Our Baby

 Dontae has spent the first 7 months of his life in the hospital, because he needed some surgeries, and his mama abandoned him.  He has been with us for little over a month now and he is back in the hospital once again  :-( 

Dontae has been teething like crazy, drooling so much you can't keep his clothes or bibs dry.   So when his fever started, we figured that it was from teething.  So the morning of the 4th day of a temp, which was a Friday, I called the Dr. to see if he should be seen.  The nurse told me no and to add another medicine to his tylenol.  So Saturday night was the worst night ever, all the nights were bad, but Saturday was especially bad. He woke up every couple of hours like he was in pain.  Sunday the rash started, and I thought it was Roseola.  You see, if I were in the States, Dontae would have been at the Dr. already.  But here I was just not sure.  I was talking to my friend on Facebook and he told me to get the child to the hospital.  So, when Dontae woke up and the rash was so much worse, all I could hear was Kevin, my friend, letting me have it for not already having Dontae at the hospital. (he was doing it in a loving way)  So off we went to the hospital in Black River.  Dontae was pretty lethargic at this point so he was fairly cooperative in the waiting room for so long.

 O.K. This is Mark now. Kim wanted me to write this part because she just couldn't. When we finally got into the exam room (only had to wait four and a half hours!) the doctor said she would have to get a urine sample, blood sample, and spinal fluid. When Kim heard "spinal fluid" she said; "meningitis!??", and the doctor said she had to be able to rule that out. So, we take the little guy into another room and Kim needs to go out because she can't watch. Kim went through this years ago when Cody was 1 1/2. He had spinal meningitis and she thought she might lose him. He's now 24 (Thank you, God).

 At any rate, the doctor first sticks a big needle in his little tummy, trying to find his bladder for a urine sample, and comes up with nothing. She said he probably doesn't have enough urine to do that and she'll use a catheter later. Next is another big needle in his femoral vein for blood. Dontea is crying like crazy and looking SO panicked while all this is going on. Then comes the spinal tap. OMG! I had to help hold him in a fetal position while the doctor sticks yet another needle in his backbone. Poor little guy! However, the fluid looked to me to be clear as water, which is a good sign I believe. One more needle in his arm for an I.V. and we're done with the pointy stuff. He is WIPED OUT by this time and Kim comes back in the room and he falls fast asleep on her shoulder. Two minutes later we have to wake him up for the catheter! He didn't like that at all either, but now we have all the fluids we need, so he can finally relax. 

 Within an hour or so we walk him over to the pediatric wing and he get's a crib. We didn't want to see him have to stay in a hospital again, but we had no choice. They have to be able to observe him until they get the results back from Mandeville. Hopefully only a day or two.

 Let me take a second to paint a picture of the hospital at Black River for you.  Let me first say that all the staff , doctors, and nurses we encountered were very competent, professional, and helpful. The facilities, however, can make you cringe. It's a fairly good sized complex, probably pre-WWII construction, with some modern conveniences and some not-so-modern inconveniences. The waiting room was kinda' dirty, the seats used to be blue plastic, but were mostly different shades of dirt now. The windows are louvered with no screens, so the mosquitoes come in to visit around dusk. I guess that's why the lizards like hanging out on the walls! They maneuver around the graffiti and dirt and posters in search of the various critters flying around the old fluorescent lights. The T.V. on the wall has a picture as fuzzy as the legs of the lady sitting across from me. I wonder why they have a steel cage around it? Who's gonna steal a broken T.V.? I think the cribs in the pediatric wing came over on slave ships and the windows might as well have been painted gray, they were so dirty. They brought a young boy in from surgery on a stretcher from the civil war. But, they had a fairly new incubator, and clean sheets. I'm not worried, just amused. 

Kim Here.....So at this time Dontae is starving, its 9:00PM and his dinner was right when the poor guy was being tortured.  So we asked for some formula, because the bad mother that I am, brought his 4:00 bottle but not his 8:00 bottle.  Well guess what?????? they don't use bottles, they use a cup and a syringe.  OK!!! I don't think I have to tell you, that we got about 3 teaspoons down him.  So I held him till he fell asleep.  We laid him down in his crib right next to a two year old girl that screams three times in a row about ever 10 seconds.  And I can't spend the night???????????  never in my life have I left a child at a hospital without me being there.  But I did it... I walked out.  And Prayed and Prayed and Prayed.  And we are asking all of you to pray with us.  Thank you 

Blessings