Sunday, May 16, 2010

Cords, Tubes, Monitors ect

I thought I should take a post to explain the cords and tubes and monitors that were hooked up to Joshua throughout his NICU stay.

In this picture there is Joshua's NICU label which identifies Joshua the same way the hospital wrist bands do. It matches our wristbands for him. -Side note: We thought we had to have our wrist bands to take Joshua home, so we wore them religiously, but after about a month they wore out and fell off. When we brought them in for a replacement, the nurses told us they definitely didn't expect us to wear them until Joshua came home, that a driver's license would be fine if there was any question.

The line coming out of his diaper and down to the left is a IV line that is attached in his umbilical. When that line went bad they put in a normal IV in his hand for a couple of days then they put in a picc line. I was at the hospital with my mom the first time they tried to put in the picc line. It was horrible, they tried for like 15 minutes and I could hear Joshua fussing, but they wouldn't let me near him because the whole area had to be sanitary. Then they failed to get it in. I was about ready to bawl for him, since he was just whimpering. They said they would try again that night. I told them great, but it has to be done before I came back the next morning. The next morning it was in and I guess it went in really easy and he didn't even fuss. He had this in until he moved to full feedings from milk.

The other cord coming out of his diaper is a temperature sensor. It would get loose periodically so we would take his temperature manually. One nurse couldn't get it on right so she covered the poor kid in tape to try to keep it in place. Then it wouldn't even work, so a couple of days later they had to peel all the tape off of his baby skin. So sad. He didn't have to wear this the whole time. I don't remember how long he wore it for though.

The rest of the cords coming off his chest monitor his breathing and heart rate. He wore these to make sure he didn't have apnea or bradicardia. He wore these the whole time he was in the NICU.


In this picture there is a pulse monitor on his foot. I was eventually able to put this on myself, but not quickly. Joshua wore the pulse monitor the whole time he was in the NICU. On his face you can see his oxygen cannula, and the giant stickers that held it on. He wore that until almost the end of the NICU stay when he was able to breath without it. If you look close you can see his feeding tube that goes down his nose into his stomach. He got quite good at taking out the feeding tube, one day he took it out between every feeding. He had the feeding tube in the entire time he was in the NICU too.

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