02/11/10 Surprises and Suspicions

Today we get some results back but they come with a couple surprises. They tested for some type of flu virus and it came back negative so the medical staff doesn't have to wear masks anymore in the room. They're still waiting on one more test before they can lose the gowns though.

The surprises start at Rounds. The x-ray shows that Eli has a broken right clavicle but his heart and lungs look pretty good. We told the team that Eli had an x-ray at Evergreen shortly after he was born and they hadn't picked up on the broken collar bone. A broken collar bone is not that uncommon and is usually associated with normal birth trauma especially for a larger baby like Eli but we were surprised that it wasn't caught at Evergreen. We were also told that the CT scan of Eli's brain showed an abnormal or immature region and potentially some bleeding and they wanted to get a better picture by doing an MRI. They also wanted to do a full body scan (x-ray) to see if there was any additional birth trauma or damage to Eli. At this point they couldn't say with any certainty that the brain issue was causing the problems Eli was having but they were leaning toward more neurological causes now as the results for infection come rolling in negative.

Later in the evening we got a call from Dr. Shlafer, our Pediatrician, who has been following up with us on a very regular basis with calls to the hospital. He's been great that way and he has a knack for explaining some of the tests they're running in terms we can understand. Dr. Shlafer is pretty agitated that they are going to expose Eli to the radiation needed for a full body scan. He tells us the team here is looking into child abuse because of the broken collar bone and the results from the CT scan. He's been arguing with one of the doctors here but I suppose they have to cover their collective butts. We know the whole situation should probably bother us but we have nothing to hide and we're too distraught to be angry right now.