Thanks to some very mediocre residents (whose primary qualities were overdeveloped egos and underdeveloped knowledge/experience), the first week Thompson was in the hospital was a whole lot of going around in circles. The reason he was admitted to the hospital was because he was breathing too rapidly and his oxygen saturation was too low. The pediatrician assumed it was a virus, but didn't want to just send him home on oxygen until he knew for sure. The doctors at the hospital assumed the same thing, and thought he would just need to be on oxygen for a few days until the respiratory infection cleared up.
As the days passed and he continued to rely on the oxygen, they worried something else was going on since he wasn't getting any better. Because of his blood sugar problems, Thompson had been on a medication to lower his insulin levels, which could also have the side effect of fluid retention. They started to look at his heart and lungs for swelling that might be the cause of the breathing problems. But then they told us there was no fluid in his lungs and his heart looked fine. The residents on his case went back to a respiratory infection - despite the fact that the day before they were telling me it couldn't be a virus because he wasn't getting any better. And they told me they just wanted to send him home on oxygen, hoping it would resolve, not knowing what it even was.
This is what frustrates me about the majority of doctors and makes me very, very grateful for the few truly good ones. It seems easiest for doctors to take the band-aid approach to complicated cases. When our pediatrician (who is one of those exceptional doctors) had him admitted, he specifically told us he could just give us oxygen to take home with us, but there was no reason a newborn should be on oxygen and he wasn't going to do that unless he knew why Thompson needed it.
I think there is nothing more frustrating than knowing something is wrong with your child, but not knowing what it is. Everything the doctors had said to us just didn't make sense and didn't seem right. Teaching hospitals have their advantages, but after a week of getting nowhere with the residents, we finally asked to just work with the attending directly. The day after we did this, the attending called our pediatrician to set up a plan finally. Our pediatrician suggested calling a pulmonologist for a consult. This was the single greatest and most logical idea that we had heard since we had been there. Why it took so long to decide to bring a lung doctor in to see a baby who was having problems breathing is beyond me.
The pulmonologist who came was one of those rare, amazingly good doctors. I loved that little Indian man. He came in, took the most thorough history of any of the doctors we had seen there, and then in stepped us through his thoughts on the case. Although we had been told that all the tests run on Thompson had been normal, this doctor showed us subtle abnormalities that combined with his symptoms suggested that our little guy was actually leaking fluid into his lungs because of swelling. He told us he needed to get off the medicine and be given diuretics to get rid of all the edema. After he left Trevor and I were so relieved. We felt so good about this diagnosis, and so grateful that this doctor figured it out before it got any worse.
As soon as he started the diuretics and weaned off his medicine, his breathing problems resolved completely and he was out of the hospital in a few days. We didn't know how his glucose levels would be or if he would be able to tolerate coming off of the medication, but he did great and has not had a single problem yet. He seems to have completely outgrown the hypoglycemia and stopping the medication stopped the fluid retention issues as well. Looking back at pictures, we can't believe how puffy he actually looked when he was on the medicine compared to now. We kept telling the doctors he looked a little swollen to us, but they told us it wasn't bad and that he was fine. Although I am annoyed at how long it took things to start happening, we our so glad we trusted our instincts and pushed his doctors to find an answer.
These last 7 weeks have been nothing like we expected. Things could have been so much worse, but we had no idea how many bumps there would be along the way to getting a healthy baby. We are so thankful that for the most part, Thompson is a healthy and normal baby. A little small still for his age, but growing like crazy. If there is one thing this kid has always been good at, its eating and gaining weight. He is 8.5 lbs. and seems so big compared to when he was born. By the way, I can't even imagine being pregnant with or giving birth to a baby as big as he is now, even though that's a normal newborn size.
Hopefully Thompson got a lifetime of doctors/hospital stays out of his system. And just in case anyone was wondering, he is still as cute as ever.
Wow. That baby is cute. Who are his parents?
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