Thursday, March 27, 2014

Spring break in the hospital, bummer

The kids spring break started on Friday, March 14th.  It was a beautiful day so we picked up one of Aidan's friends and took in a park all day.  Saturday was equally as nice, if not nicer so we again took in a park for several hours.  The girls wore themselves out on the playset while Jason and Aidan practiced soccer skills.

By late Saturday night Alayna was running a mild fever.  The fever continued for the next few days while adding in a lovely middle of the night cough.  I was sure she had croup so didn't run her to the pediatrician.  By Tuesday she was perking up and not running a fever anymore and we were making plans for fun activities for the rest of spring break.

However, Wednesday morning brought a lethargic and fever ridden girl.  I called our pediatrician and couldn't get in that day so took her to urgent care.  Once there she was seen in minutes and her oxygen saturation was 82 (normal is 100).    The urgent care doctor did not want to go any further and sent us on to the ER.  We made it to the ER of the children's hospital in about 15 minutes and were again seen immediately.  Her O2 sats were a little higher by that point, around 87 but still not great.

They did breathing treatments, suctioning, and xrays to try to find the cause and came up stumped.  Three doctors thought it was pneumonia even though it didn't show up on her xray.  At this point I was praying for pneumonia so we could get antibiotics and go home.  They started antibiotics and did more breathing treatments and put her on oxygen but couldn't get her O2 sats above 90 so she was admitted about 9 pm Wednesday evening.

That evening was a complete blur as we got no sleep for all the doctors and respiratory techs in and out trying to get her oxygen levels up.  By Thursday she was still having much difficulty breathing and they swabbed her nose to run tests for many viruses.  

By Thursday afternoon she was on 100% oxygen and still unable to raise her O2 sats above 85.  This earned her a trip in the coolest ambulance ever to the main children's hospital, headed for the ICU.  Thankfully right before the transport team arrived the doctor had begun continuous nebulizer treatments on her for 2 hours and that brought her oxygen levels up high enough that we avoided the ICU but, we still were transferred to the main hospital as the feeder hospital doesn't have an ICU and they were concerned that she might still need it.

Once at the main hospital we were given the RSV diagnosis!  UGH!  She has had it twice before and was hospitalized for 3 days both times.  So we knew then what was before us.

She tried to sleep when she wasn't woken for treatments and testing.  
On Saturday she was off oxygen for 7 hours but, as soon as she fell asleep she started desatting again which earned us another day (or more)!

She enjoyed popcorn and movies in bed once she felt a little better.

Finally, Monday she was off oxygen at noon and remained off all night long.  When her doctor came in on Tuesday morning for rounds Alayna and I were both overjoyed with the news that we could leave our little home away from home.  I was a little concerned as she was loving all the attention, tv from bed watching, ice cream etc that the hospital had to offer.

Back to reality sister!


We are so grateful to Aunt Jane and Uncle Ed, Janette, Scott and Amy, and Tammy for keeping Aidan and/or Dariya for us so that Jason could come to the hospital.

We are thankful to Chris, Scott, Megan and Brett, Amy and the DSG, Sarah and Shan, Ed and Jane, Elise, Grace and Rayne, Kylie and family, Dick and Diane, Paul, and the whole transportation department from the school district for visiting and or spoiling our little princess upon her return home.

Praying we never see the RSV bug around these parts again!

2 comments:

Emily said...

Poor bebe! So glad she's smiling now!
I'm glad to know you have a strong support network. I don't know what we would do without our peeps, who jump in and do .whatever. when the unexpected strikes. GO TEAM! :)

Heather said...

Hope she is feeling better now! I have a quick question for you and was wondering if you could email me when you have a moment. Thanks! I hope to hear from you soon. :-)