? While it may look like we've forgotten you, we can't rush the clock. It just takes time. And re-evaluation. And repeat studies. Not because we're bored, not because we need the money, but because as frustrating as it is, that's what your child needs. We will not commit malpractice because you are bored. I will not guess at your childs health because you think that blood test is unnecessary. I have trained for this, I have studdied for this, I have a passion and dedication for this. And these give me, and others, a wealth of knowledge that you can only guess at. Please do not insult us by insinuating that we do not know, do not care or can't be bothered. I spend more time during my day discussing this with abrasive parents than I do treating sick children. If you have a question, ASK IT. But don't assume. Will something hurt? Probably. So will falling off a bike or out of a tree. Are there side effects? Of course. Their are side effects to NOT treating as well. And your other child, the healthy child? We don't want her here because a hospital is laden with MRSA, C-DIFF, VRE, Staph, sharp edges, heavy things, oh. And sick people. Its not that we try to make your life harder, its that we don't want them to get sick too.
Let me say again that I have written this with a calm voice, please read it as such.
I have prayed for Nolia. I will continue to pray for her.
I will also pray for you, Brittany and readers. I will pray that you try to increase your faith in others. That you will try to ask questions if you are concerned or scared, but that you will use soft voices and not an accusatory tone. I pray that ýour little ones never get sick , but if they do that you will be strong enough to know that we are trying to help, and sometimes it takes time and patience.
And lastly, I wish that everyone who off-handed, automatically, or thoughtlessly says or posts that we are pushy, mean, just interested in money, uncaring, unskilled, or insist that you know better than us.... We're people too. We have feelings. We are, as humans, imperfect. But don't villify us. Say thank you. Stop talking and really listen to what we have to say. And know that for every parent who spent a long and frustrating night in the hospital... There were a lot of people who did a lot of hard work so that you were ABLE to take your child home.
As you likely tell your children, please think before you speak.
In Peace,
A Brooklyn Nurse,
RN
CEN
PALS- Instructor
TNCC- Instructor
you poor thing. it must have been incredibly tough and i am so happy that everything is ok.
We will keep praying.
Anonymous - this is Brittany's Blog. She gets to write what she wants and its not defamatory. No one specifically is mentioned and you shouldn't take it personally. the fact is that although you and a lot of others in the medical profession are Honest and good at your jobs, there are a small minority that aren't. I have first hand experience of a number of cases, one being sued for medical malpractice and i think it's fair to say that for every say 1000 of good aples there is at least 1 bad apple and as a parent you do worry.
Given what B went through you shouldn't read her post and be angry. That's the wrong reaction. you should just understand that she's been through a nightmare time and because no profession is 100% perfect, she questioned yours and used it a sounding board. anyone would do the same. peace!
Francesca-What Brittany has described is people doing their job to care for her daughter and to make her well and your suggestion of "bad apples" is absurd. It doesn't apply in this case. I don't care if someone questions my profession but when they question it for practices that are designed to help their child and keep her other child safe and suggest that somehow we do this because we are not intelligent enough or worse, because we want to torture her child then I am offended.
I wrote about a week ago about our similarities and just discovered another - we both have a Paul to love!!
Praying for healthy girls,
Monica
I didn't find anything you said about your experience to be rude to the medical profession...just written from you perspective as their Mom, about a situation that was less than ideal all around. ={
And as far as us/Brittany "thinking before we speak", that's just being rude.
Thank you, Brittany, for being so bold to share openly what you go through. I sincerely hope you remain as open and REAL with your writings as you have in the past - because that's what's drawing me here, and I'm sure many others!
Blessings and PEACE!
I hope both girls are getting better as I type.
And sick babies and children are always in our prayers. I've had 3 nephews (yes three!) born premature and I just hate to see little ones in the hospital.
Continued prayers for wellness!
Steph
take care
take care
Hang in there.
xoxoxox
Sarah
She screamed for months on end....hours upon hours on end...and it wasn't because I wasn't comforting her...she was having seizures which made her scream!! for months, for hours, as she was dying.
1 night was torture.... imagine all the extra effort us parents and healthcare workers have to put in for the children that are seriously ill. Imagine how many times we have to answer questions, spend countless days and nights in the hospital.
Did your other "hardly sick" daughter take a crib that a seriously ill child was waiting for and had to spend the night in the ER because the beds were full?
It's not my intention to sound mean or hateful, I haven't shared on my own blog how truly difficult it is to live that life everyday. That one night...for some of us parents that's our reality everyday...and the nurses and doctors and residents who take care of our children.
And seriously, you spent 2 hrs praying while taking care of your 2 sick girls??? I believe you said a prayer or 2 but not for 2 hrs.
I'm glad your daughters are feeling better...you have a beautiful family but I feel this blog maybe you should have had some sleep before posting...
and yes, please pray, every single morning and night, for the sick children, parents, and doctors.
My second is just 6 weeks old right now, so this is all so freaking fresh in my nerves. After the experience with our first and the unnecessary antibiotics and formula and dismissive crap, we put up MUCH more of a fight for this baby, and were completely justified by his evident perfect health. And though my husband made some people mad, we pretty much got everything we wanted. (Which would be, leave us alone!)
With four children, we have had our share of visits to the hospital and doctor, from very simple to extremely serious. And while I learn and listen and discuss with the doctors what is best for our child, I am grateful. Deeply grateful for what they have done and do to make my child well. I really can't imagine writing a post or a comment that focused on my complaining of all that was wrong and not how I wanted it to happen, instead of the fact that they helped my child to be well again.
I'm pretty sure that those amazing parents that have lost their children in this life, aren't focused on every little thing that didn't go how they wanted it to go, but how they would give ANYTHING to have their child healed (whatever it took) and to hold them in their arms again.