Obstruction of the intestines – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Baby C Is Finally Discharged!

…. but to play safe this time, we ain’t going back to Ipoh or KL just yet. We are now staying in a hotel located just next to the hospital. This time, the hubs and I want to make sure that baby is really well before we bring her back to Ipoh, and then back to KL. We do not want to make a mad dash back to Penang, just like what happened 2 weeks ago when baby kept puking the night she was discharged from the hospital and we drove back to Ipoh. Anyway, the hubs have just flown back to KL and I’m in Penang with Baby C and my maid. He may bring Alycia and Sherilyn to Penang on Saturday for a short holiday, together with my parents.

Anyway, baby has been showing signs that she’s really, really famished! Each time hubby, my maid and I ate in the room, she would point at our food and stare at the food, afterwhich she would lap her lips and swallow her saliva. Aawwww, poor baby…. I wanted so much to feed her and plump her up BUT I know I just have to be patient. My poor baby had just gone for a surgery involving her guts and I have to go easy on her food intake. Today is only the 6th day post-surgery (2nd surgery) and I’ll go slow when it comes to feeding her with solids.

My heart crushed again today when our surgeon removed the Central Venous Catheter from baby’s chest. The 20 minutes or so when baby was in the treatment room felt like 20 days when I heard my poor baby yelling and yelling away. I felt really helpless as I wasn’t allowed to be in the room and I could not hold her hand, stroke her head and wipe her tears away. Her cries and screams were really loud eventhough the door was closed and we were outside waiting. Our doctor had to inject an LA (local anesthetic) on her chest before removing the catheter. For this procedure, I would rather not be in the procedure room coz I knew that if I saw the procedure, it would haunt me forever again, just like how the insertion of the NG tube into baby’s nostril is haunting me now, after I had seen how the nurse inserted it into my poor baby’s nostril. I will never forget the paralyzing fear and pain on my poor baby’s face…. and then she cried till she puked out green bile liquid with tinges of blood (caused by the NG tube). Poor baby was so traumatized that the following night when she was brought to the treatment room to have her IV line re-inserted, she yelled and bawled and shivered uncontrollably when the whole torturous procedure was over. I pray that my baby will never ever have to go through all these again.

My heart was further crushed when the Sister weighed baby today. Her weight has dropped further. From 8.2kg (pre-surgery), it dropped to 7.8kg (post-first surgery) and now it has dropped to 7.5kg (post-second surgery). Baby C is now the weight of a 6-7 month old baby. I had tried my utmost best to plump her up to get her ready for the surgery and now, she has lost all that she had gained. Haih, really heartbreaking…. but when I saw a frail, sickly, very skinny and tiny 16-month old toddler with a hole in the heart today, I consoled myself that at least Baby C doesn’t look that terrible. I really felt for the poor baby and his mum. They have checked into the hospital for almost 3 days and this afternoon was the baby’s open heart surgery. I think I will visit this baby tomorrow when I collect Baby C’s porridge and clear soup from the pediatric ward. Yes, I have ordered food for baby from the pediatric ward and the Sister was kind enough to have arranged that for me for my stay in Penang for the next 3 days.

These pix were taken yesterday. Baby C has been obssessed with food for the past 2 days and didn’t have much interest in her toys. So I let her play with my snacks…. her eyes lit up when she saw those snacks and she looked too cute when she pretended to eat my Twisties and Kasugai beans!

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Baby C’s Happy Again!

For 3 weeks since 5 May 09 (her first surgery), I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for my sweetie-pie to give me a smile…. and she finally gave me her sweet, angelic smile 2 days ago. Since yesterday, there has been more smiles and antics from my sweetie-pie.

My doctor gave me the green light to start nursing Baby C yesterday. Her first feed after 10 days on strict NIL BY MOUTH was at 4pm yesterday. As I nursed her, my heartbeat paced really fast as I was really worried that she will just spew the milk out like a volcano, like what was happening before her 2nd surgery. After the first breastfeed, my sweetie-pie wanted more and more. She was latched on to my boops almost the whole night…. and really sucked me dry! It was more of a comfort sucking for baby and I think she was scared that I would deprieve her of her mek mek again, like what had happened twice over the past 3 weeks. The whole of last night, baby did not sleep well, kept waking up and kept saying “um mai” (no in Cantonese). She must have had a nightmare or felt hot being under my armpit the whole night! At one point, she sat up and kept pointing to the basket of fruits on the table. I know she’s been yearning to eat the oranges and dragon fruits for a long time. Our doctor gave us the nod to feed her diluted freshly squeezed orange juice today and I gave her some this morning… very, very little. I have now developed a phobia of feeding my baby and I will be really cautious this time not to overfeed her.

This morning, I also went to the Acconts Department and met up with the Accounts Officer, an elderly man who is really nice, warm and fatherly. I wanted to seek clarification on my exorbitant bill and asked for a discount. Good thing I checked the detailed billing, item by item as there was overcharging on a few items. The bill as of yesterday was RM24k++. This RM24k++ is exclusive of our first bill, also RM24k+. By the time we are discharged (hopefully by tomorrow), I am pretty sure the bill will hit RM50k. I am now praying hard that we will be granted a very good discount.

Baby C is indeed a fighter. What she has been through in the first year of her life is definitely way more than what a normal adult normally has to go through in his/her lifetime. That’s really a lot for her (and for me too) to endure but with God’s grace, she managed to sail through. I hope and pray that this will be the end of our long nightmare.

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Baby C’s Post-Surgery (2nd Op) – Day 3 and Day 4

Post-Op (2nd op) – day 3 (25 May 09)
Baby C was given an enema in the morning to induce her to poo poo. She poo pooed quite a bit and the stools were green. More and more of her usual antics re-surfaced. She also farted towards the evening at around 5pm when she was crying. I guess the straining from the crying induced the fart. Though a short fart, it was loud enough to be heard and I was happy. I SMSed my surgeon to inform him. At around 8ish pm, my maid told me that she heard baby farting again, about 4 times. Then about half an hour later, she farted once more and my maid and I heard the fart! Talk about farts now, I love the sweet sounds of my baby’s farts!

For the first time after her first surgery on 5 May 09, she SMILED!! My maid managed to make her smile when she made a “bah bah” sound, telling her that a goat says “bah bah”. I tell you, her smile was priceless, really priceless and she looked soooooooo sweet and angelic. How I miss her smiles and giggles. I am hoping to see more of them soon.

The Accounts Clerk from the hospital came in to our room to give me a BIG present. When I saw her, I knew what was in the envelope. It was our bill and it totalled RM18k++ (from last Saturday through yesterday, i.e. 10 days). Our first bill was RM24k++!

Baby C on Saturday, 23 May 09 morning, i.e. barely 12 hours after her second surgery. On her body is the central venous catheter. TPN drips, morphine, antibiotics, sodium and glucose drips are given through this central line. Check out my health blog to read more and to view more pix.

Post-Op (2nd op) – day 4 (26 May 09)
I didn’t get to sleep throughout the night. It was extremely hard to put her to sleep at night. She didn’t want just pats and strokes…. but wanted me to sleep next to her. So I climbed into her cot and contorted my body to fit into her cot, with my legs dangling on the railing… just so I was next to her. She managed to fall asleep but when I climbed out of the cot, she woke up again. This happened several times. Finally, I asked the nurses to rearrange the positioning of the drips and machines so that I could bring baby to my bed to sleep with me. I regretted doing that coz I couldn’t sleep with her next to me. She was tossing and turning on the bed and felt really uncomfortable with the big bunch of tubes hanging on her body and the NG tube that’s hanging precariously on her nose. She kept wanting to sleep on her tummy (with her butt in the air) but this position is not good for the bunch of tubes. She was also trying in vain to rub her eyes and nose and I kept holding her hands to prevent her from doing so. She felt really frustrated and upset that my maid and I kept restricting her movements. She also kept rubbing her face on the mattress.

Finally at 5am, I woke up to a shock when I saw that the plaster securing the NG tube on her nose had come out and was dangling on the tube. I quickly yelled out to my maid to press the emergency button for the nurses’ help. Baby was struggling and yelling and the NG tube just slid out from her nostril!! I was horrified. The nurse called our doctor for advise and he said to hold on to the re-insertion of the NG tube until he comes in and see baby in the morning.

Since this morning, Baby C has shown great interest in our food and is showing signs of hunger. When I ate fruits (orange and dragon fruit) this morning, she kept pointing to them. She also kept staring at my maid and I whenever we ate…. lapped her lips and kept salivating, poor thing 🙁 She has been pointing to the table where I put my fruits the whole of today. Whenever I asked her where is the orange, where is the dragon fruit, she would point to the basket of fruits on the table and said “there”.

This morning Baby was given another enema to induce her to poo poo…. and she poo pooed quite a bit. Also farted once when she poo pooed and strained (after the enema was administered). Our doctor said to start feeding baby with clear fluids. If she doesn’t vomit, she can be fed a little breast milk tonight.

As I am typing this post, my sweetie-pie has just given me another of her sweet angelic smile as she’s playing with her toys now. Baby doesn’t want to nap and just wants to be played with and entertained the whole day.

…. to be continued

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