Posts

That Call…

I write b2b and b2c health content in the office and provide private duty nursing care for medically fragile infants in foster care in my home. Here is the story of one of our Angels and a glimpse at my work as a Independent nurse provider. (Names have been changed or avoided to protect identity) The call from the special medical placement social worker almost always starts the same way, “Hi Mary, there is a baby that might be a good match for your family…. would you like to hear more?” The last such call was not any different. Sara was a 6-month-old little girl who had been in the children’s hospital for 2 months prior to the call. She had suffered non-accidental trauma, which is a nice way to describe physical abuse and violence inflicted by an adult. She had suffered brain damage from abusive head trauma, multiple fractured ribs, a fractured femur, and a lacerated liver. She was severely malnourished and very underweight. She had spent 3 weeks in the intensive care unit and 4
Post a Comment
Read more
 COVID-19 racial and ethnic health disparities  Preparedness and response interventions towards COVID-19 have been the goals of most individuals, governments, families and health care stake holders in the last about 2 years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Slowing the transmission and protecting communities require the participation of every member of every community to take action. This requires that everyone understands and adopts individual protection measures. Easy, right? How then do we explain the fact that the infection rates continue to rise globally and locally? What are the dynamics driving how information and instructions are received and appropriated among different groups and demographics? Why are racial and ethnic minority groups so disproportionately more severely affected by the disease compared to other groups? Any effective response and intervention should take the perspectives of affected communities into account. Public health and social measures such as move
Post a Comment
Read more

Oral eversion

  Conversations around feeding a baby are common parts of anticipating the introduction of a new baby into a family be it through birth, adoption, foster care or otherwise. There are discussions about  bottle versus breast, breast milk storage, formula brands, mixing instructions and feeding schedules . There is something immensely satisfying in feeding a baby to contentment. One of the most common parental responses to comfort a baby who wakes up in frenzy involves some form of touching and feeding. What happens when the feeding mechanism goes wrong? What happens when the slightest touch of the baby’s mouth sends them to more frenzy and inconsolable crying? What if the mere sight of the bottle triggers gagging and vomiting? How about if baby arches their back to try and move away instead of accepting the cuddling around the breast or breast?   A baby with oral aversion has a sensitivity to food or drink taken by mouth. The sensitivity causes them to associate feeding to be unpleasant
Post a Comment
Read more
Taking a medically fragile baby home from NICU. There are few parental crisis that beat the stress of having a baby admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.  Pregnancy and   birth of a baby are often life events associated with anticipation, hope adventure, intimacy, bonding and a culmination of everything wholesome and beautiful, a miracle of life!  Pregnancy and birth complications that result in a NICU admission severely disrupt the plans, the hope and the anticipation. Bonding and breast feeding for a baby who needs higher level of care in the neonatal intensive care unit as opposed to a regular newborn nursery can be confusing. Reasons for admission to the NICU include mild complications that are transitional in nature and a vast majority of babies are in the NICU for a few hours to a few days. Common symptoms of complications related to prematurity and other conditions include temperature instability, breathing difficulties, blood sugar instability, jaundice and low muscle t
Post a Comment
Read more