Little Goose,
Words cannot even begin to describe how happy we are to be back home, with the fear and exhaustion behind us. You gave us a good scare, and we don't need you to do it again. Ever.
Let me recap.
You got sick on a Weds, with a call from daycare to come pick you up after your nap. You had a fever of 105 and sounded wheezy. We called the doctor, had a course of action, and followed it. Your fever came down to a manageable 101 and the breathing improved. Thursday, you were tired but seemed to be on the mend. Friday, Grams was with you. You didn't seem to be improving, so she took you to the doctor. They said it was a virus, checked all your stats, and back home you came.
Saturday - you were more tired than before, but we assumed it was just the way you were sleeping off the virus. We kept up on your meds and nebulizer and you went to bed early. We also had an early dinner, showers, and were in bed by 9 (fortunately for us). At 930 we checked on you and your fever had spiked and your breathing was shallow. Dad looked at me and said, "we need to go (to Children's)." I called your pediatrician and she agreed, so we packed a bag and headed to the hospital.
Fortunately the ER was empty and we were seen right away. In triage, your temp was 104.7 and your oxygen saturation was 87. We were immediately whisked back into the ER and you were put on an oxygen mask. Your sat dropped to 75. At this point, you were exhausted and we were scared. You wanted to sleep but every 15 minutes someone else was coming in to check on your vitals, poke and prod, take us somewhere (chest x-ray). At one point I said to the nurse "I was really kind of hoping you'd say we were over reacting and send us home". She looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "Honey, you need to be here." That's when I knew this wasn't going to get better fast.
| The respiratory team told us that you needed to be on a high-flow oxygen machine, which meant you were going to the PICU (pediatric Intensive Care Unit) and that you'd be there until you were off. They brought in the machine, hooked you up, and you still couldn't get your sat to 100, so they had to add the mask. Both of these were delivering 100% oxygen (the high flow at 8.0 liters per minute) and that's how we got your numbers to stay high. You had to do albuterol breathing treatments every hour, with one 1hr long treament that kicked it off at 11pm. |
Meanwhile, you were exhausted to a point I've never seen you. You didn't even care when people come in to bother us. Your dad and I were wired, the kind you can only be when your child needs you like this and you're exhausted but won't give in.
Sunday - 330am - you finally got moved out of the ER and into a PICU room. Only one parent is allowed to sleep in the room with you, so your Dad let me stay and he went to sleep in the lounge with the other half of the PICU floor parents. We got exactly .00008 hours of sleep.
Sunday is spent sleeping. You were hooked up to 6 wires/lines, including the 2 oxygen lines, an IV, cardiac monitor, pulse ox, and blood pressure cuff. We couldn't even hold you so you slept most of the day away in the crib. During the day you don't need the high flow cannula AND the oxygen mask, so we were able to take the mask off. Although you became pretty attached to it. You knew when the mask is on you were allowed to go sleep, so you asked for it frequently.
They did a chest x-ray and found spots on the ends of your alveoli in your right upper and left lower lobes. Basically, they were small spots of mucus attached to the ends of the branches of your lungs, making it hard for you to breathe. They tested you for viruses, all came back negative. But they said, that doesn't mean it may not be pneumonia. There are so many types they can't test for them all.
You were an antibiotic, (which seemed to be the reason your fever had broken, so even though there was no sign of bacterial infection, they kept you on it) steroids to help open up your chest, oxygen, and breathing treatments.
| The doctors told us that in order for you to get out of there, you had to get off the oxygen. And to get out of the PICU Floor, you needed to be down to less than 4.0 liters a minute on the high flow machine. You were at 8 on Sunday. It was going to be a slow road. |
*****
Wow I had no idea how long this post would be. My brain is tired from reliving all of this and I'm only to Sunday. This is gonna be a 3-parter. Publishing this sans proofreading so no grammar-nazi'ing.
Part two soon....
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