Lead Nightmare

Back in September, we took Caleb to his well-baby 12 month visit. All was well, and because we live in a house built in the 1880's, we had his lead levels tested. We had the other kids lead levels tested and they were always normal, so after the test was drawn I never gave it a second thought. Until I got a phone call from the office the next day. His lead level was very high, so they wanted to have it re-drawn to make sure. So we did. It was still high and we were very upset and went crazy trying to figure out how it happened. Our house is old but we were told when we bought it that there was no lead paint in use in the house and that it had been repainted years ago. We knew that when the house was repainted, that they hadn't done a great job removing all the old lead paint because there are areas where it is peeling, but Caleb wasn't ever outside. We had the other kids rechecked and they were fine. After looking around the house, we decided that the lead probably came from our front door jambs. When Isaiah gets on the bus at noon, I would leave the big wood door open so I could see Caleb through the glass door as I walk Isaiah to the bus. In between the doors, there were some paint chips from when I forcefully pulled a Christmas tree out the door. We think he picked up a paint chip and put it in his mouth. I then immediately cleaned up the few little paint chips and we painted over the door jambs to prevent any more paint from chipping off.

In the meantime, because Caleb had a high lead level, it had to be reported to the health department. Little did we know how big an ordeal this would become. A nurse from the health department came out, and screened him to make sure he wasn't suffering from any developmental delays. Then she said a lead inspector would be out at some point to help us find the lead, and we would have repeat tests to make sure Caleb's levels were dropping. Thankfully, since September, Caleb's levels are now normal and dropped pretty rapidly. But after a couple weeks, we hadn't heard from the lead inspector. I actually thought they had forgotten about us, which now I wish they would have. But back in February, finally, he called and we set up a time for him at the beginning of March to come out, on a Tuesday. As fate would have it, I end up getting very sick with stomach flu the Sunday night before and was still a little sick on that Tuesday. I figured lets get this over with so I didn't cancel the appointment. I also didn't clean before he came. I had worried that when he came out that he would say you have to put new siding on your house but a coworker that used to work at the health dept for a short time reassured me that wouldn't happen. Wrong. He was at the house for about 3 hours, collected dust samples and in passing conversation, he mentioned that he had a case by the hospital I work at. The family couldn't come up with the large amount of money to have the lead abated so they walked away and let the bank take the house. Seriously?!?! I started to panic. After he was done, he said the inside of the house is fine, but the whole outside is covered in lead. Siding, exterior of windows. At this point, he wasn't telling me something we hadn't already figured out. So I asked what that meant for us.

We would receive a mitigation notice and a timeline. The mitigation notice would tell us what we have to have abated or mitigated. The timeline is 90 days, which can be extended to 150 days. If the work isn't' done in 150 days, then it's handed over to the States Attorney and we could at the longest extend the timeline to 1 year, but that's with court costs and possibly fines. And the way he presented it was if it wasn't done, and we continued to live in the house, we would be charged with child endangerment. WTH? It was all I could do to keep from breaking down until he left. How the heck were we going to come up with $10K (yeah, gross underestimate of the real cost but at that time, that's the number in my head) to reside the house.

Our mitigation notice came and not only do we have to reside the house, we have to replace all original windows, encapsulate areas of our porch and replace an original door going to the cellar. In 90 days. And if we don't want to use a lead abatement specialist, we can apply for a waiver so we can use a contractor that has their EPA certification to deal with lead-based paint. I spent so much time on the phone talking to people about this, if there was any aid, worrying about having to walk away from our home, etc. We also started calling companies/contractors to get estimates. Our first estimate was a major shock: $36,000. Yep. 10K suddenly seemed like no big deal. Because of regulations placed on contractors that work on houses with lead based paint, the clean-up and how they work increases the cost.

We're kind of stuck. We bought this house for the size because we knew we wanted a large family. The market is crap. This house won't sell for what we owe so we would take a huge loss, especially since it is required by law that we give any potential buyers a disclosure, in writing, that there is lead paint. Too bad we weren't given that. So selling isn't an option so we can't just move. We don't want to walk away because it's our home and there aren't any rental houses in our small town. Plus who wants to do that? Our only option is to try and get financing. The main problem with that is how do you come up with that amount of money? There is no equity in the house because we haven't lived here long enough, but we went ahead and applied for a home equity loan. I'm sure it's a waste. Another option is to try and finance through siding & window companies, which will be our next step. After that, I'm not sure. There was a church group who wants to help, but its not something that they can do because we aren't allowed to do it ourselves with that EPA certification. Maybe, maybe there will be grant money available to help but the state is broke and most likely they will deem us unworthy because of our income. In the interim, I have been washing the window sills to contain lead dust, I always mop the floors to that's nothing new, we can't open our windows because there's lead paint on the window jambs. Its a level of stress I never knew existed.

Lead paint is very dangerous, and it's not just the ingestion of paint chips that's the problem, it's the lead dust. I get it, I really do. The lady in charge of Lead-safe State said that we obviously are doing something right because Caleb's levels are normal and the other kids are fine. Our case is most likely ingestion. Anyway, it is a problem and it needs to be taken care of. We don't want anyone to have lead poisoning, but how can they seriously ask a middle-class family to come up with that much money in such a short amount of time? Obviously, if we had the money, we would have done it already. I guess they think it's ok to push a family out of their home, force them to choose to foreclose on their house because they can't afford the work or they decide it isn't worth it, ruin them financially, and then ask them to move to some small apartment or house? Really? Because if no one will finance us for such a large amount, that's what could happen. We could be forced to move out of the small town we love because there are no rental properties available. (I looked). We would have to either foreclose on our home, be ruined financially, and most likely end up in a smaller house than what we are in. And we work full time, pay our bills and until this happened, we are/were financially secure. But we don't have $36K. Is this really the goal? To push families from their homes, to ruin them financially, not to mention the consequences of the stress of something like this, all because of lead based paint? Especially since the kids levels are normal? I know God works in mysterious ways and doesn't give us more than what we can handle, but right now, it's overwhelming and who knows were it will take us.

School

Since Isaiah has been going to early childhood classes, we have seen some great improvements in his speech. It has been a wonderful thing for him. When Caleb was born, he was hardly speaking at all, and what he did say was just jibberish. But now, we can understand what he says, he can write his name, and he really knows most of the basic skills he will need for kindergarten. After this year, he will go to pre-k. One thing that goes along with school is riding the bus. He gets on the bus at noon with only early childhood kids and then rides the bus home with Jacob and Clara. In addition to learning how to write and how to behave on the bus, he is learning other skills. Today he showed me what he learned on the bus yesterday. And he proceded to flip me the bird. Grand. My 4 year old knows how to give the middle finger. I really hope he forgets this little "skill" and doesn't show it off to anyone else. I probably don't want to know what else he has learned on the bus.

Scatterbrained

It's been crazy up in here, so here are some random tidbits for your enjoyment.

* I decided to try out the elliptical at the gym to give my joints a break. After 130+ laps at the indoor track (10 miles) my right leg, which was on the inside lane was a bit sore. It isn't severe pain, but more of a mild pain but the leg feels weak. It starts on the outside of my knee and runs down across to the inside of my ankle. I'm self diagnosing myself with an overuse injury of my IT band. (I actually have no idea, it just sounds good) So I'm trying to back off on the running for a bit to let it heal and decided once I do start training full on again, I need to stick to road running. The track is just too small for doing high mileage and the treadmill is out. I must run differently on the treadmill because that also irritates the outside of my right leg, or what I'm deciding is my IT band, so I tried the elliptical for the first time. I felt a little silly because it took me a minute to realize how to turn it on (you just start moving...the treadmills have an "on" button) and the moving my arms as much as the machine has you do felt odd, but I did 4 miles and felt pretty good, no trouble with my leg. This was 2 days ago. I noticed that my back was sore last night and this morning and I couldn't figure out what the deal was. Until I remembered the elliptical. Now it makes perfect sense. Yep, I'm quick.

* Clara is sick. I think could be strep throat - headache, nausea, sore throat, couch, fever. But I really don't know for sure. It's going around the school apparently. So a doc office visit is in the plans today. I hate when the kids are sick. I don't want them to be miserable, I don't want it to run rampant through the house and get everyone else sick either. I got the call from the school as I was pulling into the parking deck at work for a meeting. At least I hadn't gotten into the building.

* Caleb's new pastime is dumping glasses on the floor. The older kids just can't seem to remember that they need to keep their glasses in the kitchen. When no one is looking, Caleb sneaks over to the table, grabs a full glass of milk (it's always milk, it can never be water) and then we hear the sound of liquid hitting the rug. We thoroughly enjoy it.

* The ornery thing also shook his head at me and told me "NO!" yesterday. We've never actually heard him say the word "no" before. I had run to the bathroom as to avoid a bladder explosion and Caleb must have thought I was abandoning him. So he cried like his heart was broken. I came back, sat down on the couch and said to him "Come here". He looked at me, shook his head and hollered "NO!" at me. *sigh* I'm glad he saved that little first for me. Husband thought it was hysterical.

* I am currently knitting scarf #4. Yes, I learned to knit. I made one for myself, one for a friend and one for Clara. I have camo yarn for scarves for the boys. I'm finally doing ok at not dropping or adding stitches. Maybe in 5 years I'll be up for making something like, say, a hat, or with a pattern. Right now, I'll just finish my scarves.

* Had a girls night out with my mom friends last night. Between the 3 of us we have 13 kids. We get out maybe once a month to the local pub (which is 1 block from my house...the beauty of small towns) In the summer, we get together with the kids, and there are a couple other moms that come sometimes, they have 3 and 4 kids. Only one of the kids is over the age of 10. So when the whole group is together, you need earphones as to avoid permanent hearing loss.

Small Steps in the Right Direction

The longer I work in labor and delivery, the more I see that there is a need for things to change, especially regarding c-sections. (No, this isnt a post about how there are too many c-sections...that's whole huge post and discussion for another day. Yes, avoiding c-sections altogehter is the best answer, but until we get to that point, there are still many c-sections being done and we need to manage things better until we get to that point) I'll admit, since 4 of my 3 kids were born by c/s, 2 of them preterm and one emergency, it hits a nerve for me. Why is it routine to take babies born by c-section away from their mothers? In certain cases, obviously there isn't a choice, either the mom is too sick or the baby is too sick. What about those non-emergent cases, like a failure to progress, scheduled repeat, or a repeat c-section in labor, or the like? It seems routine that the the baby is born in the OR, taken to a warmer where most the time the pediatrician is in attendance. Baby is held up to mom so she can see her baby, then Dad goes with the nursery nurse, pediatrician and baby to the nursery and the mom is left alone with strangers while they finish the surgery. The baby has already been evaluated and is fine, but stil they go to the nursery. Why? Had my last baby been term, I had already stated that he would not have left the OR. I knew he would be given a good once over by the pediatrician and nursery nurse, so I saw no reason why he should leave. He could hang out in Husbands arms until they were through with me, Husband would give me the baby and I would be wheeled out of the OR into recovery with Caleb skin-to-skin. But, that bonding wasn't able to happen until I was in recovery because he was 34 weeks. And this is where a lot of c-section moms start having trouble. Here they are, sometimes they feel like their body has failed them because they need a c-section. So their baby is delivered through their abdomen, they will have a longer recovery and the baby is taken away from them. They may seem "fine" during the short 2-3 day hospital stay because they have their baby and they do all the typical things new mothers do. But it's not until after they are discharged that the emotional turmoil begins for some. They start to realize they missed out on those first moments. They weren't able to hold their baby for 1-2 hours, in some cases, even longer. Here they carried and loved this child, labored and they are the last to hold the baby. Some women even feel like it was their "punishment" for not being able to deliver vaginally. And these feelings start spinning out of control and when they try to talk about these feelings to others, they are brushed off. "Well, you got a healthy baby. Why are you so upset/sad/angry?". Yes, the most important thing is a healthy mom and a healthy baby, but the birth experience is also very important. I know even for myself, when I tried to talk about my unsettled feelings about Calebs birth, some people look at me like I'm nuts, that I should let it go, "it's been a year plus, just move on". The thing is it's not that easy. Yes, I'm very thankful he was delivered healthy, considering his early gestation, and he is an absolute joy. But, I am still unhappy with the lack of respect I was shown in the day and hours leading up to his birth and during. I was almost denied the option of having Husband there. What would have happened if I hadn't worked in OB? Would I have thought to say "no, if the baby and I are fine I want to wait"? Probably not. That disrespect cut much deeper than the scalpel blade. Those physical scars have healed, but the emotional scars are still a bit tender. But having the opportunity to have Caleb skin-to-skin within an hour of his birth and being able to take him in, to hold him against my chest, eased some of the pain/guilt I was feeling. Ok, back to my main point. Why not keep the baby in the OR with mom? Why can't we keep her child with her, bring him/her to her so she can see, touch and yes, even hold her baby (it is possible) while the docs finish up surgery. Then the baby can go with her to recovery and she will be able to be with her child those first few moments and maybe that will help. I've been doing this lately. I've asked the nursery nurse and pediatrician if the baby can stay in the OR. And I've not met ANY resistance. The results have been awesome. I can't speak to how the moms feel after they are discharged or if it has any effect on possible emotional turmoil they may feel, but in the immediate here and now, they seem happy. They don't lose those first few minutes. They don't watch helplessly as their baby is taken to the nursery even though everything is fine. They get to do skin-to-skin as soon as they are in recovery and guess what? These babies have all nursed great in recovery. Coincidence? Perhaps. It might be a small step in the right direction. Maybe it won't have much impact. Or maybe, just maybe, it will make a world of a difference. It can't hurt to try.

Marathon #2

When I ran the marathon last year, I remember thinking to myself at about mile 20 "never again". I told Husband at I think mile 21 "This sucks. No more marathons". I said over and over again afterwards that "I'm good. I have no need to do that again". Especially that night when I rolled over in bed, forgetting that every muscle in my body was angry and sore and I winced in pain. But a few days later, I started thinking that I wanted to do it again, and train the right way, with adequate time to train. I want to run the entire 26.2 miles, none of this walking the last 6 miles. So, about 1 hour after registration opened on February 1st, I officially registered for my second Chicago Marathon!! I have 246 days to train, as opposed to 2 months. I'm running a half marathon in April, so I've been training. The local community college has an indoor track the public can use so I've been going there to run. For 1 mile, you have to run 13 laps and I just can't keep track of laps because it's monotonous enough running in circles. I can't torment myself with keeping track of laps. Instead, I've been running for a certain amount of time. I know I run at an 11-minute mile pace, so I just estimate how far. Wednesday, I ran for 1hour, 45minutes and it felt good. Plus running at the track, I can make a quick stop at the water fountain, and then get back out to running. Just like I would do during a race. So training is going great, and I'm already excited to be running another marathon this fall. My goal is to finish in 5-5:30 hours. Not a lofty goal at all, but it seems realistic for me. Now, time to get motivated.

Miracles

*L&D unit, wee morning hours, mom presents in labor.

Mom: This child is my miracle baby

Nurselochia: Yeah?

Mom: Absolutely. We tried for year for a baby. Finally we had our daughter and we were on top of the world. But we wanted her to have a sibling. Someone to share life with. And we felt like our family wasn't quite complete. We wanted another child. So we tried, and tried and finally we got pregnant. Then I lost it. So we tried again. And again I lost the baby. This happened 3 times and I finally told my husband that I would try one more time. But if I miscarried another child, I couldn't do it again. We gave it another go. And I was happy but terrified when that second line came up. We waited until I was about 8 weeks to see the doc. We went in, both of us on edge and Doc did a sono to verify that I was pregnant. We saw the baby...but there was no heartbeat. No blood flow to the baby. We were devastated. Doc suggested we go home and give my body time to naturally miscarry. He wanted to see me back in a week just to check on me and we'd go from there if nothing was happening. I didn't want a D&C. So we went home and cried and started praying that God would allow my body to do what it had done with the 3 prior losses. But nothing happened. We went back a week later and saw Doc. He did another sono to see if anything was starting to happen, and the look on his face told me nothing had. He looked at me and said "I don't know how to tell you this..." and I interrupted "I know, I can tell nothing is happening". He said "No, that's not it at all. Here, look here". So I looked at the screen and there was this little flickering where there hadn't been a week ago". Doc said "See? This baby is alive. I don't understand it, but look at that!" And here we are, 40 weeks and I'm going to get to hold this little boy that I thought I'd never have!


I wasn't sure why her doc would have done another sonogram after the initial but I've never worked in an office before and that early pregnancy stuff I'm not so good with. I thought maybe she didn't quite understand everything, maybe she had been too early to see a heartbeat and that's why her doc wanted to recheck in a week. I also knew at 8weeks there should be a heartbeat. I also had no reason to doubt her. It just seemed so unlikely. I was skeptical until I looked at her prenatal record the office sent over. And right there, documented in this pregnancy history just as she had told me. "IUP at 8w. No cardiac activity noted." And then an entry that estimated gestation to be 9 weeks with a healthy heartbeat, followed by a long list of appointments that outlined her prenatal care, and verified that her dates were absolutely correct. Her doc affirmed her story at delivery. Maybe there was a more logical explaination as to what happened. Maybe they just "missed" the heartbeat, etc. But I choose to believe that they didn't miss anything, that this truly was a miracle. Why question something that had such a positive outcome? There wasn't a dry eye in the L&D department that night. A prayer was said as this little boy entered the world screaming and healthy. Very much full of life.

Who says God doesn't perform miracles?

One sign it's the end of a busy, busy night.

On one particularly busy, crazy night, I had a patient who we were watching for labor. She had an IV running for no other reason than to have it in "just in case she went into labor" and she decided wanted to get up and walk the halls. I saline locked her IV and just attached the end of the tubing to another port on the IV line, above the IV pump. She got up, walked for awhile and then decided she was ready to lay down. I flush her saline lock. About that time, I was called out of the room to go to the ER for a patient who came in by ambulance who was crowning. I quickly turn my pump back on, and make a mad dash to the ER where got the pleasure of catching a baby down in the ambulance bay while the ER staff stood as far away as possible. (They don't do labor...we don't do traumas. We have an understanding). Exhilarating. Anyway, I go in to check on my other patient who had been up walking, who was now asleep, and I'm surprised to see the IV bag looks suspiciously as full as it was when she went back to bed.* I use my clinical skills and I realized why...I never hooked the tubing back up to the saline lock. The fluid was just cycling through the pump, thus explaining why my bag volume looked the same...because it was. *Dumb* Thankfully, it was change of shift.

*no harm was done, before someone blasts me. Fluid was a *just because* order, so we'd have the line in if she went into labor and I was given "permission" to saline lock her if she got up and walked. I could have left her IV site saline locked or hooked fluid back up, and she was a little on the dehydrated side and I figured the fluid wouldn't hurt her.