three hospitals

I'm at hospitals/clinics every day (and many nights) with both of my jobs, but lately it's gotten a little crazy as I have kids in three.

Just the past few days...

I've had up to two from the street in Viedma (both for surgeries)

Up to three babies at Hospital Albina Patino

And now one at the public pediatric hospital: a new baby for us, as soon as she's released!

But that day won't come till sometime next month, for reasons obvious in these pictures:

We're not filled in on the details, but Baby A was admitted due to multiple fractures inflicted by her parents. She is only 1 1/2 months old. Both of her legs are broken and her skull has a crack as well (remember baby Victoria?). There are no words......

Apart from the fractures, it's abundantly obvious that she has a bad skin condition going on. The doctor who approached me out of curiosity, for checking on this "abandoned baby", said it's bacterial. She must have been in less than hygienic conditions. For that reason they can't even cast her legs, until her skin is better.

Either the skin problem or the pain she was in has caused her to claw her face in several places.



Thanks for praying for baby A and her long recovery at such a young age!

Please also lift up baby boy S, in the hospital for over two weeks now, as we wait for results. The TB came back negative as we expected but the H1N1 results will be in tomorrow. Even so he has been moved to the isolation wing, where normally only our HIV+ kids go. He really needs to get better SOON!!!!

sick baby update

Shortly after writing the last post, we got the good news that baby girl F could come home!

The other news nearly made us faint: the bill for 13 days is $280! (We rarely spend more than $100 to get a child out, if not much less, because we are in the lowest paying category of the pediatric hospital.)

We were blessed to have the social worker, a long time friend, speak to the director on our behalf and slash the bill down to $143. Tomorrow baby boy S might be released (yeah!) and we have been warned that his bill is nearly as much as baby F's.

Apart from these two, we spent $110 on the other babies admitted, not to mention a whole lot more on medications the past month.

The accountant just showed me his pile of health related receipts for March as related to other expenses - it definitely wins!! It's been a rough several weeks.

If God puts it on your heart to help with these extra expenses, please let us know. I think maybe once or twice a year I mention economical needs on the blog, not wanting it to be anything about asking for money (my least favorite part of my "job"!), but sometimes it's good to share our needs with one another.

I'm done now - off to check on all the babies! :)

sick babies.

We've had a rough few weeks as the babies get sick with a cough, then get sick AGAIN with the cough, and now the dreaded rotavirus is here....oh will we ever be all healthy again?? In times like these we become excruciatingly aware of how susceptible our babies are. Many were born prematurely and obviously without many of the physical and emotional benefits of other babies.



Baby girl F and baby boy S were admitted on the same day, 13 days back. Little girl S (CDA II) and one year old F (Baby Home) just spent a few days before they were on the mend. Doctors wanted to admit baby A (youngest at the Baby Home at 4 months) but there were no available beds in the two main pediatric hospitals! This epidemic has hit Cochabamba hard.



We thought it would be cool to just take over this hospital room with our three. As it is, we run back and forth between the two wings of the hospital. More than once another mother has said "Is that one ALSO yours?!" Oh yes, and there are many more where this one came from. :)



Monday was scary as baby boy S took a downturn and doctors said I needed to go in to "make decisions". They were throwing around the possibility of a type of chemotherapy. WHAT??? He is now in testing for TB, but if he came straight to us from the hospital, how could he have TB? If a staff member has it... I don't even want to think of the possibilities!! Finally he was taken off penicilin and put on two other antibiotics and is slowly improving.

Pray that he and baby F are out SOON!! We are so ready to have everyone back home and healthy. One of the triplets, A, has had a very hard time improving. Baby MN has been absolutely miserable with the rotavirus.

*Photos shamelessly swiped from volunteer Savannah's blog :)