A difficult couple of days

As the title suggests, it's been a difficult couple of days.

We spent all of 18 hours as a family of four at home in Sandy. We got home Friday afternoon, had an incredible evening together, and a decent night. London slept through the night and we were able to give Liberty plenty of attention.

Things changed Saturday morning when Savannah saw a bit of blue around Liberty's lips while our daughter made a gulping sort of gesture. Savannah was concerned (and I've been told that's bad news, too), so we called urgent care, who told us to come right in.

So we quickly found ourselves back at Sunnyside. A doctor examined Liberty and checked her blood saturation, which registered at acceptable levels. But the prospect of blue lips was disturbing enough to the doctor to have Liberty be under observation for 24 hours. But since Kaiser doesn't have that sort of pediatric specialist, we were sent to Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

The original plan was to hook Liberty up to monitoring equipment, see if any clues emerged, and go home Sunday afternoon. During the night, though, Liberty's blood/oxygen saturation levels hit 81 percent (90 percent is the lowest acceptable rate). That, combined with Savannah's initial report, concerned the attending doctor.

Here's where I have a problem. Liberty's fine. She's generally happy. She eats well. She poops well. Pees well. Does everything well. She probably breathes a little slower than the average baby, but her blood saturation is pretty much ALWAYS close to 100 percent.

Another problem: The monitoring equipment is extremely sensitive and has been shown on multiple occasions to be incorrect. For example, it will say that her breathing is at very dangerous levels, but her saturation will be fantastic and her heart rate unchanged. The nurses have agreed that it's all in the positioning.

So, the following treatment plan was based on the uncertain report of my wife, and the uncertain reporting of the machine:

They thought that Liberty's case was worth checking for infections in the urine, blood and spinal fluid. That required a urinalysis (complete with catheter), drawing blood for the fifth time in four days and a spinal tap. That's right, spinal tap. No, not the band. They also wanted us to pump her full of two very powerful antibiotics JUST IN CASE she had an infection.

We understood the "better safe than sorry" philosophy, but a spinal tap? Antibiotics? For a girl who is 99% asymptomatic? Sorry, that just didn't jibe. We told them NO WAY on those counts, but instead to take the blood, take the urine, and see what it shows. Check the white blood cell count. See if there's anything to pay attention to.

Guess what? Big surprise -- nothing so far with the blood and urine! Great results! Who could have seen that coming? (Me. Yes, definitely me.)

Long story short: Liberty's fine. Her blood culture will be under observation for two days to see if any infection manifests, but we're confident it won't.

What I'm afraid of is that during this, some sort of manufactured problem will arise. For example, treatments that are not necessary creating a chain reaction that actually CREATES a medical problem for Liberty. I'm worried that all they need is an excuse -- a faulty monitor reading, perhaps -- to either keep us longer or suggest ridiculous things like a spinal tap.

It's been hard on us. We know she's OK, and this is a really crappy way to begin her life. We miss London, who has been staying at my mom's this whole time. We miss our home. We mourn the fact I go back to work at the end of the week, having no time to bond as a family, as we'd originally hoped.

Please pray for us. Pray that the doctors would have wisdom and would be gun-shy (not trigger-happy) when it comes to diagnoses and treatment. Pray that we would have peace. Pray that London would be OK. Pray that Liberty would not DEVELOP a problem from all of this.

We strongly believe that we'll be home Tuesday, though. Thanks for listening.

-Marcus, Savannah and Liberty
OHSU Doernbecher Hospital, 9-North, Rm. 27 (Yes, we'll accept visitors!)