Tell It to Me Straight, Doc

First, a big thanks to everyone for thinking good thoughts about Doss; he is still in the NICU but his glucose levels have stabilized. He’s got a ways to go, but we think he’s on the right path.

From the fertility specialists to hospital doctors, we have see a steady stream of medical personal since we started this exciting journey and they all have opinions about pregnancy, health and recovery.

And many opinions seem contradictory.

A doctor is a lot like your local auto mechanic; he has specialty training and knows a lot about your internal combustion engine. But he doesn’t know everything. What looks like a spark problem to one mechanic may look like a fuel problem to another.

The NICU mechanics doctors, AKA neo-natologists, also have differing styles with regards to the amount of info they provide and how they deliver it.

I am a straight-forward, don’t-sugarcoat-it kinda guy. That doesn’t mean I want you to be brutal, I just want the truth.

All but one of the docs wants to blow sunshine up my ass about my boy. Well, that’s not fair. It’s not that they’re all trying to sell me blue skies and green pastures, they’re just not telling me the whole story.

That is, until this morning. The new neo-natologist (neo neo-natologist?) told me exactly what was going on; he didn’t sugarcoat it, he didn’t editorialize, he just laid it out as it is.

It was refreshing. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Now what do I do?

My editorialization of the information goes like this – he’s a little guy who had some serious, unrealized/unrecognized in-utero stress prior to birth. This stress caused a serious case of acidosis, which has had an effect on many major organs.

It seems that the best medicine – the only medicine, really – is time. We just have to wait for him to put on weight and for his vital organs to function as they should.

Of course what I really want are some guarantees. I want the guarantee that my boy will be okay. I want the guarantee that there will be no long term ill-effects from his size or the acidosis and its ilk of problems.

I want my boy.

[ed. note: contrary to my complaining, Doss is doing better, if ever so slightly. As I said, his blood sugar level is now normal. A journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first step.]