Week 37 - Hospital

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The stay in the hospital

20:30 (8:30pm) - Before I was brought over to the ICU, I was transported to the NICU where Bram was, you can see some photo's of that too. In the meantime a few polaroid photo's were made, which I carried with me like a treasure and everybody had to have a look at them, if they wanted to or not. Fun detail (to me at least): I was so influenced by all the medicine I had been administered that I did not realise who had already had a look and who had not. Some people have been my victim for a couple of times because of that.

June 4th, 2001 - On Monday afternoon, after 24 hours on ICU, I was allowed to the regular maternal ward, even though I still was extremely weak. I there got a room for myself, which was very convenient. This way we could be together, just the 3 of us. Bram was allowed to room in from Tuesday, when he was released from NICU. Only every once in a while he had to be taken to the nursery where the nurses examined him, a standard procedure while babies are hospitalised.

As soon as I arrived at the maternity ward, I was taken to Bram in a wheelchair. Bram had to stay in the NICU a little bit longer, because a few examinations had to be done before they could release him. When I had been honest I would have admitted that I really was too sick to be taken there, but I had such a strong urge to hold him a bit and at least see him, that this won the battle. Quite an extraordinary thing, this motherhood thing. In a way a little miracle by mother nature on itself. After my visit to Bram Erik took me to the labour division, where I had entered the hospital. Just to show the nurses there that I was doing rather well. The nurse that had trained us in the prenatal course was there too and she was pretty shocked, she had heard the story of collegues. She had been on call while I was having the false alarm.

When I was back in my room, I got a strong painmedication, because I had to rest, if I wanted so or not and being honest to myself, I wanted to by then. Erik stayed for a long time that night. A few weeks later I learned that he had hardly rested during that week, because he'd get home really late at night, worked on the website, phoned and emailed, and slept a bit. This to be awakened by the phone that would ring quite early again. He also took care of our cats and of course was in a rush to get to the hospital, where he would have been allowed to stay 24/7 if he would have wanted so.

June 5th, 2001 - On Tuesday we got some visitors: Michael-Dennis, Ina and Coreen. That of course was very comforting, and nice, because from the very beginning we are so very proud of our little man, as new parents should be. On Wednessday we also got visitors, two collegues of Erik came by: Abel-Jan and Alex.

For us it was very comforting that these people came by, we could talk a bit about what had happened and it was a nice change too, to see some other people than the medical staff. Also we have rested a lot and loads of specialists have visited: a few gynaecologists, a gastoenterologist, dieticians, a geneticist and of course all the nurses. If we look back, we saw quite a few people then.

We also think we have experienced a positive difference with Dutch hospitals. Where in the Netherlands they are so very understaffed that the nursers hardly have time to do their medical work, they here have a lot of people. Because there are quite a few nurses, they have time to talk to you, even when on duty and if you need some extra help, they can give it to you. Because of this the atmosphere is very relaxed and you notice that the nurses are very committed to their jobs. One nurse has even made time to make me several cups of tea and chat with me when I was having a difficult night. Another nurse from the NICU took Bram to visit me when her shift was done, because she felt so bad that I could not have him with me. Also there are a lot of volonteers working in the hospital. They do some chores so that the nurses have even more time to do their job.

Here you have in the hospital a rather intensive help in taking care for your baby. This is because in contrary to in the Netherlands this is the basic opportunity to get hints in how to care for your newborn. Next to this I had a few more examinations than usual, because my liver and kidney-function needed close watch. At a certain point I was completely black and blue because they had to check my blood so often. Each day a gynaecologist and the gestoentorologist and a pediatrician have been visiting. This was for examinations, explanations and support. We feel this all was very good. We heard the experiences of the gynaecologists and that made quite an impression on us. Of course we had realised on Sunday that things were completely out of normal, but it was a big deal to hear that their experience with me as a patient diagnosed with AFLP was unique in the sense that in the first place I had survived, probably would not need a liver transplant and also Bram is alive.

We also spoke to a few specialists who could inform us about Bram's condition and what we would have to take into account regarding his development. It was clear very quickly that there was nothing we could have done to cause his Down Syndrome and that it can not be cured. We are not more than usual at risk for having a baby with Down Syndrome (chances do get higher when you are older, but we are still young). This was just bad luck, chance of nature. For Bram's development it will have some impact of course, but we won't know in which severity or anything for a while. This is a developmental disorder, so also the 'less normal' part will develop.

I got a little better each day. I could walk better, used less pain medication and eventually got to choose if I wanted to go home on Friday or wanted to stay for some more time. Usually you'll be discharged from the hospital 4 nights after the c-section. Because I had the feeling that I would be most comfortable at home, I chose to go home, even though I was not completely sure if that was the best choice. It was very comforting that on the Monday after this a nurse would be visiting to check on both me and Bram. We ended up going home on Friday afternoon.

Being home turned out the best way to feel better very quickly.

Next: Breastfeeding.