Long Day

Yesterday Jackson got his nasal stints put in. The wires connect to the mouthpiece he had before come up over his top lip and are shoved up into both nostrils forcing his nose up against his face.

We now have our very own 'pig/walrus'. :)

He loves it, as you can imagine. And to top it off, Halle and Jackson arrived home from their 15 hour weekly LA train trip at about 8pm last night, and Halle discovered that Jackson had massive swelling in his groin when she was changing his diaper. We headed off to the emergency room, stopped by the front desk to get our 'frequent visitor card' stamped so we get our 13th visit free... and headed into the emergency room.

It turns out that Jackson had a hernia. After getting him back on the IV, taking blood, xrays and wrapping his lower body in an ice pack for 2 hours, they managed to actually push it back in.

Now we're scheduled to meet with a specialist on Tuesday at which point they will schedule a surgery date to repair the hole so this doesn't become a regular thing. Until then we have to keep a watchful eye to make sure it doesn't pop back out.

Ahh..... it just gets better and better.

First Smile

Sooo... Jackson smiled for the first time yesterday... at his toys! Yeah, that's right, not at mama who spends her every waking moment (which are quite plentiful these days) loving on her little man... My mom and I were on our way home from LA on the train and he was in his car seat. He stared at his toys very intently for awhile, then began to crack a smile that must've lasted for at least 5 solid minutes. It was the cutest thing I think I have ever seen! Only wish it was at me... I guess it's true what they say, "Boys love their toys!"

Health Care

Jackson is still in the hospital being cared for and getting closer to going home every day. His vitals are good, and his breathing is great. We’ve been told multiple times by the doctors that almost every 2 month old kid (or anywhere close) that they’ve had come in with RSV has needed oxygen the entire time, and they’ve never seen a baby get all the breath they need on their own in spite of the virus. So we’ve got a fighter. Hopefully he’ll be home soon.

We’ve learned a lot of interesting things about hospitals and health care since this whole thing began, and it’s combination of ridiculous, annoying, and ironic. For one, it turns out that the nurses in the NICU had been trying to get our health insurance to cover a vaccine for Jackson against RSV when he was in there to prevent this exact situation from happening. Health insurance wouldn’t cover it because the vaccine is considered too expensive. So now they get to cover a 5 day hospital stay plus medication and testing instead. Nice. I’m guessing they didn’t come out on top in that one.

Also it turns out the hospital we are at (Sierra Vista) is the only hospital with a children’s ward within 100 miles. The next closest is Santa Barbara, and after that the next closest is in Fresno. And the hospital we are at has a grand total of 6 beds. The explanation for it? They don’t make enough money off of the children’s ward so all the area hospitals have either closed them down, or cut down the size.

We lucked out because there just happened to be ONE open bed when we admitted Jackson. Not so lucky.. the 4 families since then (that we know of) that have not been able to admit their children and have either had to drive to Fresno or wait.

Welcome to our health care system.