What’s in a Name?

The neonatologists at Kaiser’s NICU are all fabulous. They are dedicated to making sure our little ones are getting the best care. They always take the time to stop and talk about the boys progress when they see us – despite having a specialty focused on little tiny babies who can’t talk back.

Search and Destroy’s doctors always seem to be in a good mood when they come to check out the twins. Naturally, they must be smiling because of how well the twins are doing and how special they are.

Mostly, I’m impressed with their ability to communicate with super stressed out parents. And for the past week and a half, they have continuously reassured us that, even though watching our sons struggle, they are doing well and will eventually outgrow their allegedly minor issues. (Breathing still seems to be a relatively major issue in my book – but I’m not a tiny baby specialist.)

Throughout it all, the doctors have kept their sense of humor. After each test, our current attending physician Dr. Yuri Knauer will explain what they’ve just looked at and what it means. Last Friday, after a standard brain ultrasound, Dr. Knauer nonchalantly started washing his hands, looked over his shoulder and asked, “So has anyone given you the good news about the brain scans yet?” And each day, Dr. Knauer has ended our conversation with, “So, nothing to worry about. They’re just still tiny.” He’s always smiling – positive and reassuring even when the info doesn’t sound good to me at all.

When Search and Destroy were two days old, we met Dr. McOmber. Again with the smiles, he inquired if the boys had names other than “Stream, Male Twin A” and the equally original “Stream, Male Twin B.” I was more than happy to educate him. After having kept the twins names a secret for so long, I felt everyone should know the NICU’s newest star residents by name.

Gesturing to the little man I was visiting with, I introduced “Stream, Male Twin B” as our little Destroy. Dr. McOmber paused. Then with a giant goofy grin, he pointed to his nametag saying, “Heyyyyy, that’s MY name!” I was pleased; added incentive to make sure his namesake patient thrived.

Yesterday, Dr. Yuri was giving his daily report to Dr. Destroy as the NICU transitioned from the day shift over to night. Dr. Yuri started to explain how Destroy was doing. Then he stopped. With a slow turn and sly grin he peered over at Dr. Destroy. “Did you have something to do with his name?”

Dr. Destroy very rightly noted that the shared name is awesome. Which is, unsurprisingly enough, precisely why we picked it. Jon joked that Destroy probably isn’t the most popular name in Dr. Yuri’s native Russia. “Only girly boys,” retorted the doctor.

Which was pretty funny considering he followed that statement up by letting us know that Yuri is quite popular in Russia – it’s a form of George, meaning farmer. But apparently, Yuri is also quite popular in Japan. It’s a girl’s name there, meaning lily.

In that short exchange, the doctors got Jon and I smiling and feeling quite at ease. It certainly helped that Dr. Yuri finished his report, concluding, “So, no big deal – they’re easy boys.”

Search, the burrito baby

Destroy (with a CPAP)