The breathing treatment worked and his stats are improving. He still requires high amounts of oxygen support but for the moment we are ok.
We still don’t know on the blood work. If it comes back not so great we are still getting transferred. If his breathing worsens again we are still looking at high flow and transferring.
I feel as if we are holding our breathe yet trying to breathe for him at the same time. Have you ever seen an over active 18 month old just roll over and pass out in the middle of the day while in the middle of conversation? …. I have. It’s scary.
Glowing toe! Pulse/oxStill small enough for leg cuffs for blood pressure checks
…….
The hours tick by. He’s still doing relatively ok.
Finally the answer to blood work…. it’s normal. Thank goodness. For now we get stay put.
Goals
-get oxygen down to 1/2 liter or none
-get fever gone
-get the wee man to drink enough fluids to not require an IV
-no longer require the hospital grade suction from the wall – aka manage with a nose frida or a bulb syringe
…..
How to entertain an 18 month old in isolation- wagon rides back and forth in the room
Surprise visitors brought a wee man sized sloth!
Oxygen lasso while we test no O2 while awake“If I can’t go outside can I at least look?!”
A couple surprise visits (including his primary NICU nurse) and a few days of lots of work and more breathing treatments we managed all the goals and got to home.
EZPap – not quite CPAP but similar. For a few minutes every few hours it forces air into the lungs to make them open and not close all the way when you breathe out …. and yea they hate this
Second night in the hospital and little man’s oxygen stats drop and drop and don’t come back up. And this is already after having to wake him to get him a new IV.
We try increasing oxygen again and again and again but nothing, no improvement.
Doctor has been called and now we’re having the discussion about what happens next. About returning to high flow oxygen (oxygen with some pressure to help force lungs open), about being transferred to the main hospital, about going to ICU. Those three letters. The real nightmare. The fact we even have to discuss it is anything but ok.
……….
We have one more thing to try. If it doesn’t work – high flow. Also a blood test to see how his body is reacting. There’s a point at which the body reaches a guarantee it will need more support even if it is ok now. If this test shows he’s reached that point, even if we get him breathing better we will be transferred.
Holding our breathe.
Last attempt at a breathing treatment works. His stats start coming up. He’s still requiring extra oxygen but we’re ok for now.
Still holding our breathe on the blood test. We still don’t know if we’re really improving or if this is temporary.
Instead we ended up rushing ourselves to the closest Children’s Hospital ER. Not going to lie….I was flying through a construction zone at night. My little man could barely breathe and it sure as heck wasn’t getting better with the home medication.
It felt like forever getting into a room, waiting for a doctor. Sitting there and the monitor says he’s getting enough oxygen but I just know something isn’t right and he really can’t breathe.
FINALLY a doctor … and thank goodness she ordered an x-Ray of his lungs.
Pneumonia…
Black is air. White is bone or fluid
Damn that sucks. His lungs really aren’t up for tackling that.
At first the conversation was going home with antibiotics. The more we talked and the doctor got the full story, the more it became obvious he needed to stay.
At this point he’d have a fever for 14 days!!! He’s also not eating or drinking which means he’s getting more and more dehydrated every minute. Plus he’s a preemie – it doesn’t take much for things to go from bad to deadly.
For me this is more than just being in the hospital with my very sick son. This is reliving the NICU.
We make it through that night. Antibiotics and IV fluids started. Trust me when I say no on e wants to pin their child down for the things that you need to do to make them well….IVs, nasal suction, breathing treatments, etc.
The next day was another test. This time they swab is nose and send it off to see what grows. Tests for all sorts of viruses including the different flu strains and also a couple rare bacteria.
Comes back positive for RSV and Adenovirus. Both respiratory viruses that are extremely dangerous to those with weaker lungs and compromised immune systems. Both of which my preemie son have. RSV is so scary for preemies it’s literally something there’s extra precautions for and the main reason we keep our littles in bubbles and act like hermits when we get out of NICU. It can very easily kill a compromised child.
I’ve spent a lot time thinking and rewriting how I would share about this. How I would share about a nightmare come true. I wrote a draft basically telling everyone to F***ing wash their hands and cover their mouths. I wrote a draft that probably was a wee be too sciency for most.
Today we are home! Those words. We’ve said them before coming home from NICU. Doing a happy dance (yes literally) when we got told we’re going home.
Thank you Peanuts for teaching us how to Happy Dance
Yesterday we did that happy dance all over again.
On Valentine’s Day I got a call from my wee man’s child care provider he had a low fever and wouldn’t stop crying. After 6 days of a yo-yo fever and no other obvious symptoms I took him in to get checked out. Strep and flu negative but a bit of a red throat. Aka – no big deal probably just a little cold give it a few more days.
Sick and stealing cookies… can’t be that bad?
Next day urine reaks…I’m talking his pee only diaper smelled like the worst poopy one he’s had… REAKS. Ok so it must be a UTI.
Nope. Culture comes back negative and now he has a cough. 24 hours after cough develops its way worse and now sounds like wheezing too. To the ER
“Sounds like croup.” Treat for croup – responds – pediatrician agrees the following day.
In ER and yet he’s smiling
Now it’s Wednesday. Night before had been up and down. Morning ok. After nap little man sounds horrible. I’m thinking it’s the strider (sounds kinda like wheezing but more high pitched sound that comes with croup). Hot shower….still just standing there looking at me like he can barely breathe.
Pediatrician has an immediate opening so we head there and find out he’s actually wheezing. Thinking it’s just the virus effects on his preemie lungs. He responds to a couple nebulizer treatments and sounds and looks better. So we go home with the same medication for over night with plans to re-assess the following day.
Nebulizer at pediatrician Playing while waiting to see if meds helped
Suction machine at pediatrician Mom I don’t feel good
