6 years ago, almost to the day, my family and I were able to bring our son, Luca, home from the NICU after a 12 day stay following his premature birth. It was a very triumphant, heartfelt moment, and I am forever grateful that his stay resulted in good health, with no lasting complications. He is a healthy 6 year old boy now, and I sometimes forget how tiny he was back then. I remember how happy and relived I was to finally take him home, safe and sound, after his hospital stay.
He was born about 4 weeks early, at 35 weeks+6 days. Due to him being so young, he was having problems maintaining his temperature. Hence, he spent many days spent in the NICU under the experienced, watchful eyes of the nurses and physicians. Being postpartum, I was full of emotions and was fatigued and overwhelmed, but I had an underpinning, massive desire to take my new little guy home. I was indescribably happy when the NICU team gave us the good news that March 10, 2016 would be Mr. Luca’s discharge date, and we could take him home with us to help complete our family.
Thinking back, I contemplated how different the results would have been for both me and my child decades ago. I am astounded and amazed each day by modern medicine and all of the knowledge and technology we have acquired. It enabled my son’s care to go so smoothly and enabled such good outcomes. I realize our issues were very small in retrospect as well, compared to other family’s trials. I can only imagine with what other families go through with children born even earlier or with more challenging health concerns. My outcomes also would like have been very different if the physicians and nurses did not have their experience and modern technology to monitor me closely, with my vitals, how my labor was progressing, and how my child was doing during the labor process.
Seeing also how doctors care for me and my family as we see them, I marvel at how different things were 50-100 years ago. I often credit our good health and good outcomes on all of this collective knowledge our healthcare teams have obtained.
Working in telemedicine, a relatively new player in medicine, I see that medicine still has a lot of evolution to go. I know that telemedicine has limitations, but it also opens many doors in caring for patients. I can see them right where they live and work. I can see patients with limited access to care, and all it takes is each of us having a good device (computer, cell phone, or tablet) and a good internet connection. I never shy from telling patients when telemedicine is not the right avenue to go down. But I am surprised each day by how much I can accomplish, and how grateful patients and their families are for the care we provide with this service.
Going forward, I will keep observing how modern medicine can help me, my family members and friends, and my patients. I know that things will always evolve and change, as things must. I hope that things continue to evolve and improve. I hope good and better outcomes become common place. I hope that everyone can enjoy better health because of all of these continued changes and advances.