Knowledge

Now I'm in my cot I feel that I can observe things much better. I am become much more knowledgeable and understand how and why things work. When I'm not meditating, I can see people's faces much better and hear each and every noise.

I'll try to explain a little more about what happens in my ward.

Everyday around 11:00am all the parents are asked to leave the room whilst more doctors and nurses enter. When these people form a circle around my bed, my parents, but only my parents, are allowed to re-enter the room. I've experienced this for 4 weeks now and I think I've figured out what's happening. They are called the 'Ward Rounds'. At first I never really paid much attention to what was being said, it was always big words which were responded to by nods, pens on chins or the sound of my Dad's voice intervening. 10 minutes pass, my parents leave and then my friend's go through the same bizarre ritual.
Recently however, now I'm more alert and am not trapped in my incubator, I've started to understand what is being said. I've tried to remember as much as possible, but can only really remember the words which I understand. The beginning bit is always the same. See how you do or if you want a hand visit my medical information page.

"Felix was born 29+6 with RDS, he's conjugated biliruben with screen in place, PDA was closed on day 5. Had infection with two positive cultures now negative after 10 days Teicoplanin. Has bi-lateral IVH with Grade 2-3 & 4, two weekly ultra scans and head circumference show normal development. Now back on 2 hourly feeds. Stools are of a pale colour"

After this the doctors and nurses look at the computer screens and ask each other questions. Sometimes my Dad suggests different answers or says something funny which makes people laugh and then realises perhaps he should be a bit more serious. Tut tut Daddy.

The last things they say are often to do with things I need to work on and improve. "Stools are of a pale colour" for example. I remember a few weeks ago when all the talk was about me opening my bowels. I did that. It took me two weeks of trying but I eventually gave the people what they wanted, but was that enough? No. Now my poo is of the 'wrong' colour. Imagine that!

Recently I've started communicating with my friend on the other side of the ward. As we haven't worked out how to talk, we communicate by setting off our alarms. If you have ever visited a neonatal ward there are mainly two alarms that you will hear regularly. The first, and the most common is the 'Saturation' alarm. When our oxygen saturation drops below 90% an alarm will sound, it's not a very loud alarm but it's enough to send communication to other babies. The next alarm is the more serious sounding one. I can get this to make a sound if I hold my breath or wriggle around when I have trapped wind, this is the 'Brady' alarm and it will make a loud fast alarm if my heart beat drops dramatically. Today, I managed to set my 'brady' alarm off and my friend responded immediately. I stopped, he stopped. In our language this means "Let's see whose nurse is the fastest". It was a draw.

I think the nurses are cottoning on to our games as last night I had three of my four sensors removed. Now I just have the "sats probe" attached to my foot. My Mum said my feet smells just like my Dads when this is removed. Thanks a lot.

Felix X x