Once Upon A Time

I apologize for the lack of posting lately but our family has not been healthy for the past almost 2 + weeks. Makes me thankful we don't typically deal with illness much, especially not the serious-have-to-be-in-a-children's-hospital-for-almost-one-week-type. Yes, you read right, Gavin was quite sick and my heart was left feeling many un-nerving emotions as his Mamma.

We went to the ER Thursday January 26. Gavin was dx with RSV and ear infection. I brought him in because his lungs sounded really wheezy. We were sent home on antibiotics and albuterol nebulizing treatments.

Friday & Saturday at home he had fevers in the 102 range.

Sunday my little peanut wouldn't drink/eat anything. He only had 1 "wet" more like damp diaper and his fever was up to 105 around 2 pm. We had been rotating tylenol/motrin every 3 hrs which seemed to be doing nothing. I called back into ER and they told me to bring him in immediately. We got to ER around 2:30pm and he was very limp/lethargic. He was breathing at 88/min (normal is 30-40), his oxygen saturation was 87-88% (normal 100%) his heart rate was 188 (normal 100-140) and his temp was at 104 (febrile seizures can start around 104-106 range) We use this term in the medical world that you really don't ever want to hear and it's "crump" Gavin was definately starting to "crump".

We were brought to a different room where they could start some oxygen. They did a chest xray, drew labs, and determined Gavin had pneumonia in the right lung. Next we were given the choice whether to keep him in the local hospital or ship him to an actual pediatric floor. We choose to ship him to pediatric floor for which the Dr's/nurses commended us. A few of them said "I would have chosen the same thing". He had to go via ambulance and one person was allowed to go with him. Brady was kind enough to let me ride in the ambulance with my sweet boy and he drove himself.

We got to the pediatric floor around 6:20pm. We met with 2 doctors, nurses, etc. They assessed him and determined he needed an IV since he wouldn't eat/drink anything. The IV was started x 1 attempt. ptl. PTL! The name of the game was oxygen/IV fluids for the first two days there. Gavin started to perk up a little more and have some of his personality back which was such a relief. Unless you've been in a situation to see your baby so incredibly sick and appear to be suffering, I can't really explain to you what it feels like. I just kept thinking to myself, why can't I be sick for him. I cried many tears and pleaded with God to help him to improve. I am a nurse, I know how sick people can get, especially little babies with respiratory difficulties. It was different now however because this was my baby, I was no longer the nurse, I was the Mom.

One of the most difficult things was watching them suction out his little nose. They literally had to hold him down and squirted saline up his nose and sucked it out with a noisy machine. He hated it. I hated it too. He was so tramuatized by this that he wouldn't lay on his back in the crib for quite awhile since this was the position he was in when they suctioned him. I knew all the nurses/Dr's were trying to help and this was for his good but it didn't stop me from wanting to sucker punch some of them. Especially after I had fought to get Gavin down for a nap for a good 45 + minutes, he was finally sleeping soundly. Nurse comes in, sees he is sleeping. Says "don't worry I won't wake him up" Proceeds to check his BP which obviously wakes him up, then proceeds to say "He must be a really light sleeper" and leaves me with a screaming awake child. I wanted to say to her, really? WT_? How would you like it if you were sleeping and I came in to take your BP, I'm pretty sure you would wake up too. Ugh. Don't worry I didn't punch her, just swore under my breath.

On the other end of the spectrum was Wendy, our favorite nurse. She was incredible. Literally incredible. Gavin loved her and she loved him like her own. They played peek a boo and sang the itsy-bitsy-spider together. She went so far above and beyond her duties as a nurse and I was so thankful for that. We had her 3 days in a row and joked that Gavin decided to get worse because he knew she was going to be working the next day :) Praise God for people who love their jobs and are good at them. Thank-you Wendy, you made our stay so much easier.

Wednesday they decided to stop the IV fluids to see if Gavin would drink a little more and also tried to wean him off the oxygen. Initially he was doing well and we were talking about being discharged that evening. He only drank 8oz the entire day, had one wet diaper, and got dehyrated all over again. His oxygen level also dipped to 84% during a nap, so we had to restart both the oxygen and IV fluids and obviously weren't allowed to leave.

Thursday was another day of trying to wean off oxygen and stop IV fluids. He did much better this time and tolerated both. They still wanted to keep up that night to make sure he didn't desaturate again. He had a good night and were were discharged from the hospital Friday around noon.

We are all adjusting to being back at home, the Mr is super busy since it's tax season and he is a CPA. I'm thinking my child is convinced we are attached at the hip permanently as I can't even leave the room without him screaming and lifting his arms up saying "Maaamaaa". I won't lie, I do sort of love it. He knows who he wants, and it's me. And that makes me beam with pride. And I'm glad we share a bond that's stickier than rubber freakin cement :)

We are so thankful for all the support we've been shown by family members, co-workers, church, friends, etc. We are blessed beyond belief by all of you. THANK-YOU!