JAN 1 & JAN 2/ MASON GETS MRSA

It was the new year, we had just finished 2009 and it couldn’t feel better. I knew it was bad news as soon as I got to the hospital because my baby was gone. I didn’t know what to think at first, I got kinda scared but figured if anything serious was going on they would of called me. Feeling confused I went up to the NICU front desk and I told them “My baby is missing, he isn’t where he has been the last 23 days.  They asked me who my son was and when I told them it was baby boy Morales the lady smiled and told me right this way. She told me my nurse would explain why he was moved. He had been in room 288 that it was weird to go into a whole different room, It was a huge room filled with maybe 13 babies. I quickly glanced around and didn’t see Mason at all. She walked me to the back of the room where there was 2 additional separate rooms. She told me Mason was to stay in Isolation for the remainder of his stay. Confused I asked why and she told me his cultures had come back positive for MRSA….I freaked because I had no clue what MRSA was or its effects it would have on him. I asked and she informed me that MRSA was Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, She told me it was a bacterial infection that was resistant to some antibiotics but that they were treating him with the most potent ones they had. I asked her if this was the reason Mason had gotten so sick the last few days and she told me it might be. She also went on to tell me that because Mason had MRSA he would have to be in Isolation when ever he was admitted to a hospital…forever! I asked her where he could have gotten it and why. She explained to me that hospitals are full of bacteria but that our immunity fights it but since he hardly had none it was easy for this bacteria to colonize. They did a nose swab, a throat swab and a fistula swab and the only thing that came back positive was his nose. They would re do the culture in 4 days after the treatment of antibiotics. Regardless of the infection Mason was still doing pretty well, he continued to be off the pressors and they were continuing to wean on his ventilator. The goal was to get him back to the conventional ventilator and take him off the high frequency.Although I was upset that on top of all of Mason's problem this had to happen, I didn't mind having our own room. It was more spacious, I could have my own chair even rocker for when I start holding Mason. I could keep more of his things there since we all know his stay is long. This would be his room for the rest of his life. The last 2 days had been good days Mason was doing good off the pressors and they had even changed his only blood pressure medication from every 6 hours to every 8 hours. Things were looking good for Mason he had a scheduled eye exam to check for ROP on the 9th. Other than that we were cherishing every second with him.