|
|
Hospital Journal | ||
|
w
Home |
March 21, 2005 Today has been a very busy day. Monday's usually are -- the doctors all come back to work after the weekend (it's usually residents and interns on the weekends). Jo got a new IV after being tubeless for a day. This one is for her edema. Also, she had the dressing changed on her incision. It seems to be healing well. Patrick and his daughter Marieve dropped in for a visit. Michelle, Patrick's wife, was in active labor and he needed a some one to mind her while their son Oliver was being born. We were more than happy to help out. Marieve slept through the entire event and Oliver was born in record time. Both mother and baby are doing fine. Although Oliver was only 33 weeks along, he was 2.6 kg at birth -- big enough to be in a bassinette and not a incubator. Congratulations Michelle & Patrick! Kyeong-soon our lovely Administrative Assistant dropped in after work. She gave us a great big plush baby blanket. It's still at the hospital, so I wasn't able to get a photograph of it. Dr. Kim dropped in for a visit. He is a lovely gentle and humorous man. He did a great job of answering our every question and helping us feel as comfortable and confident as possible for our pregnancy and birth. I can't say enough about how grateful I am to him for his expertise and the service his given us.
He brought along his two residents, too. They both were wonderful when they attended to us and Madeleine. They are fine doctors.
Sanghee came by to pick up some paperwork and discuss our insurance coverage. She also posed for another picture!
It was also my first day back in the classroom since Tuesday. I certainly appreciate my academic writing & English language and writing students for understanding and putting up with the cancelled classes. Also, to Brian and Richard for covering my other classes! Those folks made our lives much easier throughout last week. While we're thanking people, Lisa deserves a big thank you for lending us her digital camera! Without it we couldn't have made these pages and saved so many wonderful memories. Thank you, Lisa! March 20, 2005 Unfortunately I forgot the memory card for the camera at home, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for pictures of today's events. Believe me there many eventful events today. The most eventful event of the day happened about 10:00 a.m. when Micheline took Madeleine to the nursery for her twice daily vital sign check. They needed to do some blood work and took some from her wrist. That didn't agree with her and made her cry worse than she has ever cried. It also resulted in a big bandage! Luckily, the nurse comforted Madeleine and she calmed down quickly! The next big item was that Madeleine passed the last of her meconium. It is the result of digesting amniotic fluid while in the womb. The baby doesn't excrete it in the womb under normal conditions, but waits until her father is available to clean it up -- which I happily did. After all of the meconium is excreted, the baby is free to begin excreting whatever she has been ingesting after birth. That day was today! Michelle who was admitted to the hospital last night came up for a visit in the late afternoon. She was there when I arrived. We talked about her hospital stay and ours and babies and babies and babies... Michelle began labor with strong contractions last night and was admitted at 9:00 p.m. Unfortunately, her contractions subsided during the night, so it looks like birth wasn't as imminent as she originally thought. Apparently there was a strong earthquake in Japan today. It is of interest to us because it was in Fukuoka which is across the straight from Korea and is visible on a clear day. Also, we felt the shockwaves at about 11:00 a.m. I didn't personally, but the hospital and PNU did. Jo still does not feel like leaving the hospital. That's okay, it is completely up to her. I am a bit concerned, though, since she said that she thought she wouldn't leave until Madeleine was 18. The nurses it seems really do a good job and everyone is taking care of both Jo and Madeleine real well. I'll see if the insurance will cover it. March 19, 2005 Usually women remain hospitalized for seven days after a cesarean, but Dr. Kim being the softy that he is said Jo could be discharged after her course of antibiotics was completed. They will be completed on Sunday, so it all depends on if Jo feels up to climbing the steps to our house. Otherwise it was a day of visitors both in person and over the phone. Jo talked to her Grandpapa Chauvin and her father, Gilles. Both wished that they could be here and we wish they could, too. We'll do the best we can to help them feel like they're here. Following are pictures of Jo and Madeleine's daily life: The view outside of Jo's hospital window. The enterprising person can match the pictures up and the enterprising web maker could, too, but the overly tired substitute web maker can't. Still it was a beautiful early spring day and a great day for viewing the mountains outside of the hospital. This of course makes you wonder what you're looking at.
You may be wondering about some of the structures on the roofs of some of the smaller buildings. Those smaller buildings are where the other Koreans live (those that don't live in the tall tall apartment buildings or the mansions). Jo, Madeleine and I live in one of these. Anyway, back to the rooftops. I'll explain what we're seeing in this picture:
You probably notice the blue cylinders first. These are filled with water. The water is pumped into them from the purifying plant and then gravity fed into the houses for sinks and toilets and such. Although when the water leaves the plant it meets U.S. standards, people still don't drink it. Mostly out of a combination of tradition and its bad smell. If you look to the left of that center cluster of four cylinders, you'll see a green rectangular cube. That stores the fuel oil that fires the hot water heater of one of the dwellings in the building. The hot water is used for bathing, cleaning and heating the floors. Those heated floors are heavenly on cold winter mornings and make great sense when you realize that most Koreans sleep on thin mattresses on the floor. The next thing is harder to see. If you look at the pale blue water tank on the green roof on the right and then just to the right of it, you'll see a gray smudge. This gray smudge is actually a canister of LPG that is used to fuel the cookers in every Korean home. You never know when you're going to run out until your stove sputters to a stop, but the delivery guy usually comes within 30 minutes of your call, so it's not too bad. We also had some in-person visitors. The Kims came to see us. They are Won-gil, his wife Emiko and their two sons Ee-eun and Joon. Here are their pictures:
Micheline, Emiko, Joon and Won-gil (l to r)
This is Ee-eun, he's almost five and in kindergarten.
This is Joon, he's six months.
Won-gil holding Joon Won-gil and Emiko met on the ferry to Victoria from Vancouver where they were studying English and they've been together ever since. Won-gil, of course, is Korean, but Emiko is Japanese. Jo and Emiko met in a Korean language class, and they've been together ever since, too! March 18, 2005 Today was a day of visitors. We took pictures of almost everyone! First was Michelle and Patrick and their daughter, Mariève.
Marieve They dropped in on their way to their appointment with Dr. Kim. Michelle is now 33 weeks along and owing to some special conditions expects to have Oliever sometime soon. We enjoyed visiting with them and swapping new baby advice for PNU Hospital advice. Next was Julie. She was planning on visiting and decided to stop at immigration on her way down since it is on the way. Julie brought some cool presents. Our hospital liaison extraordinaire, Sanghee dropped in on her way to a bachelorette party. She agreed to hold Madeleine and pose for this picture (reluctantly).
Dr. Kim visited while Micheline and I were out fiddling with the Internet and Jo was feeding Madeleine, so no picture was taken. We'll have to catch him next week. One of the days big events was Micheline teaching us her burping method. It looks like this:
Only it is more pleasant. Otherwise Madeleine was sleeping and that looks like this:
She went to for a physical today and was pronounced in excellent health. She is slightly congested and has a little bit of dry skin around her mouth, but neither thing is much to worry about.
|
||
|
|
|||
In the left side view, you can see the tall tall apartment block in the
upper left. This is typical of what many Koreans live in. Now
that the family structure is changing and fewer people are living with
their extended family in one dwelling, more of these are needed to
accommodate all of the new nuclear families.
The center view is dominated by the blue and white smoke stack. This
is from the boiler for the public bath that is located there. Also
you can see a government building to its right and a mansion just in front
of it. A mansion in Korea is a small block of apartments.
On the right side you can see two churches (the red brick building on the
left and the white steeple on the right) and a wing of the hospital in the
right foreground.
