My Sick Little Bug

Yesterday, Connor went to the doctor for a weight checkup only to discover that he hadn't gained any weight in a week. Given that this had been a problem that they had been monitoring, plus it being so close to the holidays, the doctor decided to refer us up to the hospital. Initially, Ian and I thought we were only going to be at the hospital for a couple hours with Connor. A couple hours turned into more than 24 hours. The doctors weren't sure if they felt something in his stomach, so they decided to keep him in overnight to observe him and ultrasound his belly in the morning.

In the mean time, they started him on new (and more intense) meds for reflux. They put him on the adult version of the reflux medicine he was already taking after each feed and added another medicine that he takes three times a day. After a few hours, we already noticed a difference. The doctors were unable to get a clear picture of his stomach during the ultrasound, but felt that nothing was there and decided to send him home...which Ian and I were happy about.

The little guy seems to be doing well and I look forward to him chunking up in the days to come!

Snug as a bug in a rug...all wrapped up in his hospital bed

My Hospital Stay

This is some of the monitor tape of the baby's heartbeat...I thought it was cool

I was going to write the entire story about my hospital stay, but there were so many strange things that went on that the blog was becoming ginormious, so I decided to just give the highlights:

First, I was in the hospital because of a kidney infection. I couldn't keep any fluids or medicines down (i.e. I kept vomiting) so I needed to be admitted.

During the process of being admitted (which took a total of 6 hours) I had to explain to about 100 different people what was wrong with me, even though they had my chart right in front of them. This was highly agitating.

I was in a four bed room. During my stay, I got to watch two women experience labor. This did NOTHING to alleviate my fears about giving birth! I am just trying to remind myself that women have been doing it since the beginning of time, so I can do it too.

The tea trolley came around twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. And, none of the mugs on the trolley matched. It kind of reminded me of the NCO (where I used to work, for you non-NCOers out there). I also thought, I bet they don't have tea trolleys in hospitals in the US!

I actually had a visitor in the hospital. My friend Meabh has an odd love for hospitals, so jumped at the chance to come see me.

Both sets of sheets on my bed had holes in them. Honestly, is the NHS hurting for money that bad?!?

I had to beg my way out of the hospital. After two nights, I was beyond bored and ready to go home. Plus, sitting in a bed all day isn't that comfortable. Well, the doctor actually wanted to keep me for another night because the bacteria in my culture wasn't done growing and they wanted to make sure I was on the right medicine. Honestly, is that really a reason to keep someone in the hospital?!? I was insistent enough that they finally let me go home.

Oh, and the best part...even though the food wasn't fabulous (well, actually I think Riley the dog eats better than I did while I was in there) and there were holes in the sheets, the entire stay was ABSOLUTELY FREE! Come on people...you gotta love socialized medicine for no bills at the end!