pt 2. Jesse Hospital (warning graphic pics)

I rubbed Jesse's back and over to her shoulder.....I immediately looked up and said to the nurse..

WHAT IS THIS???

Her shoulder felt like she had an adult prosthesis on. It was the size as mine and was as hard. I cautiously felt her arm down and it was as if I was touching a foreign object.

I remember nurses coming in and out and I know they knew immediately what happened. They started taking off the gauze around her wrist/arm. They call it a "no-no" and it's a wrap they put around her IV to keep young children from messing with it. If they do there is the chance for the fluid that would be going into her vein, to go into her arm tissue.

She struggled while they unwrapped the velcro cast and pulled out her IV. As soon as they were done she put her head on my chest and just crashed. Jesse fell so sound asleep and got so still that I kept checking to see if she was breathing.

They elevated her hand over my shoulder and put warm compresses around her arm. I glanced down to her hand and started to hyperventilate. Ron told me to breathe deep and got me water. From the tips of her fingers to past her shoulder.....was so completely tight and bloated. It was grotesque. (The pic does not show completely just how big her arm was...but you can see as it goes up how large it is for a 10 month old)

They called for a dr. and told us he was on his way. We were told the only thing we could do right then was to try to keep her arm up so the body could absorb the fluid. She had cuts in her arm where the tape was from the pressure, and also the natural creasing at her wrist and elbow.

We immediately wondered how could we not have known?? The whole night....she was arching her back and raising her arm, trying to tell us......and we didn't do anything.

We soon found out, this was hardly our fault. Protocol is to check a child's IV every other hour. We've since been told that for a baby, every hour because they are constantly moving about.

The dr. came and said it would be a wait and see approach. There was not much they could do about it now and the damage would be unknown. There was something called compartmentalizing but they were going to hold off on it for the time.
(We later found out that meant they would cut her arm from wrist to shoulder to release the fluid)

I rocked her in the chair praying to God that she would be ok. We were so uncertain as to what her outcome would be. I was sad and Ron grew increasingly angry. How could this have happened? We had been up with her all night and never saw the nurse check under her cast to feel for any pressure or bloating. The leaking we think went on for about 12 hours or more.

She woke up about 4 hours later and was in somewhat of a better mood. I'm sure partially from the relief and also having at least one of the wires out of her. She was still hooked up for blood pressure, heart monitor, and oxygen.

We called our families and let them know what was going on. Ron's sister is a nurse and she was extremely upset at the negligence of something that is so easy to catch. Everyone was in disbelief as to how this could have happened. Her respiratory issues fell behind her hand.

Ron and I would both let tears out at different points when we got a good glance at her arm. I tried not to look at it but it was hard because we had to hold it up. Slowly, the top of her arm started to look better. It got progressively smaller and they told us the hand would take the longest to heal.

They told us the blistering would start soon and that it would be like 2nd degree burns. We were feeling better about it just being a cosmetic issue and less of an impairment of her ability to move or feel. We would go for walks around the floor to keep her occupied and I couldn't help but feel so lucky as we saw some of the other children there. Some had been there for months and had no discharge date in sight. A few were in somewhat of a vegetable state and would most likely be returning if they got to go home.

Ron's family came in from LA on Friday and that was a good distraction. We continued to talk with the plastic surgeon and the orthopedic Dr. The blistering to them was looking good and even though it was really hard to look at, it was all relative from where we had been.

We were lucky to have really good nurses after our experience and in their own way each expressed how sorry they were that this happened. They appeared mad and angry that one of their own could have let this slip by.

We were discharged Saturday with a 3 extra day stay because of the infiltration. We got the instructions on how to dress it and it became very interesting to attempt when Ron was back on the road. Changing it and looking how it had changed, I still hoped she would get back that precious skin I had grown to love.

A few weeks later the scab fell off on the gauze and underneath revealed a jagged looking separation and some discoloration. It has become my beautiful reminder of how much she has healed and how lucky we are.

I got another reminder in the mail last week.....a hospital bill for a four day stay.

I wish I could say that was the last hospital we've seen....but we just got out of Children's ICU this week. I'll get that blog started tonight...