2001
| October 20, 2001
Originally, I was to do the 48-hour kid tied to my hip with a portable IV LAST WEEK. But his liver count went up so it was moved. I had to go to an off-site this week. This means that I had to leave him, portable IV and all. This is the day after the van dropped its power steering. I had made arrangements for my older son to take the younger one in for a blood test and IV bag change. If the bag runs out, it beeps. Softly. Thursday night it had beeped at 2:30 AM. I had rolled over a few times wondering what that noise was. Rolling over being difficult because there was this big lump sleeping in my bed. My younger son. I finally woke up with a start and rced for the pump. Air in line. Panic. Where's the 24-hour number? (missing) Page the hospital. Push hold and run to clear the pump over and over. Got them on the line - by now both my son and I are UP. I had to be walked thru taking the little pump apart and holding the strip up ("You know where you put the IV tubes?" "No. The nurse does that." "well, pop those little buttons at the top and open and pull out the strip.") Whack it gently. Ever notice that you fix things in the hospital by whacking them? Whack the needle, Whack the baby, Whack the IV pump. OK. We did that. Three times. Four times. Peace. Like I slept. I left early. And my older son was to arrive after my departure. I had emailed him. The schedule was so messed up that he needed to get him to the hospital at noon. Not 10AM. Turns out, he didn't read his email. He got there early. They made the hospital early. Also turns out that the IV bag was too full - it was a faulty pump. They replaced it. I learned this later. But first. At the offsite - I was incommunicado. And - a nervous wreck. I don't like to be away from my baby at critical times. I don't like to be out of reach. I don't like being far away - and I was a good 1 h our drive away down a dirt road at a hostile. But wait. I had a phone card! I got to call out. About 11:30. No one home. This is or is not a good thing. Because I had not know that they had left at the crack of dawn and were, in fact, having breakfast in the Stanford mall. By 12:15 AM I am in a panic - because if the pump beeps for 30 minutes, then it ceases and my younger son's port will clog up. And that means surgery. On a kid that is not currently doing well on anesthesia. I was asked. "Gee, one is 25 and the other one 20, can you trust them to get there?" "No! Because the 25-yr-old claims that he's going on 5. And the 20 yr-old can't drive. And even if he could, the van has no power steering." I finally got out to the hospital, on the phone card. Yep. they were there. I was, by this time stressed out. I had not known how much. I was shaking. Relief. It was the first time I could feel the effect. Like a balloon had popped. (My kids berate me for this now.) I had lunch. Ribs. Potato salad. And I had a piece of chocolate cake. I had earned it. Oh yes, later that night, when it was my turn to take him in for a bag change, the new pump lost its batteries. Fortunately, it was in the nurse's hands at the time. The only side-effect? Kid needs to drink a lot of liquid. I can deal with that. |
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