Nick vs. the hosiptal take two!

Friday was Nick's 6 month birthday. It was Friday the 13th and I guess I should have been wary! We've sent that last 6 months as hermits trying to avoid RSV and all I can say is at least we made it this long!

Thursday and Friday morning I thought that I had a teething baby. By Friday night I knew it was something more. Nick's breathing had gotten really chunky and labored, and his cough was nasty. Mike and Travis gave him a blessing on Saturday afternoon and I knew then that we would probably have to take him in. I could tell that Mike was wanting to say more than he was, and when we talked about it later he told me that he kept wanting to say that he wouldn't have to go to the hospital but he knew he couldn't. We finally took him to Wee Care at about 6:00 Saturday night. His O2 levels were around 86. We gave him a breathing treatment and checked again. He dropped to 83. At that point the Doctor there said that we had to send him to the hospital via ambulance.He fell asleep holding his O2 mask!

Mike went home to be with the other kids and Nick and I headed to Mckay Dee Hospital in an ambulance.....again. Of course this time I wasn't the one strapped down and he was on the outside of me, but still!!!!



They made us go through the ER, which stunk, because we got to pay more to let them re-run the tests we had just had at Wee Care just so that we could come to the same conclusion...he had to be admitted!

The worst part of the ER was watching the ER nurse try and try to get an IV in his little arm. He dug around in his right arm and then switched to the left arm. He figured he'd gotten it, but couldn't draw blood from it, so he left the IV in the left arm and then went back to draw blood from the right arm. Nick was so upset, and I kept thinking "I don't think he got the IV in a vein".

They finally got us admitted and he was poked and prodded some more, and I answered the same questions for the 50,000th time. By about 1 am he'd finally had a breathing treatment, had been suctioned out and the antibiotics were running through the IV (btw, he was dehydrated and his ears were both infected in addition to everything else!). He had started to scream like crazy when the IV started to run and I just figured that it was cold an irritating, until I went to lay him down and felt his arm. It was about 4 times it's normal size and hard as a rock. I knew they had missed the vein. He was so sore it made me want to cry! He then spent the rest of the night with hot packs wrapped around his arm along with everything else! His arm was SO BIG!

I think that I finally layed down at around 3 or 3:30 only to get back up ever half hour after that! Nick was SO tired! He got to the point that he would sleep through everything they did to him...except suctioning! Somehow I still had energy though. The initial tests had ruled out RSVand the flu, and they thought it was just pneumonia, but the long culture came back saying that it was RSV. Bummer.
Sunday morning Jamie came to see us which was really nice. It was great to have someone to talk to!
Then Travis sat with our kids so that Mike could come up and see the baby and so that I could shower! (and nap!)
Later that day Mom and Don came up too. They got there at the same time as Mike and the boys so that I could go out and see the other kids but have someone with the baby. The nurses ended up letting the boys wear masks and then come see the baby! It was only for a minute, but it helped the boys relax a bit. They were so worried about him!
My sweet Sister took my family dinner so that Mike (who we think has RSV too and was actually REALLY sick) didn't have to worry about it!

Last night by 9:30 when Mike got back up to the hospital (thanks to Jamie for sitting with our sleeping kids) I was done. My body hurt so bad from holding him all day and not sleeping that I wanted to cry! But Mike had brought my heating pad! It felt so good on my back! Nick and I slept until 11:30 when the respiratory therapist woke us up! He got suctioned and a breathing treatment, and then.......he was ready to party! He was so hyper! It was funny. They decided to try turning off the oxygen at that point and we all crossed our fingers! We finally got to sleep again at about 2:00. 5:00 meant more suctioning! uggggg. But after that they let him sleep! And he'd kept him stats up ALL NIGHT on his own! YEA!!!
By the time I saw the nurses at 7:30 we were all really hoping that we'd get to go home! While
we waited for the official word from the Doctor we gave him a bath and played around. Mike came up again so that I could shower and then he went home to wait for the news! Finally at 11:15 the Doctor came around and said that we could go home!!! I was so happy. I really hadn't been ready for another hospital stay so soon after the last one! But 2 days really isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things is it???

Now I just get to try to get everyone healthy and to try to sleep while I listen to Nick breath all night long on the baby monitor!