Oh the NICU was so fun. One of my patients was born with a messed up GI and GU system. There are fistulas (permanent abnormal passageway between two organs in the body or between an organ and the exterior of the body) within her GI tract and her gastrouterine tract. Feces sometimes come out of her urethra, GI tract doesn't end with her rectum, and everything is just getting all mixed up. She was actually full term, but at 3 months old she only weighs 6 lbs.
The nurse I was with was very fun to work with. Actually, pretty much every nurse I have worked with at Primary Children's is awesome. She showed me around the whole unit, including the very high risk babies. One baby was on an oscillator (similar to a ventilator that mechanically pumps air into the lungs) and it was getting 280 respirations a minute!! That is INSANE. Babies will have respirations of 40-80 breaths per minute usually. This baby was in a glass box, but I'm not sure what exactly was wrong with her. Another baby I passed by had about 8 IV pumps going and doctors were all around doing a procedure on it. It was kind of sad, but the things you see in the NICU are so unique and crazy because evolving genetics changes up every situation.
My nurse informed me that admitting diagnoses' come in clumps. Meaning that sometimes they will have a whole bunch of cleft lip babies, or a bunch of babies with pneumonia. So what is the current trend in this NICU right now? Ambiguous genitalia and short gut syndrome. The Attending investigating the ambiguous genitalia can only find that the relation is young mothers not getting enough antioxidants. One baby that was currently there unfortunately only had enough 'stuff' to surgically become a girl, but genetically he is a boy. Sad, sad news for the parents, and it really makes me view transgender/homosexual populations differently. Because really, you don't know what is going on with them. Many times I believe it is not a choice, just unfortunate genetics.
The string of short gut babies is pretty self explanatory. I didn't hear the theory behind the recent occurrence, but these babies just have a shorter gut and will grow up smaller then 'normal' babies because they don't have as much intestine to absorb nutrients.
My last day in Pediatrics was supposed to only be 3.5 hours long, and then my clinical group was going to go out for breakfast. Unfortunately, 2 hours into my clinicals I started seeing spots. Pretty soon, I could only see out of the upper right corner of my eye, and it became pretty apparent that I couldn't walk straight, administer medications, or hardly talk without sounding or looking funny. The rooms started sparkling (not in a good way), and I realized this was a full blown aura. Ughhhh. Why now? Why in public? I told my nurse about it and how my impending migraine was probably 20 minutes away now, and I was walked to a couch in the lobby. Um, embarassing! I started feeling really anxious and freaking out because it was the worst aura I've had. Luckily, I usually get a span of 20 minutes between the aura and a full blown migraine, so I cautiously walked to my car and drove home. Maybe not the smartest thing, but I had to get out of there. I medicated myself, and slept for a few hours, and luckily it was over. I just started getting migraines since starting nursing school which is very annoying, and I'm not even particularly stressed, so what gives?! I guess I will just have to deal.
1 comment:
After having two babies in the NICU I feel it is a very special place with special nurses. I know all about fistulas. Andrew had a tracheal esophogeal fistula (TEF) and miraculously continues to do great. You'd never know he had the complications at birth that he did.
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