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Show THE GREEN SHEET For Children Critically - 111 Home Health Care Is Challenge, Rewarding by Susan Sample University of Utah Health Services Center SALT LAKE. Gone from the living room is the crib, the oxygen tank, the ventilator with its long tubes of oxygen and carbon dioxide snaking across the carpet, the oximeter and lung suction machine. Where the backup electrical generator sat on the redwood deck last summer sits a blue wading pool. Lance Dejong is improving. He can almost breathe on his own. Its been a whole different way of d hasnt it Kelly? remarked Patricia "grandma Dejong to her life, Home health care also keeps the added Dr. family together, Nielson. When parents who have four or six children at home must travel back and forth to visit another child in the hospital, it can destroy the family. But providing quality health care for critically ill children at home is a challenge. We have to spend time teaching the families to do what nurses do - plus be parents. Thats a tall order, admitted Dr. Nielson. Not everyone can do it. But the families who do, find it a very rewar- Kelly Dejong, 23, hesitated when doctors at University Hospital suggested she try home health care for her son last year. She was intimidated by the sophisticated equipment Lances life depended upon. The vent really scared me, the thought of something going wrong, she recalled. Now, shes studying to be a respiratory therapist at Weber State College. Lance had spent half of his first year of life in the Intermountain Newborn Intensive Care Unit. He was born one month premature with hyaline membrane disease or premature lungs, which developed into bronchopulmonary ding experience. His lungs had accumulated extensive scar tissue and lost their elasticity. In order to breathe, he had a tracheostomy, a surgical opening in his trachea that had to be cleaned tw'ice a day. Two long tubes ran from his neck to a ventilator, which literally breathed for him. He had to have secretions suctioned from his lungs every four hours, along with chest therapy and medications. He was fed through a nasal tube. dysplasia. He was so sick, a sick little baby, said Kelly. But as soon as he got home, he really improved. He was at ease. daughter. Now, its almost normal again. The Dejongs of Farmington are among a growing number of families nationwide providing home health care for children whose lives depend upon sophisticated medical equipment and procedures that several years ago were found only in hospitals. As many as 2,000 Utah children are cared for by their parents each year, according to Dennis Nielson, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The parents learn to operate equipment, ranging from bilirubin lights to infant monitors and ventilators, and to perform procedures such as administering intravenous antibiotics and nasal or gastric tube feedings. The number of parents providing home health care has dramatically increased in the last several years, according to Dr. Nielson. There are economic pressures to have patients leave hospitals as early as possible, he said. Monthly costs in a newborn intensive care unit can be $47,000, compared to $3,000 for equipment and nursing at home. "But the money issues are entirely secondary to me, said Dr. Nielson, who specializes in pediatric pulmonary medicine at University Its better for the Hospital. children to be home with their parents who can play with them, talk to them, sing to them - all those activities necessary for a childs normal development that hospital nurses just don't have time to provide. -- Kelly wasnt, however. She was living at her parents home. The first time Lance came home after being in the intensive care unit for two and f months, his grandmother cared for him while Kelly continued working fulltime as a bank teller. When she returned home at 5 p.m., she relieved Grandma Patricia and, often, was up most of the night with Lance. A lot of my friends would ask me to do something, and Id have to say no. I felt cooped up, said Kelly. I looked forward to going to work. I worked with six other girls about my age. I felt sorry for her, added Patricia. But after caring for her grandson 10 hours a day, five days a week, she, too, was exhausted. When Kellys older brother and his wife would drop by with their infant for a visit, Patricia found herself too tired to enjoy her other new grandchild. I just didnt feel like picking up another baby, she admitted. They felt left out. Kelly learned from a friend about a program through the Department of Social Services that would allow her to quit her job and stay home to care for Lance. Thats what the second . time Lance helped came home, she said. Kelly watched him from 8 a.m. to midnight, when a night nurse took over. As Lances lungs improved, he gradually began to breathe on his own. After seven months, he was off the ventilator. The eighth month, his tracheostomy was removed. It seemed long to us, but, in terms of other children, it was really rather fast, said Kelly. Hes made all the goals weve set for him. Lances lungs must still grow, so he remains on oxygen. He receives six medications per day, and Kelly or her mother administer chest therapy every four hours in which they pound on his chest and give him an inhalant to prevent wheezing. But its a far easier routine than last summer. Lance can attend a school for developmentally delayed children one day a week for an hour, and Kelly attends college classes three days a week. Earlier this month, armed with portable oxygen tanks, Kelly and Lance went camping for the first time. Kelly and her mother agree that caring for Lance has definitely aged them - "I'm going to have really gray hair, said Kelly. Me, too, added Patricia - but the experience has brought unexpected rewards. "I think its brought the whole family closer together, said Kelly. We have our arguments, but we work them out. Were a team, said Patricia. But you have to be if its going to work." Arthritis Cost Challenge For The Victims SALT LAKE. Almost everyone takes some type of medication from time to time. But for people with arthritis, taking medication is usually a daily activity, according to Arthritis Foundation - and the costs can be enormous. "Even a relatively inexpensive drug such as aspirin can add up to a substantial cost when you have to take it in quantity, day after day, said Stacey Root of the Arthritis Foundation's Utah chapter. To obtain more information about s arthritis, contact the Arthritis Utah Chapter at 1733 South 1100 East or call or American women suffer from some form of eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa or starvation, and bulimia, a cycle of binging and purging, begin with extreme dieting and a drive for thinness. It is estimated that on college campuses alone, up to 20 percent of female students have bulimia or will have it in the future. Anorexia nervosa currently afflicts one percent of girls between 16 and 20 years of age. There are four typical ages of onset for an eating disorder to begin. Young girls between 11 and 15 may develop an eating disorder as a result of family discord or the need for attention. Teens between 15 and 20 use eating disorders to make up for a separation from home or problems with growing up and independence. Many women become anorectic after the birth of a child and women in midlife tend to turn to weight reduction and body perfection as a way to cope with fears of aging. Eating disorders have become so prevalent in the United States, and in Utah, that specialized hospital intreatment patient and units, such as the eating disorders unit at Cottonwood Hospital Medical Center, have been designed to help sufferers. Separated from other treatment areas of the hospital. Cottonwood's eating disorders unit incorporates psychological and selfesteem counseling into a treatment program involving all aspects of the eating disorder. Eating disorder sufferers tend to d be sensitive perfectionistic, self-estee- one-thir- d ) 1 18 holes of challenging but scenic miniature golf if you play 11 a.m. and 6 any Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday between from access and free Free easy admission, parking p.m. Open daily. HOME CARE . . . The of Medicine is helping seen here, take care of University of Utahs School parents, like Kelly Dejong their critically ill children at Education Classes Set of the breasts which can detect potentially BUSHY cancerous growths long before they can be felt as a lump in the breast. The American Cancer Society suggests that every woman receive a baseline mammogram between 35 and 40 years of age. Between 40 and is suggested 50, a mammogram every one or two years. After 50, an is recomannual mammogram mended. For more information or to sign up for the classes, those interested may call Pioneer Valley Hospitals breast screening center at FLOWERING Plant for the future PYRAMIDAL SHRUBS I ' Snowmound Spirea "Dwarf Bridal Wreath" Fountain-lik- e branching with clusters of white flowers. 2 gal. 15"18" 2 261-33- 63 GLOVER NURSERY 2225 Sfl. Ft. 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The practice is growing nationwide. to changes, are easily hurt, crave atIt tention and show low is important to determine what purpose the eating disorder serves in the life of the individual Their drive for thinness becomes a generalized way of coping wtih their lives. About of anorectics and bulimics vascillate back and forth between periods of anorexia and says Jane periods of bulimia, Blackwell. Ph.D. and director of Cottonwood Hospital's Eating Disorders Unit. When confronted, most eating disorder sulferers will deny they have a problem or promise they will stop their habit. Most are unable to eliminate it from their lives and professional treatment is the only alternative." Anorexia Nervosa and Associated is a support Disorders (A.N.A.D. group which meets the first and third Thursday of each month at the Cottonwood Hospital Annex from p.m, Buy 1 Round . . . Get 1 FREE! 3 WEST VALLEY. In conjunction with the American Cancer Societys statewide effort to reduce the incidence of breast cancer, Pioneer Valley Hospital is sponsoring breast cancer education classes each Wednesday at 5:30p.m. The free classes include a breast health history for each participant, as well as information on breast cancer risk factors, types of breast technidisease and que. If desired, participants may also request a mammogram following the class for a $42 charge. A mammogram is a low dose x- - bv Heidi Neuenschwander Cottonwood Hospital MURRAY. Approximately 500,000 mm Foud-nation- At Pioneer Valley 18, 1987 Eating Disorders Addressed one-hal- -- Thursday, June OhLIrVis TOMATOE 1 PLANTS Asst. Varieties |