I wouldn't wish what we've just experienced on anyone. The nurses and doctors were great, but living in the hospital with your child isn't any fun. The hardest part was sleeping since Jonathan insisted on being held during the night. I'd say the next hardest part was not being in control of caring for your child. For example, every time he needed to eat we had to track down the nurse to get his formula prepared. Obviously, these are the practical issues in addition to the overall stress of not knowing, thinking and talking through issues incessantly, and waiting to find out what or if anything was wrong with him.
In the end everything checked out. It took him over a week in the hospital to recover from whatever bug he caught. It must have been nasty. We never did find out what made him sick, but it sure was one whopper of a virus and/or bacteria. The other week or so in the hospital was spent addressing his poor weight gain and appetite. Again, all tests came back normal so we just opted for an additional feeding "insurance policy" with the button.
My mission when I arrived at the hospital this morning was to get us sent home. I knew that there probably wasn't a medical reason to keep us any longer, so it was up to me to coordinate everything. Tip number one is: nurses don't make any of the decisions. They are well versed (and reminded often) that they are there to do what the doctor tells them to do. I spent most of my effort talking to them so that we could get all the specialists that needed to visit us on the schedule for today. Since we have been working with a pediatrician, a gastroenterologist, and a surgeon, I also had to find out who had the authority to release us. At different stages of our visit each doctor was handling our case depending on what was going on. For most of the day, the nurses led me to believe that our surgeon needed to release us. I talked to the pediatrician and gastroenterologist and they both agreed there was no reason to keep us. The gastroenterologist then called the surgeon who told him he didn't need to see us before we left. So, the case was back to (i.e. assigned to) the gastroenterologist. It's funny how much they all DON'T talk to each other. I guess they are too busy with patients and no one is really there to coordinate these administrative sort of things. He had the authority and so released us. He called in the prescriptions to be filled. Before we left, since I never heard where the scripts were filled, I asked the nurse's station. I don't ever recall giving him our pharmacy location. Long story short, we never did find out where the prescription was sent. The nurses were able to get the pediatrician instead to call in the scripts for us at our pharmacy. The lesson of this story is that you have to be personally involved at least to a point where you can ensure things are working smoothly. Obviously, I'm not a doctor and wouldn't recommend acting like one in the hospital...but, being a passive patient (or parent) and assuming everything is working properly can be just as bad.
This last day shouldn't give you the wrong impression. Overall, things went great. Sometimes you just have to grease the wheels to get what you want. What matters is we're home now - healthy, prepared, and informed. These two weeks have taken their toll on Stacey and my Mom. Both of them are sick. At least now we can all sleep and recover in our own beds.
