Should it be criminal to give birth to drug addicted babies?

Now that I'm pissed off and on a roll. I am also going to start the process of finding a congress person to help sponsor a bill to make it a criminal offense for a mother to expose their child to drugs and alcohol to the extent that it causes mental and physical damage. Christopher is 10 years old, cannot talk, does not chew food, wears diapers and can only walk with a walker. He may never get any more developed than he is right now.

All because his mother drank while pregnant. She should have to do prison time for doing this to another human being. If that same woman was to drink and drive, and run over a kid which in turn caused that child brain damage, she would have criminal charges then right? Why not while the child is in the womb?

I wonder if the right to life people would like to help with this?

More sad days for Deaconess Gateway Hospital

When you see the name Riley's on the side of a hospital what do you think of? You think that that particular hospital is directly connected with Riley's right? Not in the case of Deaconess Gateway. There is a monthly clinic where real children's hospital doctors come for a day. But everything done in the clinic is totally separate from Gateway. Our intensivist in the PICU at Deaconess Gateway has no idea what has gone on with our kids even at the clinic...no diagnosis', no orders, no nutrition plans, nothing. He is flying blind. The only thing they have to go on is the information that my wife provides them, which is very good info by the way. Unfortunately, doctors dismiss any information from parents because the parents tend to be medically trained by the world wide internet and therefore have nothing relevant to say. Angie knows Rickelle better than her team of doctors because we have the big picture.

Solution: We are going to do two things. We are going to keep medical summaries on all of our kids and carry it from doctor to doctor. This really sucks but we see this as the only way to get the level of care we need. Secondly, we are going to start advocating for a statewide (even national) electronic storage of medical records so that the patient owns the records and not the doctors. This way all of the records can be accessed by whatever doctor is being consulted. This will create a harmony of medical care not yet seen.

I've been away - Rickelle is in ICU

Rickelle is in ICU again so we have been tremendously busy with everything so I have had no time to post. Her CO2 levels were dangerously high when we went to the emergency room last week. Of course we did not know that until we got there. We went in because her blood oxygen levels were a little low and her heart rate was high. The emergency room doctor was going to let her go home! (I'd like to have his license.) We finally complained enough that they brought down the intensivist and he admitted Rickelle for respiratory failure. She's been on a ventilator ever since.

She is doing just fine. She breaths a few breaths very shallow and then takes a regular breath. The doctor does not like this and even though she is breathing on her own over the machine, and her stats are perfect, they are still wanting to send her home on the ventilator. I'll save the excitement of all this for another post.

Rickelle is ready to come home except for getting the ventilator equipment and training done.

The fart harp

I have created a monster.

I heard from a 'friend' that you can take a straw and tuck it under your armpit and blow into it and create a great time for everyone. As we were ending dinner, I decided to test this to see if it would work.

I had my son Adam get a straw and try it. Obivously while Adam was looking for a straw, this idea caused some conversation and speculation amongst the family members as to whether this would really work or not. The more we talked about it, the more excited Adam got. He gets very excited over the idea of creating bodily type noises, especially artificially which can then be created at will...unlike natural farts.

After a few minutes Adam found a bendy straw, which is the best type for a fart harp. The moment of truth had come. He ripped off his shirt, tucked the straw under his arm and gave it a good blow. The cacophany that ensued was so funny, even Angie was rolling on the ground. For Angie to laugh at a sound that is normally produced by bodily functions is a rarity in and of itself. We were laughing non-stop for a good ten minutes. Personally, I almost peed my pants. When Adam started complaining that his arm pits were starting to tingle, probably from the skin flapping against itself at varrying frequencies, we move on to the other kids.

Chris is our fetal alcohol kid. He doesn't speak but he laughs and laughs. He is the family's biggest fan of the fart game. He is the master. (He has made my eyes water before.) We tucked the straw under his arm and played the fart harp. The initial look on his face was priceless. He screemed with glee at the newly found noise.

If you would like to try the fart harp yourself, be sure and have the video camara handy first. Then go and find a bendy straw. A straight straw will work if you have some help in blowing into it. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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