Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sour Milk

It's been an interesting couple of days. And I think I've been a bit overwhelmed to really process everything. I'll start at the beginning...

On Thursday, I finally got through to someone from the Milk Bank of America. For those that don't know the whole story, while Ellie was hospitalized, I was pumping breast milk and freezing it. By the time we discovered that she had a cow's milk protein allergy, I had over 300 ounces of breastmilk in the freezer. She couldn't drink them, obviously, because they contained dairy. And though most kids will outgrow a milk protein allergy around 6-7 months, all that milk will have expired by that time (if I had a deep freezer it would keep longer, but we don't).

So, I finally got someone to talk to me. It only took, like, a month. Honestly, donating something shouldn't be such a pain in the ass. So she explains to me that there's a phone interview, medical record check, and a blood test that I have to do. Annoying, but if it will save some premie baby's life somewhere, I'm on board.

I never got past the phone interview.

Apparently, if you have chronic allergies and must take Zyrtec to control your symptoms so you don't have sinus infections and daily head-to-toe hives.... you're out. I don't understand. I took Zyrtec during pregnancy with my doctor's ok. I pumped breastmilk for my daughter with her doctor's ok. Don't think I was just popping pills irresponsibly here, people. There's no pain meds, no alcohol, or even caffeine in that milk... and I get sidelined from donating by effing pollen?!

Something is not right here.

So guess where that breastmilk is headed? The trash. All that work! Wasted!

I could punch someone in the face.

The truth is, I don't have the freezer space to store all that milk at home. It will probably be bad by the time she can have it safely anyway, as I mentioned earlier. And also, she's on 100% formula now, since that dairy-free diet wasn't working out for either of us.

Argh!

Sorry, needed to vent. I've never felt so useless! Mike is off donating platelets because his blood is, like, magic 0+ but negative for some weird virus that makes it ok for premie babies to have... Yeah, like I said. Magic Blood. And I was going to donate my milk.

Together, we were going to give new platelets and donor milk to little, sick babies. You know, save the premies. Empty the NICU of all it's patients.

Pay it forward.

I feel totally and utterly useless right now.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey Steph,
When it comes down to it, it's the thought that counts. You were doing the best you could do to help those in need. You are far from useless. You are a mother. You are the most important person in the world.

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