Sick

Unfortunately, I have fallen behind on my blogging again.  It's all for legitimate reasons, though.  Four days after my last blog post, we took Parker to the emergency room at CHKD because he was breathing pretty fast and heavy and acting "off."  It was all very similar to the last time we visited the hospital with Parker, but this time we ended up being admitted to the hospital because they couldn't get his oxygen turned off without his pulse ox levels being too low.  Parker had breathing treatments every four hours.  Once the oxygen was turned off and he had a night with no extra oxygen, we were able to go home.  We stayed Sunday and Monday night and came home Tuesday evening.

This was right before we left the hospital.  Parker had fallen asleep right before they discharged us.  We were waiting for Ryan to get the car.

The following weekend was Parker's birthday party!  I still need to to his 2-year old blog and talk about his Sesame Street party.  It was fun and low-key, but I did a lot the couple days before to prepare.

Five days after Parker's birthday,on Thursday, we were back at CHKD.  On Tuesday, I noticed that he was coughing a little bit again, but didn't think too much of it because it was mainly a night time cough that I heard more than anything in his sleep.  He coughed a lot on Wednesday night and was awake at about 4:30 on Thursday morning.  We decided that he could still go to Ryan's moms' house because he was acting fine, just coughing.

She called Ryan mid-morning and said that Parker had just thrown up and seemed to be coughing more and breathing fast.  Ryan took him to the doctor where they gave him a breathing treatment which Ryan said made him seem soooo much better.  He ended up bringing home a nebulizer so we could give him  breathing treatments at home for the remainder of the day.  Ryan tried taking his temperature because he thought Parker felt warm.  He could not figure out how to use our thermometer, so when I got home early from work, I flipped off the cap and got a reading of 104.5.  Parker was lethargic, breathing fast, and now had a very high fever, so we drove straight to CHKD.

More iPhone time in the ER.

Once we got there, things were pretty much the same as the time before.  Three consecutive breathing treatments, a chest x-ray, and oxygen were all administered.  The only difference in this ER visit was that they decided to test him for RSV.  This involved sticking a thin tube in his nose to go down and suction out mucous for the test.  This was the absolute worst thing I have ever seen.  The respiratory nurse, ER nurse, and Ryan all had to hold him down.  He cried, gagged, sneezed, screamed, and said, "no, no, no Momma Daddy".  It was horrible, but they did find out that he had RSV.

A self-portrait.  There was a lot of iPhone and iPad time.

They decided to admit us, and what we thought would be another two-night or even a one-night stay turned into a five-night stay in the hospital.  We did not leave until Tuesday afternoon.  This was very unexpected because he kept seeming better at different points and then would suddenly seem worse.  The doctors all said that this was very normal and that RSV usually peaks on about day four or five, which by the doctor's calculations would have been on Saturday or Sunday.  These were definitely his worst two days.

Parker was on oxygen most of the time because when they attempted to turn it down, his pulse ox numbers would go down below the level that they like.  He also had fevers as high as about 103 on and off that often occurred at night.  He had the breathing treatments every four hours except for the last night we were there.  He barely ate anything other than yogurt and a few crackers here and there, and we had to ensure that he continued to drink to avoid giving him an IV.  Thankfully, he drank enough to avoid having that done.  For most of the time we were there, he just seemed "sick" and was not acting like himself.  There was a lot of crying.  It was tough to see him like that, but the doctors continued to ensure us that it was all part of the normal course for RSV.

This was on Sunday--the first time he got out of the bed.

They took his oxygen off on Monday mid-day, and we really thought we'd go home Monday night.  Monday evening came around, and we found out that we were not going to go home until probably the next day.  With all of the build-up of us thinking we were leaving combined with thinking about tons of other things, I was an emotional wreck for about an hour.  It just seemed like a never-ending cycle of oxygen and pulse-ox numbers and treatments, etc.  We were also "sharing" a room (it was semi-private) with a 9-day old baby, so at night we heard her screaming when she woke up or when the nurses came in to suction her nose.  Because of this, we were a little more sleep-deprived than we would have been if we were in a room alone.  With all of that being said, I felt bad for being emotional about not leaving because we were really most likely leaving the next day and there were lots of kids in there that had no idea when they'd go home.  Thinking about that and also how much worse things could be made me even more upset.  Once we got something to eat, I felt a little bit better.  I think the lack of sleep had finally caught up with me, so it felt good to just go to bed.

More window time.  Love the hand on the head.

When we left Tuesday, he was definitely ready.   He had come out of the bed that morning and did not want to get back in.  At that point, we were definitely ready to go.  The doctor told us at about 9am that we were going to be discharged, and we didn't actually leave until just after noon.  Overall, the experience at CHKD was so great and we feel SO blessed to live so close to a children's hospital.  It is beyond comforting to know that the hospital is there should we need it for any reason at all.  

I actually took this right before we left.  In the waiting period between when the doctor said we'd be discharged and when we actually left, Parker got a little nap in!

We are so glad to be home and that Parker is doing well.  He had a follow-up appointment at the doctor's office this week, and she was very happy with his progress.  We are still giving him breathing treatments for the next two weeks because he still has a cough and she said the "wheez" is what we want to avoid.  She said that this could mean that he will have asthma but it does not mean it for sure.  We won't know that until he's a little older.  For now, we just have to keep him healthy and get into spring and better weather to avoid having another "episode" like this again.  So far, he has been playing and laughing just as hard as ever.  He's not quite back to his normal self in the eating department, but he'll get there.  Again, we are just glad to be home and that he is doing so much better.

So there's the update!  Up next will be a full-blown 2-year old post.  It's only a few weeks late, right?