Preemies
Visiting Nurse Question
My baby came home on Saturday. So far everything has been going well with him at home. The insurance company called a little while ago to see how he was doing now that he is home and how we are doing with the monitor (he came home on an apnea monitor). Then she said something about a visiting nurse coming out to my house and that she had put in for the visiting nurse to come two times. I had never heard anything about a visiting nurse coming so I asked her about that and she said that the case manager at the hospital asked for a visiting nurse to come to check on the baby. It would have been nice if something had been said to me by the case manager. I asked the person that I was talking to from the insurance company what the visiting nurse would do and she said weigh the baby and check the respiratory rate. I asked if we definitely had to have the visiting nurse and told her the reason I was asking was because he is going to the pediatrician weekly, the opthamologist weekly (although that may be more spread out starting next week), the cardiologist (he has a VSD), and the pulminologist. I feel he is being monitored well between all of those doctors so I don't know that we need a visiting nurse too. She said if I don't want the visiting nurse I can tell them when they call that he is being monitored by many doctors. I was wondering if any of you had a visiting nurse come and would you recommend me having one or do you think it is okay that he just be monitored at all of the other doctor appointments?
Conceived twins with IVF January 2008. Lost baby a at 20 1/2 weeks due to premature rupture of membranes and held onto baby b. Baby b (Brandon) born at 26 weeks and 1 day on July 5, 2008. Wesley born full term on June 29, 2011.
My blog http://karenandstu.blogspot.com
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Re: Visiting Nurse Question
We had 3 visits (1/week for 3 weeks) when we were discharged..
We don't have nearly as many doctors as you do, though.
We have the pediatrician, the gastric specialist & the surgeon..
We also have the early intervention people coming.. It does seem like we have a parade of people/appts.
Anyway, I've liked having her come just to weigh him, check in etc. She'll also bring me any supplies I ask for which is nice.
And ours turned out to be an angel. She came last Friday and asked if I was sleeping. When I scoffed and said "Uh.. I got an hour last night." she actually offered to come back after her shift and take care of him so I could get a nap. She brought dinner and everything (and refused to let me pay her.)
She also helped me with nursing and such..
It's really up to you.
It sounds like you ARE being monitored very closely.. but I've appreciated the visits overall. (though she does seem to always manage to come just as I've gotten him to sleep. Murphy's Law.)
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We had her come and we loved her. She was sweet and more helpful in many ways than the nicu nurses were (she's not from the hospital, but a different agency).
It was nice to have someone check on them, and we spaced her visits between our pedi visits, which was great because going to the pedi is a pita.
If it's covered by insurance, i recommend it. At least try it out and then cancel if you don't like her or the process
I came back to add that ours came today and not only did she check Robbie out and call the pediatrician about some concerns.. but she focused on me a bit, too..
Took my BP.. which was high. (BAH!)
She's just focused a little differently than some of the other docs.
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