Archive for November, 2007

19
Nov

NICU Day 8

By Mike 1 Comment
Categories: Basic Training

The following is one of the posts I wrote for my wife’s website, www.thespohrsaremultiplying.com, during Maddie’s ten-week stay in the NICU.

Yesterday at 4:22 marked Madeline’s completion of her first full week of life! She is now well into her second week, and she is continuing to make progress. Some days (such as Saturday) the doctors were not able to ween her off any of her Dopamine medication (for blood pressure) or to lower her ventilator and supply of nitrix (both of which help her breathe). Other days, however, such as yesterday, the doctors were able to be more aggressive, and lowered all of her numbers, most obviously with the nitrix which went from 4.9 to 2.9 in one day! Ideally, the doctors will ween her off all of these things…but all in good time. For now it is great to see her progressing.

Beyond all of that she is looking a lot better! Her edema (excessive fluid in the body) is not as bad now that she is on less medication, so she is less puffy and very cute! To Heather’s delight the nurses asked her if she would like to change Maddie’s diaper, and of course she said yes. Linda was there to see H do it the first time and was very impressed to see her jump right in there with no fear. She also changed her diaper last night, and she does a good job of it!

The doctors also said that if things continue to progress well before too long we will be able to hold her. She has to be more stable though, and currently she still does see her oxygen numbers fall when she is moved or touched (this number, the amount of oxygen she is getting, you do not want to go down). One other important thing is the problem she is having with air seeping out of her lungs into her thorax. When she first had this problem we were minutes away from losing her, but since then the doctors have been able to control it and Maddie has been working to heal the holes that let the air out in the first place. Our nurse told us that her x-rays show Maddie is healing, but the holes are not closed yet, so that is really are biggest immediate concern.

Thanks again for everyone’s support. We all appreciate it greatly and can’t help but believe all of the good thoughts sent out on her behalf have helped her in some way.

09
Nov

The Return Of Notes From Mike

By Mike 1 Comment
Categories: Basic Training

The following is one of the posts I wrote for my wife’s website, www.thespohrsaremultiplying.com, during her difficult pregnancy with Maddie.

Well, I got sick, which, of course, is exactly what you need to have happen when your wife is hospitalized on a wing full of newborn babies. I started to feel the symptoms come on when I was cleaning our place in anticipation of our new roomie…the fabulous Miss Madeline Alice. Over the last few months, you see, our place had gotten a tad cluttered thanks to, among other things, my compulsive hording of Giants bobbleheads. I was making good progress when my Mom called en route from the Bay Area with my Dad. I had barely said hello when she, in that weird, psychic way mothers have, immediately shrieked, “Oh my God. You’re sick, aren’t you?” It was then I realized I did have a scratch at the back of my throat, though I nonetheless yelled into the phone that I was fine and that I would appreciate it if you would at least say hi before you launch into a lecture thank you very much.

Later, as I was cleaning some more, I sneezed…then sneezed….and sneezed again. I literally could not stop sneezing. Even Rigby woke up from her nap on the couch and looked at me like “What the hell, dude?” I looked back at her in such a way that I was sure communicated to canines that I had no idea before I sneezed again. When I sneezed for the tenth time I started to panic, and remembered that guy I’d read about in the Guinness Book Of World Records who sneezed non-stop for forty years. “Oh my God,” I thought, “What if I’m like that guy?” I mean at some point he had to have been a regular dude just going about his day and then, out of the blue, he became the sneeze freak. Sweat beaded on my brow as I sneezed for the fourteenth consecutive time, and Rigby started to bark at me which really wasn’t helping matters. I then flashed-forward to picking up Madeline from school in fifteen years and saw her standing with the cool girl who would say, “What is, like, the deal with your weirdo dad always sneezing, Maddie?” Maddie would then hug her backpack, mortified, and stare eye daggers at me as I waited in the car, sneezing. Luckily, I finally stopped sneezing and was able to go back to cleaning.

When my parents arrived a few hours later I was so sick that my own mother, the person who is supposed to love you unconditionally, winced upon seeing me as if I was a homeless man peeing in the gutter. She literally said, “Oh, honey. That’s terrible you’re sick. Can you stand back a few feet?” Despite feeling awful I did manage to go with my parents to visit Heather. I felt so bad though that I almost shoved Heather out of her hospital bed so that I could climb into it myself. It was a rough couple of days, but I am on the mend and feeling better now thankfully.

The other interesting thing that happened was that Linda and I snuck Ribgy into the hospital so that Heather could see her for the first time in two weeks. The hospital had security though, and dogs aren’t allowed, so getting her inside was a real…wait for it…Mission Im-PAW-sible! (Thanks! I’ll be here all week!)

Upon arriving at the hospital we stuffed Rigby into my backpack and zipped closed the top. For once in her life she was quiet as we walked with the backpack past security, and I wondered if she was quiet because she thought she’d been kidnapped. I suddenly imagined Rigby having been kidnapped by Al Queda, and a little grainy video being released of her barking with masked, armed men in the background. Over that we’d hear a translator say, “The imperialists must leave Iraq or they will end my puppy life.”

Anyway, we finally got to the room and Heather was so happy to see Rigby that she cried. It was the sweetest, most heartfelt reunion ever until I had to shove Rigby back down into the backpack and zip closed the top.

03
Nov

More Thoughts From Mike

By Mike 1 Comment
Categories: Basic Training

The following is one of the posts I  wrote for my wife’s website, www.thespohrsaremultiplying.com, during her difficult pregnancy with Maddie.

Last night all was well with Heather so I went out for my fun night on the town! It started with the LA Clippers season opener against my team, The Golden State Warriors, at the Staples Center. My first order of business upon arriving was to find the most fattening, over-stuffed, and heart stopping hot dog I could. To my delight I came across a concession I had never noticed before called BIG DAWGS, and that is exactly what they sold. I selected the New York dog which was a foot-long sausage smothered in sauerkraut, Gulden’s mustard, and heaps of Swiss cheese. As I walked toward my section men stopped in their tracks upon seeing me and yelled, “WOAH! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!” I felt very proud in a hunter and gatherer sort of way, and told the men where to go to get one if they seemed nice or wore a Warriors’ jersey. If not I simply walked on, leaving them to wander aimlessly between the McDonald’s and Chinese Beef Bowl stand.

Upon arriving at my row I squeezed past a man morosely eating a salad next to his girlfriend, then threw my head back and cackled triumphantly. The man looked down, ashamed, as I found my seat next to a father and son. As a father-to-be myself, I watched the duo with great interest. Before too long The Clippers’ cheerleaders ran onto the court and the Dad bellowed, “Son! The cheerleaders!” The boy looked to the floor, and a long moment of father/son ogling passed until the father finally cooed, “Those are what I call bee-yoo-tee-full women!” The whole interaction struck me as inappropriate somehow, and it got me thinking about what is and isn’t appropriate to say and do with your kid, especially when dealing with issues of sexuality and the like. My father – who I give very high marks as a Dad – acted like girls and sexuality simply didn’t exist when I was growing up. In fact, when he took me to see the Warriors play back in the day, one of the Warriors’ Girls could have done upside down splits inches away from his face and he would have said, “The Warriors better pick it up on defense, son! DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!” Perhaps my Dad was a bit too Puritan about it all though, and maybe what the father next to me said was healthy and part of helping his son to develop a normal sexuality. I mean it’s not like the father had said, “See the little Asian one, boy? If I had my way I would do things to her they ain’t even discovered in China yet!” That, I realize, would have been inappropriate. The father even called the dancers “women” and not chicks or babes. I was really worried about all of this until I realized I’m having a girl. None of this complicated stuff applies! All I’ll have to worry about is simple stuff like promoting a healthy body image for Maddie, explaining what that blood is on her underwear (Oh Lord, I pray Heather is home when that happens) and dealing with boys checking her out at the mall. Oy.

At half-time I ran over to the Nokia Theater to see Neil Young. The theater is beautiful and Neil kicked ass. As opposed to many of the classic rock artists I have seen, Neil still sings and plays as well as he did back in the sixties. I can’t say that all of his fans have aged as gracefully, however. It’s funny, I used to watch the footage of Neil playing with Crosby, Stills, & Nash at Woodstock and wonder whatever happened to all those sexy hippie girls gyrating so strangely in the crowd. Well, last night I found out. Two rows in front of me this sixty-something hippie chick was doing the exact same over the top Woodstock moves, and what may have looked good forty years ago only made her look like a crazy person today. At the end of the show she walked past me, and I half expected her to start conversing with someone only she could see, or close talking with me about a global conspiracy or the like.

On the way home the freeway was empty except for a speeding ambulance in front of me, and I could see a little old lady through the back windows hooked up to an IV. She was sitting up and talking to the paramedic though, so I think she was okay. Nevertheless, as I followed her back to the same hospital H is at, I became anxious to see how H was. Thankfully she was sleeping soundly when I made it to the room, and before long I was too.

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