(Begin rant.)

I've had it up to my eyeballs with doctors and nurses! I've had it! These people, who claim to have my daughter's best interest at heart, continue to keep me and my husband in the dark about her care.. they keep blaming us for things we cannot control with regards to her health... All the while under this benign farce of a mask!

Friday. They decided to give her a blood transfusion... without telling us jack squat about it. We called for an update! THAT"S how we find out she's getting some douchebag's blood who just wanted a free goddamn cookie! You don't go from not needing a transfusion to HOLYCRAPGIMMEBLOOD unless you are either vomiting or crapping blood, and in either case we DAMN WELL better have been contacted! But no. She wasn't in dire need. They were just checking her! But somehow, in the 10 times I had called and the 4 visits I had made up to that point this week, that little tidbit of information fell through the cracks!

Oh, and if THAT doesn't make me feel like total crap, how about this one: I am continuously being blamed for my daughter having some kind of cold bug. I had laryngitis 2 weeks ago. She got the sniffles 2 days ago. Not the same symptoms, and far from the same timeline. I had a mask over my face while visiting her even well after I had recovered. But nOOOOoooo, it MUST be my fault - not the other people who were walking around, coughing and sneezing, WITHOUT masks! It's ME! I did it! YATTA!!!

I f*cking hate doctors and nurses.

I m sorry to hear the lil ones ill. I hope that this all gets resolved ASAP. Dont let it eat you up it will onlyu make u ill as well.


ya can call me if ya needs me I m always here for ya's


Lou

D1

Thanks, Lou. Thing is, she isn't "sick" per se. She has a cold. Big deal.

But the blood thing.. that was because of a low(ish) blood count. It doesn't piss me off that they did it - it pisses me off that they did it without informing me or my husband.

Medical hiatus for all involved once all of this is over. >_>

Shambles,

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Hopefully this will all be over soon and your daughter will be safe at home with you.

From my understanding, the docs have to get permission from the parents or family members to do something like add blood to a person that is not from the family but I could be wrong.

I thought that parents or family members have to be notified first and they are supposed to be the ones that the blood would be coming from instead of from someone else that has the same blood type. Then again I could be wrong.

Either way, my families prayers are with you and your little one to get her home safely into your loving arms.

*rubs face* Thanks guys... thing is, they would not take my blood because I was anemic from delivery still... and my husband has antibodies in his blood that they don't want to pass around. Even if they could take our blood, they'd send it for testing, which would have taken a week. After a week, they'd've given her a stranger's blood anyway.

God help them if she catches anything from that transfusion.

Sham,

Not knowing what the Hbg and Hct were for ya daughter, I can say that when its below an 7.6 hemoglobin and 25 hemocrit, those are critical values. At that level there are not enough red blood cells to adequately oxygenate a body. Medically it is a critical situation. Especially in a physically compromised body; like a hypovolumemic blood loss (trauma), anenmia, jaunice, or lack of viable red blood cells, or sick and injured body. Babies it is much more critical because their body volume of blood is so much smaller. So a small drop for an adult can be a very life threatening situation for a new born.

A MD may bypass the normal precedure of consent of patient, as in your daughter's situation, parental consent, in a critically urgent situation, which this was. Consent will be bypassed by a MD when the possibility of loss of life or limb is involved and time is of the essence to save a life or limb. Its called medical ethics, and that is why and how its used.

Sometimes a young baby's red blood cell formation is not fully developed enough to provide all the red blood cells her body needs, or if there is a problem with blood types between mother and daughter. These are the most common blood problems of new borns, besides jaundice.

Hope this helps a bit hun.

Good luck to you and her.

TC

Thanks, TC. I am aware of the critical situation. Like I said, it isn't so much that they gave her the blood. I understand that it was something that had to be done. What bothers me is that they spent the better part of the week watching her blood count, and didn't think to tell us that it was a concern, letting that bit of information slip through the cracks between our several visits and phone calls.

If it had been a true emergency, i.e. hematemesis or hematochezia, then I wouldn't be angry at them for not being able to tell me right away. But when it's a week-long process that they're watching, then I feel they could have at least mentioned it.

Thank you for the well-wishes. We anticipate her coming home in the next week or so.

Agree with you completely that the nurses should have explained to you their concerns about the little one's blood hbg and hct trending downward. They were remiss in communicating their/your concern hun. Most lab work is a trending on going concern because and is normally monitored on a daily of even more often basis.

I know as a critial care RN, adult type, I can get totally wrapped up in the doing and performing tasks without regard to communicating what I'm doing and why, because I have done it so many times. Whereas it may be the first time for family members. My problem with health care today pretty much. If folks think its bad now, wait till the current administration gets done doing what they want to health care.

It always wasn't like this back when I started as a nurse. We did have the time to make sure folks understood what was going on with them and/or their family members. Total holistic care was very important. Over the last ten years hospitals and the federal government have placed so much more administrative duties on nurses, the time to actually give bedside nursing has decreased because of the concern for more paper work, lowering staffing acurity levels to save money, and simpling overworking staff because of budget restraints, which we didn't have as little as 10-15 years ago.

Hun, if ya can hug your nurse, I am sure they are doing the best they can to provide a safe healing enviroment for your loved one the best they can. That is still their prime concern, a primary positive outcome for their patients.

The American public have been exposed to so many lies, bullshit, and inneuendo about the nursing profession via TV shows/movies that the public only knows what they see on tv and not what nursing really is, does, and the problems nursing really have because of these hollywood shows, which do not provide a true picture of nurses and what they really do. Nurses provide 24 7 patient care. with concern for their patients under their care, and most times nurses themselves want to be able to provide complete care for their patients and patient's families, they just ain't got the time. Gets off soap box. Sorry I kinda still get all verbose about what I use to be able to do, and what I simply do not have the time to do because of those that are a higer pay grade than me.

Anyhow, they day you bring your little one home, all of it will be worth while.

TC

I feel for ya, TC, I really do. Nurses and admin are some of the most underappreciated folks in the medical business, next to janitors. Every day, I thank the nurse who is in charge of Rachael's care for taking care of her. Sadly, the nurses seem surprised or confused when I thank them. But with anyone who helps me, I do thank them, even if it's "their job." Just because someone is paid for helping me doesn't mean they shouldn't have at least verbal thanks.

I had a specific beef with one nurse there, because she was obnoxious, pushy, and opinionated. But that has so little to do with anything... hehe.

The doctors... oh, I let them have it. I chewed on the attending so hard she needed an ass transplant. Ever since then, they've called me with important updates regarding Rachael's care. Even though it is routine, they've let me know about her eye exams and her head ultrasounds. Apparently she has some ROP, and a tiny brain bleed on the right. We expect her to need glasses later in life, and we don't expect the brain bleed to effect her in any serious manner.

Here is hoping things get better, not just for my baby and my situation, but for everybody.

hehehe U keep on the Doctors hun. The obnoxious nurse, write to her Department Director and tell her exactly what she did and how. Nurses like that one gives the rest of us a bad name, and we do not appreciate nor like it at all.

Most nurses get into the field for the ability to care for others during the healing process or dying process and not for the money entirely. There are some nurses who see nursing as a recession free no lay off and livable wage job. They perform tasks. Their care for the patient and patient's family is secondary to the tasks they perform instead of the other way around, if ya get what I mean. The latter always burn out because dealing with normal human body functions over an extended period of time can become quite shall we say yukkie.

Anyhow, as in every human endeavour there are good ones and those who aren't quite so good, but we seem to only hear about the one's that aren't so good.

You keep asking the questions of the doctors and the nurses. Write up the not so good ones with specifics to their appropriate Directors. And eventhough a good nurse may be embarrassed by you thanking him/her personally for their care, it warms their heart in a way that makes them and even better nurse.

Prayers and good wishes,

TC