House of blue light

Well that was a couple of days of surprises.

The girl was passing all her exams with flying colours - eyes good, reflexes excellent and her hearing test was, as the lady doing it exclaimed, one of the fastest positive results she had ever had (future DJ career Miss S??). But the lass had been looking a little on the yellow side, though nothing, we thought, to write home to mum about.

Still, the nurses were wondering, and Mistress P returned from a physio session thinking the lass was a darker shape of pale than before. Hence a blood test was called for which subsequently revealed...

Jaundice.

And not just common or garden variety jaundice (which is basically just a natural breaking down of a babies excess red blood cells - as used by eight of ten babies...) but "ABO hemolytic disease of the newborn (also known as ABO HDN)".

Big name, but it really just means that mum and little Miss S have different blood types - Mum "O" and S, "A" - which somewhere in the weird and wonderful mother-fetus connective plumbing got mixed. (Think of it like water and oil in an engine; both are vital, but you don't want them sloshing about in the same pipe together.)

Hence mum developed antibodies to "A" blood, and then passed these along (with all the other good antibodies) to Sissy through the placenta.

Ipso facto - Sissy had both "A" blood and a few "A" antibodies flushing about her system.

Bugger!

The result is a breakdown of the hemoglobin in the red blood cells and hence the production of stuff called bilirubin, which unfortunately cant be metabolised as easily in a bub as an adult. The excess bilirubin causes the yellowing of the skin, as well as fever, lethargy and an unwillingness to eat. Yes, hard to believe the last one with her genes.

Which is all not that good for a lass trying to make her way in this brave new outerworld, but then again, definitely not anything permanent.

Phototherapy (i.e., lying bub under bright lights) helps break down the bilirubin, and lots of feeding, especially with mothers milk, helps too. Hence mum, in her words, is no woman, "she be a milking machine", plus the lass gets to live in the special care nursery for a few days, ensconced in her own little house of blue light. (While Master M thinks Little Miss S has scored big time by having her own abode at age 2 days when he has only just graduated to a big bed, the house of blue light brings back bad memories for dad. He reckons it was Deep Purple's worst album ever.)

The good news is that shes racing forward faster than Usain Bolt, and things are looking up. She might even be kicked out in a day or two if things keep going well.

All this hiccup is dads fault.
Of course.
If he didn't (somewhat ironically) have "AB" blood, but had "O" instead, then all would have been fine and dandy no matter what got sloshed in anyones pipes.

But them's the breaks we guess.

Finally,... and seemingly one for the "impeccable timing" awards 2009:

The now famous Big Red Car, which Sarah gave Master M as a pressie, managed to lose a headlight, as you do when two days of being bashed about by a boy with an obsession for Wiggles is combined with a somewhat dodgy Chinese assembly line.

Hence dad fixed it.

But not after managing to spill plastic adhesive all over his hands when he pierced the tube.

"Oh fiddlestix..." he cursed. Or at least words to that effect.

Label said "remove from skin with solvent, e.g., nail polish remover."

So he tried that.
And it did nothing but make his hands completely stink.

"My hands stink!" he said as he took another whiff. "And they're giving me a high... man - where's the tim tams?"

And indeed it was making him a touch cheech and chong.

Whereupon it dawned on him that putting these smelly and high-inducing paws in a humidicrib/under his beautiful daughters head may hence not be considered all that au fair by the nurse.

Or little Miss S for that matter.

What timing.

"Shuggafruggabugga" said dad.

Much cursing, some eucalyptus oil and the remainder of Melbourne's potable water later, the hands were faintly less stinky.

"Of all days... you win again Wiggles; curse you and your primary coloured skivvies."

Happy mum.
Grinning (slightly stinky) dad.
Proud bro.
Growing girl.

Life is good.


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