Some of you may get tired of reading these posts and boy am I tired of writing them. Samuel ended up in the hospital again last weekend. He got a runny nose starting on Thurs, went to daycare on Friday still with just a little more runny nose. Saturday I worked a dayshift and my parents had been in town so David and the kids went to breakfast with everyone. Samuel ate 3 adult pancakes at Perkins and just seemed to have a "cold." When I called in the afternoon from work, David said he was starting to "breathe heavy" again. When I got home he was again looking like he had the other times. I really did not want to bring him again, and wanted to try to ride it out till we could go to our clinic on Monday. We tried just keeping him comfortable, giving benadryl, and hoped by morning he would turn around. At 9pm (after he had been asleep awhile) he cried out and it seemed like he could not cry. I realized we had to go in. I quickly put together a bag and headed down to the University.
As a nurse, you think one thing... I can drive this, ride it out, watch and observe.
As a mother you panic!
I struggle each time he gets sick, because my mom judgment tells me one thing and my nurse self tells me another.
Anyways, we got the ER and they immediately brought us back to a room and his oxygen levels were 88% (normal is 95-100%). This mom/nurse knew she had pushed the line too close.
A doctor, 3 nurses and a respiratory therapist worked on him. He got blood work, IV, continuous nebulizer/oxygen. This time he "won " a trip to the ICU according to the ER doctor.
We got up their by 1:30am. David was again able to come down as my brother came and stayed with Amelia (thank goodness for family). We had a long night with trying to get him to settle down. He quickly rallies and then fights the nebulizers and treatment.
Since this is his 3rd admission in 3 months they have now finally heard my pleas and are further working him up. We saw a pulmonologist (lung doctor) on Sunday morning. His first comment is... I don't think this is asthma. I think he has a Wheezing associated respiratory illness (WARI).
"What you need is a plan." THANK YOU.... I have only been asking for this since he was first admitted. We now have a 3 step plan with nebulizers, inhalers, medications to use as Samuel gets a cold, symptoms. I almost thought we were going to go home from the ICU. He then came back in and said he would like us to be oxygen free for 24 hours. Samuel had taken off the nebulizers but did require some blow by oxygen. We stayed and went home Monday.
The pulmonologist on the general medical unit on Monday wanted to do a few other tests to rule out other things. These will be done in the next couple of weeks.
A Barium study... to look at his swallowing for aspiration risk
A sweat test.... this looks at Cystic fibrosis (I don't really think he could have this, but they just want to rule it out.)
Lab work... to check his immune levels, allergins, etc.
I'm thankful we now have some things lined up. Samuel is doing great and looking mostly back to himself. I"ll keep you posted as we find out more.
Learning to use the nebulizer at HOME!!
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