2. Hospital
The doctor (the same dude that actually pushed Little Lion out into the world), believed that our baby was having trouble breathing due to low blood sugars.
He immediately administered a sugar solution and wrapped him up extra warm and snuggly.
Soon after, we were transferred to the newborn intensive care unit (NICU).
Little Lion got the last available bed in the ALMC NICU.
Mr Mechanic told me after the fact that the NICU was full and they couldn’t accept our baby.
He stayed there at the desk, shook his head and said, “No.” And just didn’t budge until they relented.
Wonderfully, they moved things around and Little Lion got an emergency back-up bed, the last, LAST option available.
At the NICU they connected him to oxygen to monitor his breathing.
Shortly after, when I tried to give him another bottle, he began gasping for breath.
I watched on the oxygen monitor as his levels rapidly dropped to 45% and he changed color, though not as drastically as a few hours before.
Nurses came running and quickly connected Little Lion to a CPAP machine, and his oxygen rose to normal.
The doctor called it ‘oxygen desaturation’, as if somehow that’s less scary for a parent to hear.
Let’s all be saturated with oxygen, shall we? Especially the babies.
We remained at the NICU for two weeks.
It was a trying time; I was sleeping at the hospital while Mr Mechanic was taking care of me, being there to help with Little Lion, and caring for our family at home – incredible man!
I didn’t get any sleep (even less than normal with a newborn), and was eating the same hospital meal (chicken and rice) for lunch and dinner for the entire two weeks. I looked forward to the fruit salad Mr Mechanic smuggled in for me every afternoon.
It was two weeks of extreme exhaustion and constant worry.
After the first four days, Little Lion was taken off the CPAP machine and also began to have the oxygen removed. He continued to be monitored, but was breathing independently. However, he wasn’t eating/drinking enough and he wasn’t gaining steady weight.
A nasal gastro tube (NGTube) was through his nose to his stomach to push food directly into him.
Oh, I hated that awful thing in his nose.
He did, too. He grabbed it, ripped of the medical tape and detached the tube at least three times.
Pretty strong for a newborn. Especially a newborn that apparently isn’t drinking enough.
The ALMC NICU and its staff are incredible.
It saves the lives of infants with medical issues, especially premature babies in and around the Arusha area.
There is even a backpack-toting, hiking-shoes-wearing NICU doctor who meets new moms wherever they are (sometimes that means the bush) and escorts them back to the hospital.
Please check out these links to learn more about this extraordinary facility.
You can also donate to their program and help save the lives of infants in Arusha, or assist a mother with a baby in the NICU.
After a few days, Mr Mechanic took over a feeding and I would (try) sleep for a solid 3 or 4 hours.
It was the beginning of hot season and there was no air conditioning. Also, a nearby church had started BLASTING Christmas carols (yes, in November!!! I know, ridiculous on so many levels…), so there was also that.
After the first week, Mr Mechanic arranged for someone to drive me home so I could see our other kids, have a decent shower and change my clothes. He stayed at the hospital with Little Lion for a few hours, and I would feel slightly brighter when I returned in the late evening.
It was hard, but together we managed.
Those two weeks were excruciating.
And, we didn’t get any answers.
The doctors didn’t know why Little Lion ‘desaturated’, and they couldn’t give us a clear answer for why he wasn’t gaining weight, and couldn’t remain awake for a full feeding.
But, he never turned blue again. He was successfully breathing on his own.
At the end of two weeks he progressed enough that we could go home, and follow up with a pediatrician.
We assumed it was something related to being a newborn and were just happy Little Lion was home and improving.
3. Yellow
Then, at 6 weeks, Little Lion appeared jaundiced. A yellow-ish tinge to his skin.
The doctor was a bit surprised, but encouraged us to get him into the morning and evening sun.
After a week, no improvement.
So, we had to run blood tests to see what was wrong.
It was horrible trying to get blood from him. They tried for two hours, poking and prodding him. They even tried in his scalp and shaved a bit of his hair to jab a needle in there (no luck, but a funny hair cut).
In the end, they only got enough to check for some infections, not enough to run all the tests they wanted.
Little Lion did not have an infection.
A few days later, we went for the needle-prodding and stabbing again, to run more tests.
Newborn jaundice is expected, unsurprising. Jaundice at 6,7,8 weeks? this is abnormal. It can be a sign of an issue involving the liver, bile ducts or gallbladder.
In Little Lion’s case, the test results showed severely elevated levels of bilirubin. Shockingly high, the doctor stated.
It indicated a major liver problem.
Something that this hospital, the best in Arusha, was not equipped to address further.
Possibly needing surgery.
Possibly needing invasive, specialized treatment.
Definitely needing more advanced equipment and testing than was available in Arusha.
And definitely needing answers as soon as possible.
The next day, we were sitting in the doctor’s office, and he was writing us a letter so we could travel internationally for medical treatment.
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