Monthly Archives: May 2009

May 26th, 2009
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Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) For Baby C

After not having eaten any solids and having persistent vomiting for almost 3 weeks, Baby C was finally given Total Parenteral Nutritional (TPN) drips on Saturday last week, i.e. a day after her second surgery. Baby C had her first major surgery which was a ureteral reimplantation surgery on 5 May 09 and on 22 May 09, she had another major surgery, this time to fix her guts, a complication that arose from the first surgery.

The Kabiven TPN drips goes into the central venous catheter on her body, i.e. near her chest – above her right breast. The central venous catheter was inserted during Baby’s second surgery last Friday. Sutures were used to hold the catheter in place. The sutures will disintegrate by itself. Baby will have to be sedated when our surgeon removes the catheter before she is discharged from the hospital.

This central catheter and the bunch of tubes that are attached to it are driving me bonkers. They get intertwined whenever Baby moves about and especially when she sleeps (coz she moves about a lot in her sleep) and I have to lift her up all the time to detangle the tubes and to ensure that she’s not sleeping on the tubes… which always made Baby scream as she hates being disrupted from her sleep.


This bag of TPN which looks very much like milk costs a few hundred ringgit.  It consists of water, amino acids, minerals like calcium, iodin, magnesium, potassium, etc, a wide range of vitamins, purified soy bean oil, purified egg phospholipids and much more. I read that a person can survive up to 35 years just depending on TPN.

After a day on the TPN drips, the color on Baby C’s face turned pinkish and her lips turned red again. She also regained some energy and zeal and was almost back to her usual self again after being on the TPN drips for 2 days.


Here, the nurse (in white uniform) and Sister (in blue uniform)  are preparing the second bag of Kabiven TPN for Baby C.   That was yesterday morning.

Because the central venous catheter needs to remain in place for quite some time and cannot be contaminated, strict sterile techniques must be used during insertion and maintenance.

On top of Kabiven TPN, the doctor has also given Baby C albumin (for extra protein) drips, also through the central venous catheter.  The albumin drips are dispensed from a huge syringe attached to  the machine above her head. I was shocked when I found out how much the albumin cost.

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Cassandra, Obstruction of the intestines, Surgery in babies
May 23rd, 2009
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Baby C’s Appendics

This is Baby C’s appendics that were removed when our surgeon performed the surgery to fix her guts yesterday. Since he was performing an abdomen surgery, our doctor told us that he might just as well remove the appendics so that it will give us one less headache in future, i.e. baby will not have any risk of getting an appendicitis in future.


Evil mummy tempting baby with omelette this morning, barely 12 hours after her surgery…. and she licked on the omelette with much enthusiasm! Check out my other blog to read details of Baby C’s surgery to have her guts fixed.

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Cassandra
May 21st, 2009
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Could The Steamed Egg Be The Culprit?

This pic was taken on the day Baby C was discharged from the hospital.  We had lunch at Ocean Green Seafood restaurant again.  I ordered a steamed egg and gave a few teaspoons to Baby C.   When we went to this restaurant for dinner a month ago, we ordered steamed egg, steamed fish and spinach soup for Baby C.  She ate them and was ok.   We are now suspecting that the steamed egg this time had Salmonella bacteria and that’s what’s causing Baby C the intestinal viral infection.  Anyway we will know the truth when the results of her stool culture are out tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

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Cassandra
May 17th, 2009
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Post Surgery – Baby C Exercising

This is Baby C on the day before her discharge from the hospital. Putting her on the sofa-bed for her to practise walking can really cheer her up and put a big smile on her face.

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Cassandra, Surgery in babies
May 10th, 2009
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My Stay In The Hospital With Baby C

For 6 days, I’ve been feeling really sluggish… with fever, lots of phlegm, cough, a throbbing head and a runny nose. Despite having finished my antibiotics and meds, I am still feeling under the weather. My skin is also very dry and the skin round my mouth and nose is red, dry and painful…. caused by too much of nose-blowing, being in an air-conditioned place 24 hours a day and from wearing a face-mask 24 hours a day for 6 days. My appetite is no longer ravenous and my milk supply has dwindled so much. Dwindled because I have been too weak and tired to express my milk and I’ve not been expressing regularly. My boops have also shrunk, gosh!

For 6 days, I’ve been eating bread and hospital food…. food that is bland and strictly no heaty stuff. I dare not even lay my hands on the snacks/junkies that I’ve brought along with me. Hubby went shopping 2 days ago and bought me some healthy snacks :


Cherry tomatoes on vine, pine nuts, raw almonds, fresh milk, a big bag of fruits and some multi-seeds buns.

Yesterday, hubby went to Lorong Selamat with his friends to savour Penang hawkers food. He bought me a pack of loh bak, popiah and char koay teow, which I shared with my maid.   Today he packed back prawn noodles but I’ve yet to try it.  Will share the prawn noodles with my maid again later.

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Me
May 9th, 2009
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Nutrients Drips

Today is the 5th day that my poor baby has not eaten any solid or semi-solid food. Some of the things that have been going into her tummy via her mouth are Vitamin C syrup, paracetamol syrup, anti bladder spasm meds, some breast milk, Cactus juice and water. That’s about it and my poor baby is still very weak from hunger, all the vomiting, pain and discomfort. She has been on Vamin Glucose drips (a nutrients and vitamins solution) along with the regular saline drips.

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Cassandra, Surgery in babies
May 8th, 2009
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Nasal Gastric Tube

When Baby C puked non-stop, well, like every half-hourly, though in small amounts, our doctor inserted a nasal gastric tube through her nostrils. The tube goes into her tummy. Our doctor then aspirated the gas out from her tummy through the tube. Each time she felt like puking, the nurse would aspirate out the gas and dunno what liquid from her tummy. Sometimes, meds and milk that she had just eaten would be aspirated out too. Tube feeding can be done through the nasal gastric tube too.


The liquid aspirated out from Baby C’s tummy.


When Baby C’s bouts of vomiting got too frequent, the doctor ordered the nurses to aspirate the gas out from her tummy every 2-hourly.  This bottle is now hanging outside Baby C’s nose all the time.  I hope she will stop puking tomorrow so that the tube and bottle can be removed too.

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Cassandra, Surgery in babies
May 8th, 2009
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Baby C’s Post Surgery

This is how my poor baby looked like yesterday… with tubes everywhere on her body – 4 tubes coming out from her tummy, one on her hand for the IV and one nasal gastric tube on her nose that gets connected to a bottle. My little trooper kept moving about and the bunch of tubes got entangled all the time. My maid and I now spend our days detangling the tubes and to stop her from pulling them.

Cleaning her bum after her poo poo is also tricky as the tubes will inevitably touch the poop. I can’t wait for the tubes and stents to be removed from my sweetie-pie’s body.

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Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Surgery in babies
May 2nd, 2009
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Organic Seaweed, Grains & Mixed Vegetables

I bought a bottle of organic dried seaweed, grains and mixed vegetables from the organic shop the other day.  I meant to buy it for Baby C, to sprinkle them on her porridge.  On reading the label, I decided not to give it to her as it contains organic raw sugar and organic sea salt. 


The ingredients include seaweed, spinach, cabbage, purple sweet potato, organic wheatgrass, organic ryegrass, organic barley grass, organic buckwheat grass, soybean protein and sunflower oil.


That’s one of the ways I eat this seasoning powder – by sprinkling them on my hardboiled egg every morning. It can also be sprinkled on porridge and  bread. A bottle cost RM27.50 but this organic shop is having a stock clearance for this and sold it at RM20 a bottle. I find it tasty but my kids wouldn’t want to try it, haih!

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Healthy Food, Organic Food
May 2nd, 2009
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Cystoscopy For Baby C

We were informed by our pediatric surgeon that he needs to perform a procedure called cystoscopy on Baby C on the day of the surgery.   That procedure is required in order for the surgeon to properly diagnose where the problem is before he performs the ureter reimplantation surgery. 

I did a google search on cystoscopy and this is what I found :

Cystoscopy is performed with a cystoscope, a specialized endoscope (a tube with a small camera on the end). There are 2 types of cystoscopes; the standard, rigid cystoscope and the flexible cystoscope.

The procedure usually takes between 5 and 20 minutes. The urethra is cleansed, and a local anesthetic is applied. The scope is then inserted through the urethra into the bladder.

Water or saline is injected through the cystoscope to fill the bladder. As this occurs, you will be asked to describe the feeling. Your answer will reveal information about your condition.

You may feel slight discomfort when the cystoscope is passed through the urethra into the bladder. You will feel an uncomfortable, strong need to urinate when your bladder is full.

You may feel a quick pinch if a biopsy is taken. After the cystoscope is removed, the urethra may be sore, and you may feel a burning sensation during urination for a day or two.


Images taken from www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/27000310/

Baby C will not feel anything as she will be under GA.  I really hope and pray that when she wakes up and for the next few days that follow, she will not feel pain when she pees and will have no bladder spasms.  I can imagine how painful it is to have a burning sensation in the urethra, not to mention pain on the wound on her tummy.  I’m having sleepless nights now and I just can’t stop worrying about how Baby C will react after the surgery. I can’t imagine the amount of pain Baby C will have to endure.   I’ve gone through 3 major surgeries and 1 minor surgery and I know how painful post-surgeries are.   I’m praying for miracles again… miracles that Baby C will have a 100% successful surgery and an almost pain-free post-surgery recovery.

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Cassandra, Surgery in babies