Hospital Stay #4...Can We Be Done Yet?

This past week was...not great.  Princess came down with a nasty respiratory virus on Saturday (after she'd been to her cousin's birthday party and infected four of my nieces and nephews, of course).  I isolated Little Dude as much as possible from the rest of the family and washed my hands constantly, but the inevitable happened.  On Monday night, I put him to bed around 7:30 pm.  He was breathing normally (for him, at least), not coughing, not sick at all.  At 8:30, I checked on him and noticed that he was wheezing considerably.  At 11:00, I got his last feeding ready and started to hook up his tube so I could feed him, but realized that he was breathing very fast and hard and wheezing heavily.  He was having mild retractions and was really struggling to breathe.  Naturally, it was Hubby's night to work so I was home alone with four kids.  I called my mom and she walked across town to my house in the middle of the night to stay with the three older kids while I took Little Dude to the Emergency Room.  Once there, they did a chest x-ray and monitored his o2 levels and heart rate.  Neither one was very good, and they decided to admit him for observation in case he needed oxygen.  We didn't get into a room upstairs until 6:30 the next morning.  Little Dude had only slept for a few hours all night and I hadn't slept at all so we both fell asleep when we got up there.  Except that Little Dude wasn't feeling well so he woke up 45 minutes later and that was pretty much it for my sleep the rest of the day.

Little Dude would only sleep while I was holding him.

That day, he seemed to worsen, becoming lethargic and tired with a decline in his breathing so his doctor decided to keep him overnight.  It was a good thing we stayed because he did end up needing oxygen that night.  FYI, we found out the hard way that he absolutely HATES the nasal cannula!  He screamed, cried, and refused to settle down for 3 hours while pulling it out every few minutes, even after the nurse had taped it on.  It was obvious that that wasn't going to work so she switched him to blow-by oxygen which meant aiming an oxygen hose at his face at all times.  This helped him sleep and keep his oxygen levels up during the night.

The Child Life department brought him a swing and an exersaucer to play with.  He loved them both, but could only spend short amounts of time in the exersaucer because he got tired out too quickly.

We'd been hoping to go home the next day, but since he'd needed oxygen during the night, he had to stay another night to be sure he could sleep without it.  The doctor ordered saline nebs for him which helped loosen up the junk in his lungs.  Thankfully, that afternoon, his condition improved and he was able to sleep all night without oxygen.  His oral feeds went way down, but that was expected since he wasn't feeling well.  However, thanks to the G Tube, he was able to get the full amount of feedings in anyway.  He did throw up several times (thank goodness he likes baths!), but not enough to worry about dehydration.

Little Dude was discharged from the hospital last Thursday morning and we were both happy to be going home.  When I walked in the door at my sister's house to pick up the kids, Star was elated.  Not to see me...she was excited to see her baby brother.  That afternoon, she refused to nap because she couldn't see him while laying down and kept asking to go say hi to him.  It's so sweet to see the bond she has with him, even though he's turned her life upside down.  I can see those two being best buddies and partners-in-crime when Little Dude gets older.

Oh, and sweet little Princess recovered quickly after resting all day Sunday.  I was so happy that she felt better so quickly.  She has a residual cough at the moment, but I anticipate that clearing up pretty soon.