We welcomed Mr. Caden John Reffell Daniels on September 29, 2009, at 2:46 pm. He was 2 weeks early, but still weighed in at a hefty 8lbs 5oz. Also notable at his birth (by c-section I might add) was that a large part of his upper body was covered in a purple-red birthmark-including his back, chest, right neck and entire right arm. His right arm/hand was also somewhat larger and more swollen than the left: something we were not aware of prior to the birth because the ultrasounds didn't pick it up. We were obviously pretty shocked and concerned, and the pediatrician-on-call was paged to the operating room. After Caden was checked out by the doctor and our midwife, Dave (my husband) was able to take him to the recovery room where family and friends were waiting to greet him, while I stayed behind to get cleaned up-a very weird process when you are frozen from the chest down (I recall thinking "ew, who's floppy leg is the nurse moving around and cleaning"...it was mine.). This 15 minutes or so were also very frustrating as I had to make small talk with the nurses, all the while thinking and panicking about my new baby who obviously had something different about him. I guess when I think about it the nurses were probably the ones trying to keep me distracted with small talk because it was apparent that they too were concerned.
When I finally got to the recovery room I got to hold Caden for the first time, and I was instantly in love...his little pout, how he was quietly looking around and scoping out the room (or likely just blinded by the lights :)), and the way he just knew that he was hungry and he was gonna try and get some food dammit!! The rest of those first few hours is a bit of a blur, but at some point the pediatrician came and told us he'd be making a referral to Sick Kids dermatology for the birth mark/swelling...he also let us know that Caden was otherwise healthy, and gave us some information on what he guessed was the concern. He felt that given the symptoms, Caden likely has "Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome" or KTS for short. This condition however would have to be diagnosed after some investigation at Sick Kids, including an MRI. He assured us that this follow up was not urgent as it is not considered life threatening, but that he would begin the referral process right away.
I will mention here that this pediatrician had a terrible bedside manner, and definitely made things more stressful in the operating room with his impatient/sarcastic answers to our rightfully worried questions, but we never have to deal with him again, so that's just water under the bridge...Looking back on it, I think we were really able to push aside our worries about Caden's condition in those first few days in the hospital, and instead focus on what an amazing little guy he was-going through the motions familiar to any new parent. Because of the c-section, I was essentially useless-only good for one thing of course-food production! Dave was amazing in those first days (oh ya, and still is) changing every diaper, getting up every time Caden or I needed something, sleeping on chairs for 4 nights in a row, advocating for me as I had my meltdowns due to insufficient pain meds...
Oooooh, which brings me to my little rant: As a nurse I am familiar with hospitals, operations, pain, medications blah, blah, blah. I couldn't believe how much one of my nurses made me feel like a drug seeker because I was asking for stronger pain medication after having ABDOMINAL SURGERY...I've seen patients on self-controlled pain pumps for what I would imagine to be a similar amount of pain, and all I get for the first day post-op is codeine and an extra strength tylenol!!! And to top it all off, the nurse gave me a half dose of the codeine to start me off and "see how it worked"-it didn't-so when I asked for more I was told that I can only have that medication every four hours. Queue the meltdown...
Oh, and another thing, since I'm a nurse I see the value in letting nursing students help in my care, but that doesn't mean I don't mind having a catheter put in the wrong hole...
Anyway, I've pretty much recovered from the delivery, and now I'm almost 6 months into motherhood, and I love it. So much has happened in the past few months, and I feel like Caden is growing so fast-sometimes I look at him and he seems like such a little boy now, which makes me both happy and sad at the same time :) I just want to take him all in and not miss a thing and I feel it speeding by, before I know it I'll be finishing my maternity leave...
I guess that'll be it for tonight, I'm missing out on precious sleep as the baby has been asleep for over an hour. In my next entry I hope to catch you up on where we're at as far as the Sick Kids stuff, and some of the awesome milestones Caden's had. But one last thing before I go...today is St. Patrick's Day, and it is also the 5 year anniversary of my Dad's passing. I can't help but think of what life would be like if he were still here, especially to see his first grandson. I think he would be in love with him, and I think Caden would melt his heart every day by flashing him one of his gorgeous full-face smiles...
No comments:
Post a Comment