Recovery Quint
Fortunately Quint recovered very quickly from his operation. He also needed new medication. Ursochol and Bactrimel. Ursochol has a very bitter taste. It is a powder which is dissolved in water. The first few days it went well, afterwards it became very difficult, and we had to be careful otherwise Quint would vomit his entire milk feeding out again. And the feeding was also difficult. Quint drank very slowly. He was put on a formula Heparon en apparently he did not like the taste. With a lot of effort he barely drank the minimum required which he needed. But he was growing so nobody worried, but in the meantime, we were busy night and day with this.
26 October Oscar had to return to Dubai to go working again. Quint had to stay in the hospital because he had to finish a Prednison treatment. During this period Melissa had to miss school and Oscar’s mom suggested she come to Dubai to look after Melissa when Oscar was at work. We accepted this so Melissa could go back to school. She is attending a pre kindergarten school and it is a very nice school. I found it very difficult to let her go but it was better for her, because I would have to spend a lot of time with her brother Quint. My mother came also to the hospital to help out. Every other day one of us would sleep in Quint’s room. It were long days in the Hospital.
November 1st was Melissa’s Birthday and for me that was a though moment because I promised her to bake a Dora cake which I was not able to do. Luckily Oscar was able to buy one and Melissa was very happy with this and her small party.
November 2nd Heleen came to keep me company in the hospital. Heleen talks to everyone and that was a very welcome distraction. Meanwhile, a lot went wrong as well. When Heleen arrived, Quint was transferred to another room with another child. Because of this, I decided not to stay and sleep with Quint. We stayed until the last feeding which ended around midnight. One morning, we found out that Quint did not get his morning feeding because there was no formula for him in the kitchen. A major mistake because his nutrition is very important. Later that day, the surgeon came and apologized for this big mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. I was very happy he admitted this. Mistakes can be made but to admit them often is something else. Hilde, the daughter of Heleen, suggested to mix the ursochol with roosvice syrup this worked very well, too bad the hospital staff did not come up with this idea.
November 14 we were introduced to the parents of baby Mees. Doctors suspected that Mees also had billiary atresia and they were just at the beginning of the whole process. We talked and for both side this was very positive. For me just to talk about it, and for them to get some information. We exchanged email addresses and a couple days later we heard indeed that Mees also has billiary atresia.
On November 15 Quint was released from the Hospital. We returned to The Hague to stay with the Grandparents. 27 November we had to come back for a checkup with Dr. Aronson and Dr. Tabbers. Quint’s blood values were slowly coming down, which was a positive sign. Dr. Aronson could not promise us when we could return to Dubai. It was necessary for the blood values to keep reducing. After our consultation we visited baby Mees en he was doing very well.
** Shirley **
