The Rollercoaster of Room 4

 

When we were in St Mary's NICU there were 8 rooms (or I suppose you might call them wards). The first room that Evelyn occupied was Room 4. This was an intensive care ward. I have already described some of our most significant moments during Evelyn's first 2 weeks of life, but there are a couple more moments I would like to share.

One particular evening we were by her bedside, as usual, chatting to the nurse looking after her. This evening it was the wonderful Gemma, one of Evelyn's favourite nurses. 

Quick pause as I am sure you are thinking - how on earth did you know she was one of Evelyn's favourites? I can't really explain... you just knew...

This particular evening she had one of her bradycardias, where her heartrate would plummet and she'd forget to breathe. Usually, she'd have a few a day, a bit of prodding and tickling, and she'd breathe again and everything would go back to normal. This particular evening, however, she had continuous 'bradies'. Over and over again, she'd recover then her heartrate would plummet again. Aly and I were so, so panicked. All Gemma could do was comfort us, there was no false hope given to us, she was struggling suddenly and it was obvious to us all. We just had to keep watching the monitors, watching them plummet, Gemma would intervene, then it would return to normal, only to plummet a few minutes later. Gemma was incredible. She kept so calm, when Aly and I were just wrecks. Eventually, after I think an hour, Evelyn calmed and the bradies stopped. I was a mess. There was no explanation for what had happened, it just was what it was. The unknown, terrifying.

Everyone tells you what a rollercoaster NICU is and trust me there is not a rollercoaster built by man that even comes close to the ups and downs of NICU. After the brady incident Evelyn improved day on day. She came off her ventilator, she didn't need CPAP (another breathing aid) and went straight onto Optiflow. Optiflow offers respiratory support by providing the patient with pressurised air through a nasal canula. This keeps airways open, ensures more efficient gas exchange and improves oxygen inhalation and absorbance. It is the least invasive of the respiratory support treatments. 

Then came the week where the consultant in charge of Room 4 was Ted. Funny thing about Ted is that when you first go into NICU there is a life-size cut-out of Ted encouraging hand washing. So when he took charge of Evelyn's care for the week it felt a bit like a celebrity as I had seen him every time I walked into NICU. Made me chuckle. He was very progressive with Evelyn's care. Her situation was so unheard of that all the consultants could really do is make educated (and obviously highly educated) guesses regarding the next steps. There was a lot of trial and error. Ted decided that we needed to see how Evelyn would cope without oxygen support. She spent an entire day, somewhere around 10 hours, with no extra breathing support. We were in awe! She eventually became tired and it was clear she needed a rest. She was so strong! She had one lung, she was barely 2 weeks old, but still 6 weeks premature, she had had major surgery to remove a lung and she breathed on her own for an entire day! What resilience.

ICU is a very overwhelming space. The noise is deafening at times, I often had such headaches sat in there. You see such poorly babies and their terrified parents. You see death. There is always so much activity in those rooms. Whenever the consultants were doing their daily rounds you couldn't be in there, except for when they got round to your baby. This was for confidentiality, but you would be unable to see your baby for a good couple of hours while they did their rounds. You get to know the nurses, and see the remarkable job they do and you sit and marvel that they find the energy to give the high standards of care that they provide. NICU nurses are a truly special breed of human.

She was 2 weeks old on Friday 8th February. The next day we walked in, as usual, straight in Room 4. Donna, another of Evelyn's favourite nurses, spotted us and rushed over to us. She had a huge smile on her face and explained that Evelyn had been moved to Room 8 - High Dependency. We couldn't believe it! She was well enough to be downgraded from ICU. Donna took us down to Room 8. There Evelyn was, in the corner, by the window. A beautiful spot that would become our spot. 

The next chapter had started.