Mission Status

(Two month PEDS appt 13:59 EDT)

T+: 38 days 10 hours 46 minutes
Length: 18.5" (47cm)
Head circumference: 32 cm
Weight: 5.1 lbs (2.2 kilos)
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#SAHCG: Stay-At-Home-Care-Giver

So acronym and #hastag soup: SAHD, SAHM etc etc.

SAHD: Stay-At-Home-Dad

A stay-at-home dad (alternatively, stay at home father, house dad, SAHD, househusband, or house-spouse) is a term used to describe a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is the homemaker of the household. As families have evolved, the practice of being a stay-at-home dad has become more common

SAHM: Stay-At-Home-Mom

Some contemporary women are leaving the paid workforce and concentrating full-time on parenting. Many of these women have left the paid workforce so that they can focus on raising their children, particularly through the children's early years before entering kindergarten. There is considerable variability within the stay-at-home mother population with regard to their intent to return to the paid workforce. Some plan to work from their homes, some will do part-time work, some intend to return to part or full-time work when their children have reached school age, some may increase their skill sets by returning to higher education, and others may find it economically feasible to not return to the paid workforce.

Well that's more than a little limited and myopic in my view. My span of tactical, operational and logistical responsibilities, taskings and concerns include:

-A 34 day-old (preemie)

-A 43 year-old

-A 67 year-old

-A 92 year-old

-A 14 pound, 10+ year-old cat

-A severn pound 3+ year-old cat

In fact, it can be quite "entertaining" trying to to keep track of who needs to be where, when, "why" and pulling it all off...

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."

--E.B. White

Carer (UK, NZ, Australian usage) and caregiver (US, Canadian usage) are words normally used to refer to unpaid relatives or friends who support people with disabilities. The words may be prefixed with "family" "spousal", "child" to distinguish between different care situations. The general term dependent/dependant care is also used for the service provided.^[1] Terms such as "voluntary caregiver" and "informal carer" are also used occasionally, but these terms have been criticized by carers asmisnomers because they are perceived as belittling the huge impact that caring may have on an individual's life, the lack of realistic alternatives, and the degree of perceived duty of care felt by many relatives.

A widely-accepted definition of a carer/caregiver is:

Someone whose life is in some way restricted by the need to be responsible for the care of someone who is mentally ill, mentally handicapped, physically disabled or whose health is impaired by sickness or old age.

"It's my Duty Isn't it?"

—Baroness Pitkeathley (1989)

So I propose that the hastag #SAHCG, Stay-Home-Care-Giver, be added to The Twitterverse.

Because, quite frankly, some of us are highly engaged in dynamic tactical situations that #SAHM or #SAHD simply does not begin to describe/define...

Washington Hospital Center

Tweets to turn into blog post later

[1/3] Washington Hospital Center SUCKS DOGS BALLS. Very little infection/vector control or access control #medstar

[2/3] "Nurse" said stuff about "'contact' infection"--like anybody touches my baby--and then said something about "typhoid"... #medstar

[3/3] So, our friend is on a floor w/an infectious vector and there are NO warnings!?! #FAIL #medstar
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SIT-REP/Update

Elapsed Mission Time (time on the surface): 22 days 17 hours 17 minutes

Length: 45 cm (17.716535 in)
Head: 31 cm (12.204724 in)
Waist: 28 cm (11.023622 in)
Weight: 2.11 kilos (4.6517537 lbs)

Up to 45 cc's per feed

(Bunch of posts to write--when I get the time)

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SIT-REP: Day 4 of our 20+ year mission

"Crash" drank five (5) cc's of mom's milk this morning, then eight (8) cc's of the 10 cc goal at "lunch" and did a pretty good job three hours later.

He's still in the NICU, but breathing ambient room air on his own and has been weaned off most the meds.

He appears to be geometrically improving/progressing on most parameters...

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

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SIT-REP: End of Day 3/Start of Day 4

SWEET! First no ventilator and now no more oxygen--"Crash" is breathing ambient air for himself!


VI VERI VENIVERSUM VIVUS VICI


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"Dad's Life"

{Smirk}

SIT-REP: post rounds

11:53:12 EDT
"They" just "rounded" on him:

They want to start "Crash" on mother's milk in the morning.

Steady improvements on most parameters

Heart's improving.

Being weaned (sp?) a bunch of meds.


"Mon centre cède, impossible de me mouvoir, situation excellente, j'attaque"
--Ferdinand Foch, Marshall of France


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SIT-REP

09:42:07 EDT

Sweet! He's vocalizing and moving around!

Plus, they've stopped one med and are backing him off others.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
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SIT-REP

06:26:05 EDT

"Crash" is now in the NICU at Georgetown. Mein Liebchen is one floor below.

He's off ventilator and breathing on his own.

And, he has "The Kung Fu" grip ;-)

We're about to go see him.
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Day 2

Captain's blog, stardate blah, blah, blah...

The Code-Name/Working-Title "The Alien" is retired; he's now "Crash"--he made an early, exigent "hard landing" 03:13 EDT (07:13Z) 26 JUL 10--seven (7) weeks early.

So, Sunday (25 JUL 10) Mein Liebchen wasn't feeling well and we took a nap o/a 15:00 EDT. O/a 15:30 EDT "The Storm" rolled in and took out the power.

O/a 18:00 EDT bored, without power (or A/C) and the apartment getting hot and stuffy we decided to go out-n-about for a bit. At 18:30 EDT as we neared Pierce Mill "Pull over now--I need to stand up..."

Skipping a bunch of minutia, later when we got back to The Lair Mein Liebchen noticed blood when she went to the bathroom (in the dark, still no power--"thanks" PEPCO)...

Petal-to-the-metal and punching-lights we hit the doors of Sibley Labor & Delivery at 01:30 EDT...

Dr. Sartawi, who was on call for Drs. Reiter, Hill, Johnson & Nevin (Dr. Engel is our primary OB/GYN), at Sibley decided he wasn't moving enough and that she didn't like what she was seeing and delivered him by crash Caesarean section due to placental abruption. He had a low heart beat, 40, which disappeared--he was down for 11 minutes.

"Crash":

Male

03:13 EDT (07:13Z) 26 SEP 10

4 lbs 5.8 oz (1,979 grams)

18 inches (45.72 cm)

So Dr. Sartawi comes and tells me that Mein Liebchen is fine and that "Crash" made a "hard landing" and is on ventilator.

Dr. Sartawi: Blah, blah, blah

Me: "So, what I'm hearing is everyone's alive and breathing--correct?"

Dr. Sartawi: "Yes"

Me: "Kewl beans, then keep me informed."

Skipping forward a bit: about an hour later he was doing much better and though on a ventilator it was set to the lowest setting--meaning "Crash" was doing most of the work.

O/a 20:00 EDT the decision was taken to transfer "Crash" from Sibley, which is a Level II NICU*, to Georgetown NICU, which is a Level III NICU, to evaluate him for seizures and treat as required/appropriate. Georgetown NICU's Neonatal Transport Team arrived in short order to transfer "Crash" to his new digs. (Sibley and Georgetown are 3.2 miles apart).

[*: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit]

Talked to Dr. Mehta at Georgetown NICU this morning regarding "Crash" and the "global" and specific effects and possible effects of the placental abruption. They're going to, by now (14:50 EDT) probably have, give "Crash" an EEG.

Mein Liebchen is "climbing the walls" here at Sibley--she wants to be with "Crash". So after chin-wags with Dr. Sartawi, Dr. Mehta and Dr. Abraham (the attending on duty at Sibley)--and calls between the three of them--the decision has been taken to transfer her to Georgetown as well.

Gotta shout out to the teams in Sibley's Labor & Delivery, Special Care Nursery and 5-West units particularly and the staff in general.

BTW, Sibley has one of the best implementations of tech I've seen in the healthcare sector. Pictured at right is one of Mein Liebchen's nurses using a wireless tablet this morning to update her chart and records. Tia Aida says, "Max... it's called Nursing Informatics, and it's the wave of the future in maintaining & documenting care on electronic health records that are real time and more accurate. The goal is to prevent medical errors!"

Well, gotta distract Mein Liebchen 'til they get here to transfer her--she threatened to get dressed and go for a walk...

BRAVO SIERRA

02:15:40 EDT and:

1) Flood not cleand up
2) No bathroom
3) Chief engineer here w/no "back-up

T- 7 Weeks

Friends of ours were nice enough to Find this for us in preparation for The Alien making planet-fall.
Had a false-alarm last Thursday--would have been eight (8) weeks early.

Also, we picked this up Sunday from "Freecycle":