Jakjak Versus The Hospital | 2005

Premature babies often had big problems that come along with them being, well, premature. And one of the biggest challenges on the day they were about to get my son out was this thing called surfactant. It's a "surface-active lipoprotein complex formed by type II alveolar cells" (thank you Wikipedia!). In short, it's a very expensive product that is used to help premature babies with undeveloped lungs to - err - develop their lungs. Apparently, this thing is very hard to come by as most hospitals do not keep this in stock (because it's expensive). Luckily, my big sister had a lot of contacts from her previous work and managed to "reserve" one unit from that hospital, which just in case, was about 30+ kilometers away. And Jakjak, being blessed from the start, had no need for the surfactant at all.

So, Jakjak = 1, Hospital = 0.

Next up on the "common things that happen to premature babies" list, Jaundice. Jaundice is "also known as icterus (attributive adjective: icteric), is a yellowish discoloration of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the scelare (whites of the eyes), and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia (increased levels of bilirubin in the blood)" (Thanks again, Wikipedia!). In other words, Jakjak was turning yellow. And the way it was treated was to wrap the baby in aluminum foil and bake him inside his glass cage. Well, it was the cage that was wrapped in foil, and high heat lamps were directed inside of it. So it was sort of like baking the skin. 

Jakjak = 1. Hospital = 1.

Next thing I was told that a blood transfusion needed to be done on Jakjak. He was not my blood type so we had to  borrow blood from the blood bank (pretty creepy setup if you ask me). But it was not all that bad, I had the option to replace the blood used using my own. After getting clearance that my blood was not from a vampire, they stuck a 5 inch long and hollow needle and drained some 500cc of blood. If it was not for the Manny Paqiuao fight that day, I think I would have fainted (I am scared silly of blood). So I think this one is a draw.

Jakjak = 2. Hospital = 2.

That was not the end of it however, as the next few days, we found out he had hernia. Hernia is a protrusion of a tissue, structure, or part of an organ through the muscle tissue or the membrane by which it is normally contained. The hernia has three parts: the orifice through which it herniates, the hernial sac, and its contents (Yes, it's from Wikipedia). In other words, his "balls" were screwed. An operation was scheduled, 6 months after birth. If you can imagine me in that situation where I had to subject my 6 month old son to a major surgery, you would not have been happy about it either. Those were the days that I wished it was me and not him.

Jakjak = 2. Hospital = 3.

The scores are tallied and it seems that we lost this battle. But the war is not over! We shall return and fight another day! (queue megalomaniacal laughter here)