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Oct. 9, 2009
After the fact . . .
OK, we blew it. :-) I've always assured you that if anything happened to Noah, I would find a way to let you know. The bad news is that Noah ended up in the hospital and I couldn't let you know. The good news is that he is home now. :-)
At the request of the doctors in Greenville, we've just switched Noah from our long-time family practice doctor to a pediatrician. There were lots of good reasons for making the switch - our new pediatrician can do a lot more hands-on management of Noah's various issues, AND (this is a biggie) can admit Noah to a local hospital that is just 20 minutes from home - a much more palatable drive than the 1 1/2 hours to Greenville!! There will probably still be times that Noah needs to be in a big hospital like Greenville, but there are also times that he simply needs basic medical support and observation while we rule out a line infection. He can get that care locally now.
Sooo, like I said, we JUST made this switch, and we set up a well-child visit for this past Wednesday. The thinking was that we didn't want Noah's first visit to be when he was sick. Jeff and I had already met extensively with Dr. B and now we all wanted him to see/examine a healthy Noah to get a baseline.
I brought Noah in for that well-child visit, and Enigma Boy did what he does so well - he got sick very quickly while at his well-child visit. Ugh. A few hours later he was admitted to the ICU of Abbeville Hospital. He wasn't really ICU sick at all, but this is a VERY small rural hospital, and the more intense nursing care of an ICU was a good fit with all of the care Noah needs any time he is hospitalized. This hospital doesn't typically get children like Noah, and Dr. B felt that the ICU nurses would be best suited to deal with central line care, TPN, etc.
Noah is just fine, and we got home a couple of hours ago. He had a virus, and while his labs got sort of creepy on Thursday they leveled out today. The entire visit went really well and he received fantastic care. Everyone involved expected that we would have some time to work out any kinks ahead of time - to develop a hospital game plan, so to speak, but Dr. B and the nurses were truly incredible at figuring this all out emergently and getting Noah the best possible care. All of Noah's care was coordinated by phone between Dr. B and any appropriate pediatric sub-specialists in Greenville, so we got all of the advice and wisdom Greenville could offer, superlative care from Dr. B, and the low-key environment and highly personalized TLC of a tiny hospital. From our standpoint, it was a HUGE blessing to be so close to home. It was relatively easy for Jeff to run up and bring me something, and it would have been pretty easy for me to get home for a while if needed (although I didn't since Noah was only in for 2 1/2 days).
So why didn't we let you all know? Well, Abbeville Hospital doesn't have internet in the patient rooms, so I couldn't blog. Jeff did blog faithfully, but, well, ummmm, he forgot how to actually POST his blog posts. He thought he was keeping you all updated LOL until I got home and thought I would take a look at what he wrote. Oops. :-)
Like I said above, Noah is looking and doing great. I've got more to update about him later but my own comfy bed is calling me. :-)
Blessings,
Kate
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Posted by Joy K. 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Oct. 9, 2009 - Noah's New Doc
Prayers continue for you all. Any new pics of Noah? I know you have very little time. . . maybe Hannah could post some?
BIG HUGZ TO YOU, NOAH AND THE ENTIRE ESTES CLAN!!!
Hugz,
Carla