I was looking forward to our last day in the NICU. Carol was Henry's day nurse. She thought that his sutures looked fine. She was feeding Henry when I arrived. She said that she hadn't had the opportunity to feed him much before (me or my family is there during the day to do the honors).
I discovered that someone had turned up the ringer on the telephone in the hallway near the sink across from Henry's room. This ringer is LOUD. It is on the same line as the telephone as the front desk. Because no single personnel is actually stationed near the phone in the hallway, the ringer on the telephone serves no necessary purpose other than to keep sick babies awake. The ringer is set at what I would guess is around 120 decibels (babies can't get into deep sleep with noise around 55 decibels). I have seen this ringer startle my son. When we first moved to the isolation room, Karin had the ringer turned off in the hallway. No problems. Then, Tuesday, someone turned it on (who cares if sick and fragile babies can't sleep). Tuesday night, Jeff asked one of the staff members to turn it off (the staff member said that it was impossible to turn the ringer off a single phone without turning all the ringers off...um, this goes down on the list of "what an idiot" statements). I get frustrated when people make up **** because they don't want to take the time to figure things out. I ended up talking to the person at the front desk. The gal tried to give me the same crap. I said a bit sarcastically, "Wow, that's interesting. Karin turned it off three weeks ago. Am I to understand that the NICU hadn't received any phone calls during those three weeks?" At this point, she realized the flaw in her logic but didn't know how to fix the phone, so she unplugged it from the wall.
Long story short, I was really frustrated that the super loud phone was turned back on. Again, I don't understand what folks don't get about keeping unnecessary noise to a minimum because sleep is crucial to babies' health (not just my son, but all babies). I tried getting various staff members to turn it off. They said it couldn't be done (it is a telephone, not a space shuttle). I called Jeff (wasn't supposed to use my cell phone in the NICU, but I was at least 50 feet from the nearest high frequency oscillator--the ventilator that goes off if a cell phone is 3 feet near it) and told him to bring a hammer. I'd been pretty patient and civil up until this point about my frustrations. By nature, I'm fairly reserved and measured with others (I'm told that I have a good poker face), but I don't handle laziness or stupidity well (e.g, I get pretty blunt with students when they say dumb things like, "I can't believe you have us read so much. We had to read like two books before a test."). And, I'm not patient by nature (I work really hard at patience because I know it is not one of my strengths). Once I've hit my tolerance level, I can be rather abrupt in demeanor. I told Jeff to bring a hammer so that I could smash the fill-in-the blank, fill-in-the blank telephone to fill-in-the blank, fill-in-the blank pieces because the fill-in-the blank staff were being fill-in-the blanks. In the end, I tracked down Melissa Perillo (the nurse manager). I explained the problem more diplomatically than when I discussed it with Jeff. She had it turned off in a matter of minutes. It is rather absurd that it takes an administrator to get a telephone ringer turned down. At least, I didn't need to use the hammer after all.
I assume that now we've left the NICU, the telephone ringer will be turned on full blast. Maybe someone will come to their senses and try to protect the babies that remain in the NICU. The telephone is located in an area where it is also disturbing to some of the Pod Two babies. But someone else will have to take up that fight.
Because Henry came home on oxygen and an apnea monitor, we had to go through monitor and CPR training on Wednesday night with Kathy, a pulmonary nurse who we'll be seeing a lot of over the next few months. Jeff, my parents, my sister Erin, brother-in-law Brian, and I were trained on the equipment. There were two dolls, so we practiced CPR and choking in pairs. Jeff and I went first. Then, Erin and Brian went. And then, my parents took their turn. We ended the training by practicing the techniques for helping a child who is choking. As my parents practiced, the leg fell of the doll my mom was using. Then, less than a minute later, a leg fell off my dad's doll. So, they finished their trial with legless dolls. It was rather amusing and horrifying at the same time.
It was about 9PM by the time we finished with our training (a three-hour class). Jeff and I then began our rooming-in. Holly was Henry's evening nurse. She traded days with someone else. We were pleased that she was Henry's last evening nurse. She weighed Henry at 2180 grams. His head circumference was a little smaller than that reported on Sunday. His hematocrit was 30.5.
Henry got wound up during the night. Holly showed us some techniques to calm him down. Holly said that when the little ones yell like Henry did, it meant that they were stronger and no longer needed to be in the NICU. I concur that Henry was ready to come home. As for me and Jeff, well...that's another story. We were really exhausted and stayed up most of the night (Wednesday). And then we were up almost all night during his first night home. Not to mention not getting much sleeping during his surgery days and recovery days.
Henry's going to be a hard one to keep up with. Joyce warned me a few weeks ago that Henry is going to be a handful. She pointed out that he's rather energetic for an anemic baby. Anemia usually makes babies lethargic. If the past month is representative of what Henry is like lethargic, just imagine what he's going to be like when his hematocrit is normal!!!
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