Azucar
We have a lot of Spanish-speaking families who deliver in the nursery. In Spanish, "azucar," means "sugar."
One of the mother's had had no prenatal care. Not a single visit. None of the usual screens. I'm not even sure she took pretnal vitamins. Her baby came out okay, but he had a very low blood glucose of 15 on our first check. The nurse practitioner fed him and rechecked and it was only up to 35--still pretty low. We weren't sure what to believe since he was pretty asymtomatic and sometimes the tests are wrong.
I suggested that we check mom's blood glucse since she may have had gestational diabetes which would cause the baby to hypoglycemic soon after birth. It's something that would have been picked up during the prenatal care, but hadn't gone. The nurse practitioner had already gently scolded her about this so she was sort of in a huff about it to begin with.
She was in even more of a huff after we checked her blood sugar and she sat there indignant holding the bandaid on her punctured finger, glaring around angrily.
By this time the father of the baby had come in to be with them both and he agreed with the medical team. I guess he'd wanted her to get care all along but she thought it wasn't necessary and was too much of a bother. "I told you so," was the look on his face as they sat about three feet apart and listened to us explain that the baby's "azucar" was low and that we needed to check hers. Her's was normal so she was even more huffy.
At some point during this discussion, she decides that she has had enough and thinks of a way to blame this whole charade on someone else. She points to her husband, "Check his sugar, too. It is probably his fault."
"That's impossible," we explain to her, "we don't need to check his sugar. He didn't carry the baby!" She is still upset, but her son turns out to be fine. He glucose rises approriately with the next feed.
Check his sugar. We try not to giggle about it too much. It's funnier when you see the nurse practitioner tell it...but maybe it's a little funny here, too.
One of the mother's had had no prenatal care. Not a single visit. None of the usual screens. I'm not even sure she took pretnal vitamins. Her baby came out okay, but he had a very low blood glucose of 15 on our first check. The nurse practitioner fed him and rechecked and it was only up to 35--still pretty low. We weren't sure what to believe since he was pretty asymtomatic and sometimes the tests are wrong.
I suggested that we check mom's blood glucse since she may have had gestational diabetes which would cause the baby to hypoglycemic soon after birth. It's something that would have been picked up during the prenatal care, but hadn't gone. The nurse practitioner had already gently scolded her about this so she was sort of in a huff about it to begin with.
She was in even more of a huff after we checked her blood sugar and she sat there indignant holding the bandaid on her punctured finger, glaring around angrily.
By this time the father of the baby had come in to be with them both and he agreed with the medical team. I guess he'd wanted her to get care all along but she thought it wasn't necessary and was too much of a bother. "I told you so," was the look on his face as they sat about three feet apart and listened to us explain that the baby's "azucar" was low and that we needed to check hers. Her's was normal so she was even more huffy.
At some point during this discussion, she decides that she has had enough and thinks of a way to blame this whole charade on someone else. She points to her husband, "Check his sugar, too. It is probably his fault."
"That's impossible," we explain to her, "we don't need to check his sugar. He didn't carry the baby!" She is still upset, but her son turns out to be fine. He glucose rises approriately with the next feed.
Check his sugar. We try not to giggle about it too much. It's funnier when you see the nurse practitioner tell it...but maybe it's a little funny here, too.
posted by S. at 9:19 PM
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