Thursday, May 27, 2010

Jezebel

The nurses named the baby "Jezebel." I hope her mom, even with her limited English will give her a name today. Yesterday, the mom, brought to the hospital by an ambulance, was too sick to name her. Growth restricted by her mother's hypertension, "Jezebel" only weighs 5 pounds even though she is full term. Her mother had been on medications for the high blood pressure but felt these medications were not working so she did not go back to the clinic for more. I am hoping in three days with my limited Spanish and the translator, I can help her understand.

Mom has many reasons to stay healthy. A single mother with two other children to feed, clothe, and get to school every day (one is elementary age, the other middle school), Jezebel's mom was working cleaning houses until she got sick with feet and hands too swollen to work and a terrible headache. I am just happy someone called the ambulance before a stroke or a seizure occurred. I also feel pretty good about the fact that Jezebel's blood gases and Apgar scores at birth were good. Now, I only have to worry about how to convince mom that her blood pressure is a problem even when she is not pregnant. How do I know? I appears she has the early signs of kidney disease probably secondary to her long standing, untreated high blood pressure.

I am remembering I live in that great land where we pay for care if you are in renal failure and need dialysis but we don't cover patients who are not pregnant with hypertension that could cause renal failure. At least not yet. I hope, as a country we are at least getting there.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love, love, love reading your blog. Another Anne Lamott in the making...

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

I really enjoyed reading the posts on your blog. I would like to invite you to come over to my blog and check it out. God's blessings. Lloyd

local MD said...

Thank you, Anonymous. I just finished "Imperfect Birds" Anne Lamott I am not. Her books scare me more than my stuff and I appreciate her voice.

Lloyd, I made a small trip over to your blog and I will be back. Thank you for the invitation.