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Sunday, May 02, 2004 |
I'm so tired. I just brought the kids to the hospital to hang out and Frank threw up all over the place. Hilarity ensued. Next thing I knew we were back on the street. Maureen had some baby jaundice so she went under the lights all day. Jaundice is caused by a build up of dead blood cells. One of the breakdown products of the blood cells is bilirubin. Babies recycle their red blood cells faster than adults, leaving a lot of waste for the baby's immature liver to clean up. The waste builds up everywhere including the skin and turns it yellow. 9 out of 10 babies have some jaundice. In a few babies the biliruben levels get alarmingly high and the jaundice is treated with phototherapy. So, Maureen is in a box with lights shining on her. The billy lights, as they are called, break down the biliruben. They did a second test at 7:00 and the numbers look good ( 12 being an example of good) Maggie had the same thing and she was up to 17 or so at one point. They should be home tomorrow. The nursing seems to be going well. Sometimes baby jaundice can be caused by a mother-fetus incompatibility of blood types but we aren't sure if that is the case here. When I told Maggie that the baby is in a box with lights because her skin turned a funny color, she looked at me with this look like, "you ain't foolin me with another crackpot story" 9:59:26 PM  comment []
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Last update: 6/3/2004; 4:49:19 PM .
