This is the day I see RED

Pete and I are in a pretty good routine. We've gotten things to a manageable schedule and it seems to be working well for us. Every night I bring home the bottles that the girls have used during the day to wash them. I also bring home their blankets and onsies to be washed. One particular evening after getting home I am pulling out their bottles to be washed. There are about 20 of them. They are all labeled with my name, medical ID #, the girls names (all 3 of them!) and the # of the bottle itself. You see - every time I pump I filled bottles. And I would label these bottles and # them, starting with bottle #1 and so on. Therefore each bottle had a different number. I noticed there was a bottle in our bag that didn't belong to us. I called the NICU and asked the nurse to check the girls charts to see if any of them had been given this bottle and the conversation goes:
Nurse: "Oh - don't worry about it. I'm sure it fell in there by mistake. Just throw it away."
Me: "Ok, but I'd like you to check all of their charts just in case."
Nurse: "I'm sure it's nothing. But if it makes you feel better I'll check and call you back if anything is wrong."
My phone didn't ring that evening so it was just a mistake. Scary to think that one of my babies almost got someone else's breast milk though. The next day I show up to the NICU just like every other day. After saying hello, feeding, changing and so on I decided to check the girls charts. I wanted to see for myself that none of them had been given this other woman's breast milk. I check Emily's 1st. Nope. Only milk she had been given was mine. Hailey's next. She had only been given my milk as well. And she gained weight! And she hasn't been out of her isolette in a while so I can hold her. I'm so excited!!! I am so excited that I forget to check Hannah's chart until later in the afternoon. I open her chart and right there in black and white is the # of the bottle that didn't belong to me. I see RED. I hit the roof. Those of you that know me...know that once I've gone beyond the point of being pissed off it's very hard to reign me back in. I'm standing next to Hannah's isolette and lose it completely. "You have got to be kidding me!!!!" This draws some attention. So much so that every nurse and doctor in the NICU look up. The nurse taking care of the girls that day runs over to me. "Michelle, is everything ok? What's wrong?" "What's wrong?!?! I'll tell you what the fk is wrong! MY DAUGHTER WAS FED ANOTHER WOMAN'S BREAST MILK! That's WHAT'S WRONG!" My heart is racing and I'm shaking. 50 million things are running through my head. I work in the health care field. I know that getting breast milk is just about the equivalent as being given someone else's blood. Except - it hasn't been tested of course! I quickly realize that my reaction has not only gotten every nurse and doctor in the NICU on their toes but it has started to make the babies cry. I leave the NICU practically dragging the nurse behind me. I wanted answers and I was going to get them even if I had to beat the hell out of someone to get them. These are my children. I've never been so angry in my life. How could they let this happen? Two nurses have to sign off on EVERY feeding. That means there are at least two idiots not paying attention and I'm going to find out who they are and have their asses handed to me on a silver platter by the end of the day. Even a year later - this anger is still so strong. I have a very low tolerance for stupidity and this was a mistake that never should have happened. I'm in the hallway with this nurse by my side. I tell her to get a doctor...I didn't care what doctor - as long as it was a doctor that was going to be able to handle what was spewing out of my mouth. I called Pete to tell him what was going on. Needless to say he's as pissed off as I am. The doctor and nurse come back and of course the immediate answer is "I need to find out what happened and I'll get back to you. I need to find out what the protocol is for this kind of situation." What? There's a protocol? You mean to tell me that this has actually happened before?!?! I'm in awe at this point. And a switch has been flipped. I am no longer the "nice mom of triplets!" I'm now the "mom of triplets, stay out of her way". This was actually the comment that I overheard walking into the NICU one day. Yes. Stay the fk out of my way. I actually considered transferring the girls to another NICU but this wasn't realistic. The move itself would have been detrimental to their health. By the days end I had been told "If it makes you feel better we have wet mothers that donate their breast milk all the time." To which I replied "That's nice. After I put a pint of donated blood into your child - I'll THEN have it tested for any diseases." I had been told that I was over reacting. Really? I'M over reacting? Because MY baby who isn't yet 3lbs was just given another woman's breast milk and I'M THE ONE over reacting? What the hell would you do?
The end result is this. The other mother was contacted and asked to have a blood test. She agreed. She didn't have to agree so for this I'm thankful. The doctors assure me that as soon as the results are back I'll be notified. They can't tell me what nurses are responsible. Haha...I can't imagine why they WON'T tell me. But in the end - it's probably better that way. They tell me that the nurses will be reprimanded. I don't care anymore. Just get the test results, get my babies to the point where we can leave and get me the hell out of here.
Three days after this event the girls were all transferred out of the NICU and into the regular nursery. They were eating and breathing without assistance. They just needed to maintain their own body temperature and gain some weight and we'd be able to take them home. This can't happen soon enough for us.
The days are going by and we haven't heard back on the results of the test yet. There is one nurse in the NICU that is 'assertive' and likes to pull her weight as the nurse manager. She was very involved in the whole incident and knew what was going on because of the fact that she is the nurse manager. Pete finally had it. He walked right up to her one day and said "I want the results and you are going to get them for me today." I was very proud of my husband at this moment. And it was this very moment that I knew he was going to be able to handle being the father of triplets. He is not one to like any kind of confrontation. He is easy going and backs down at the earliest signs of conflict. For him to have done this it took something that I didn't know he had in him. He had his answer that day. The tests came back and were negative. Hannah would have to be tested again in 6 months and then again at 1 year. These tests were all negative. Thank God again. I did write a letter to the hospital patient relations. Unfortunately - there was no follow up to this. It's not something I care to pursue. I made my point. I did learn something from all of this. It's not something new...but it was reinforced. If you want something done right, do it yourself. And although I couldn't be at the hospital 24/7 - I made sure that I did everything I could while I was there. If it wasn't me then it was my mother or mother-in-law. At least I knew they wouldn't make a careless mistake like the NICU staff.
Think about it for a minute. Can you even imagine? What would you have done?
Michelle