Pre-Mature Infant

[Sequoia]

I thought that I would share what happened when I was a preemie concerning the blood issue. 

 

As I mentioned in another post my mom has diabetes and the pregnancy put a lot of pressure on her eyes.  Also her blood pressure got really high and the doctors were afraid that she would have a stroke, so they induced labor two months early. 

 

After I was born they gave me a 50 50 chance of making it.  As soon as I was born the doctors from pediatrics were waiting for me and they took me immediately and wrapped me up in warm blankets and took off with me to put me in an issolette.  

Later after my mom was back in her room a Physician from Pediatrics approached my mom and told her that I wasn't making my own blood and that my hemoglobin was low.  Back then in the late 1980's and even later they still gave blood transfusions to adults, children and infants when their hemoglobin dropped below 10.  I believe that today they usually or always wait until a person's hemoglobin reaches a 7.  In any case I do know that they gave blood transfusions to people sooner then than they do now. 

 

Anyway he said that my hemoglobin was a 7 and that they give blood transfusions when it drops below 10.  My mom started crying and started quoting statistics about all the bad things that have happened to people from being given blood transfusions.   The doctor said.  "I don't blame you."  "I wouldn't want it for own kids."   Then he said.  "We can wait 24 hours from now for the baby to start making her own blood, but after that if she doesn't start, the State will take over and it will be out of my hands."    "I won't be able to do anything about it."  He also said;  "I'll let it get low, as low as I can."

 

Well within 24 hours he approached my mom again and gave her a thumbs up and he had a smile on his face.  He said that I was making my own blood at a good pace and that my blood count had gone down but that it was going up. 

 

That Doctor was not supposed to be on duty the night I was born.  We don't know why he came on duty that night.

 

The Doctors ended up saying that I was a strong baby.  Although I had some problems, I didn't have a lot of the problems that they prepared my mom for and I was never behind.

 

I was born in a University Hospital over an hour away from home because my mom was high risk.  When I was two weeks old they sent me in an ambulance to a hospital that was in the town where we lived.  I was anemic but not to the point where they would consider a blood transfusion, so they were treating me for that.  The Pediatrics Nurse asked my mom (Perhaps someone else too I'd have to ask her) if I'd had a blood transfusion.  My mom told her that I hadn't because my mom didn't want me to.   The Nurse said;  "That's good, because when you give infants blood, they can forget how to make their own."

 

At some point I also had Jaundice and was successfully treated with Phototherapy/Light Therapy.

 

Anyway I thought that I would share.

 

[Sequoia]

I forgot to mention that I went home when I was a month old. 

 

I just had to reach five pounds and learn how to suck.