That afternoon Kasey woke up and started to cough up thick,
black mucus. I called the nurse again and again I was told
that "babies do that" and was accused this time of starving
my son. I was so angry. 12 hours after his birth he still
hadn't had anything to eat so I went off in search of a
different nurse and at the nursing station and found the
resident doctor. She took one look at Kasey's feet (they
were blue) and took him into the ICN (Intermediate Care
Nursery). There they put him on a warming table and
attached heart monitors to his chest and an oxygen
monitor to his foot. His oxygen saturation was at 62%.
They consider 97% acceptable.
The hospital wanted to watch him overnight and in the morning
when I returned he was still having problems so they x-rayed
him they found out he had pnemonia. I was told he would need
IV medication in an incubator for the next 5 days. I was
devistated. The 5 days came and went slowly. I was not allowed
to take him out of his incubator except to feed him and he was
so pale and small.
After the 5 days were up he was x-rayed again and this time
they found the pnemonia was gone, but due to stress his right
lung had collapsed. Since he was in an intermediate care
nursery they had to transfer him to another hospital because
they could not handle such a high-needs baby. February 28,
2001, he ended up in the children's hospital NICU (Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit).
The first night at the NICU was a little frightening for
me. This was the first night I didn't stay with Kasey and
it was a little hard to leave. The next morning the nurses
decided Kasey would be best in an open basinet so he was taken
out of his incubator. The NICU was a great facility with
wonderful nurses. I was happy because i was allowed to hold
Kasey as much as i wanted.
Kasey stayed there for another 2 weeks. During this time he
got so much better. After the first week his collapsed lung
healed but it wasn't for another week that he cleared up and
saturated enough oxygen to come home.
Kasey came home on March 16, 2001. he was on medication to
help with his oxygen saturation but I didn't mind. I was
just glad to have my little boy home. He was 8 lbs, 15ozs.
Just one final update on this story. On June 26, 2001 Kasey
went in to have a sweat-chloride test done. It was discovered
that he DOES NOT have cystic fibrosis. What a relief.
We have yet to test him for alergies but he is getting
progressivly better and it is not even a concern for us
anymore. It has now been determined that his problems
were caused by immature lungs and shallow breathing.
November 6 2004 - Kasey's little brother was in the hospital
the last few days with croup and Kasey wanted his oxygen levels
checked with "the red light". He was at 99 percent. Yay!