Wow

In getting our taxes ready (you can count medical mileage), Danny and I figured out that during Sara's and my hospital stays we drove at least 12,000 miles!!!! 3 zeros at the end!

Wow.

Place Your Bets

Ok.....so more like place your guesses. The word "bet" seems to imply that if you win you get a prize. Yeah.... We all know how on top of things I am, so I don't want to leave another person hanging. (And yes, Priscilla and Tara I am aware that you are anxiously awaiting your prizes. They will come...eventually. Just don't hold your breath. They are in my house. The prizes just seem to lazy to leave. I'll have to kick them out soon.)

Danny & I are still awaiting Sara's final bill from her hospital experience. "Experience" sounds more fun, doesn't it? So I'm curious, what do you think it might be? I will give you a little background to help you form a decision.

-My hospital bill for basically just sitting on my butt for almost 6 weeks, a few tests, and giving birth was around $119,000.

-With the few partial statements that have trickled in, Sara's bill is up to at least $300,000. (Mind you, the statements barely cover anything.

-Sara was in the NICU from October 1, 2009 until January 15, 2010. Danny & I once read in an OLDER book that a bed in the NICU could run around $2000 a day!!!!

-For at least 2 weeks, she was on a ventilator. This is the most intensive breathing aid. (She wasn't breathing on her own.)

-What was written on her discharge papers as her "discharge diagnosis"(everything she had or experienced):

-ASD (basically a hole in the heart)

-prematurity (30 weeks)

-Suspected NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis, literally means "death of tissue" and "inflammation to the small and large intestines" This was NOT fun thinking she might have it. The small progress she was making at the time was set back pretty far.)

-anemia

-apnea of prematurity (short episodes of stopped breathing)

-unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Don't you love medical terms. To put it simply: jaundice)

-Retinopathy of prematurity (potentially blinding eye disorder)

-suspected sepsis

-apnea and bradycardia, Respiratory Distress Syndrome

-massive reflux (They finally thought Sara might have bad acid reflux after they tried to discharge her twice & on both those days she decided she didn't want to breathe anymore. I believe they said around 7% would be a high amount of acid reflux occurence. Sara had 50%.)

-Coxsackie/Rhinovirus infections (hand, foot & mouth disease and the common cold, When she had these, we have to dress up like doctors with the mask, gown, & gloves. I was quite amused by playing dress up.)

-Sara had numerous tests including ultrasounds, echocardiograms, Xrays. She had to have 2 spinal taps. I lost count of how many IVs she had. Remember, they would charge for every material they used on her. One time, it took them at least 5 times to get an IV in. Grumble, grumble.....

-Finally, due to Sara's acid reflux causing "life-ENDING episodes" she had to have surgery to basically wrap the stomach around the esophagus to prevent acid from coming up. While they were there, they also fixed her umbilical hernia.

So, do you have a guess? Did you get lost in all of that? Sorry it was so long but she was in there for a LONG time and rest assured I know I am forgetting some stuff.

What do you think?

PS We have occasionally received notices of how much the doctors would charge to look at her for about 2 seconds to 10 minutes. These would range from around $250 to $1800. Yes, you read that correctly. :)

Sara's Birth

I have been ultra lazy in posting this. Sara turned 5 months old yesterday (3 months next week with her corrected age). Anyhoo. Like I said before, everyone thought I was going to give birth that week at 25 weeks. If not, they would let me sit there and stay pregnant until I was 34 weeks along then induce me unless of course something went wrong. That would have meant 9 weeks of hospital bed rest!!!!! That would have been Oct 27. I went into the hospital on August 25. That didn't happen. I sat and sat and sat. After 5 weeks of sitting there, I remember being really excited about reaching 30 weeks gestation. I'll be nice and withhold some info here. The next day I started exhibiting a few more signs that I might go into labor. The docs didn't believe it was anything. I was excited because I had reached that day which meant Sara would be born in October. I had remained pregnant throughout all of September. On October 1, I became really uncomfortable. I sent Danny a text saying I was having some Braxton-Hicks contractions but I thought it wasn't anything. (He worked at least 1/2 hour away). His parents just happened to come into town that day and my mom was here as well.

All afternoon I was really uncomfortable but what pregnant lady isn't at some point. I had Danny go downstairs and get my the really good potato soup since I wanted to feel better and you can only eat hospital room food for so long. (They had two separate kitchens. Stupid.) I started having contractions around 7 that night. I had had an IV in off and on for the last 5 weeks so they had taken it out a few days before to give me a rest. That night they tried to put in another one because of the contractions but the veins kept blowing. They said nothing was going to happen so they didn't try again. After her birth, I was SO happy that I hadn't been hooked up to an IV. I had been on IVs there for so long that I actually became allergic to the tape. The contractions became so uncomfortable and intense so quickly that I wasn't able to eat my soup or watch "The Mentalist" (I was mad b/c it was one of my favorite shows.). I told them I wanted drugs. Yes, I'm weak and I'm proud of it. With Noah I was only in labor for 3 1/2 hrs and my whole family is quick so I knew I needed them right then. They were slow and finally gave me Percoset (?sp?). Danny tells me that's a pretty good drug but it did NADA. Zip. They checked to see if I was dilated and I was only around 1 cm. That convinced them they could be even slower in getting me stronger drugs. I know they can only go with what they see but I think doctors need to listen to women more. We KNOW what is going on with our body. Do NOT argue with a lady in labor.

Of course, I all of a sudden wanted to push. Danny ran for the nurse. They came not believing me so they went to check me again. The resident doc said she couldn't tell how dilated I was. The other doc checked and well what do you know...They couldn't see because there was a head there!!! Chaos ensued.

Did I forget to mention that I was on the 7th floor and labor and delivery and the NICU was on the 8th floor? I wasn't allowed to push. Hmmpph. Imagine this (especially you moms that know the feeling). They had to wheel my actual bed all the way down the hall, up the elevator, had to pause to make the construction workers get out of the way!!!!, had to wheel me in, transfer me to another bed (ARE YOU KIDDING ME? MOVE WHEN I WANT TO PUSH! AARGH!), get things set up and get the NICU nurses there all the while I was NOT allowed to push. Needless to say, I had to close my eyes and pretend it wasn't happening. No drugs and a few minutes later Sara was born. This labor duration was about the same as Noah's. They whisked her away. They finally had to just stab two needles into my leg with pitocin (to help with final contractions) and with morphin. I'm weird and I was actually amused by this because it reminded me of those doctor shows that are so over-dramatic and unrealistic. I LOVE morphin!! I don't know if it was my body already knew how to handle birth or I just do so well with morphin, but I felt peachy after giving birth. I had no problem recovering.

After they fixed me up, they finally took me to the NICU and I finally got to see Sara for the first time an hour after her birth. I wasn't able to hold her for the first time until she was 5 days old. That was such a weird feeling to be so detached from your baby like that. She weighed a huge 3 lbs 5 oz and 15 in long at 30 weeks and 2 days gestation. I can only imagine what weight she might have been if she was term because Noah was only 6 lb 9 oz at term. That 5 1/2 weeks truly helped her. She didn't breathe on her own for a while and she had a million cords and IVs hooked up to her but over all she was wonderful. Labor was not. :) I would still see those docs in the halls later on and I would grumble in my head while I would smile at them.