4 for 4

Well, we're back in the hospital. That makes four for four for the last four months (that was a lot of four/fors for one sentence). I was getting kind of excited because we were almost through October without a visit. Shouldn't have had the thought, I guess. Anyway, they may as well just have a room set aside for us. Joking of course. I'm not joking when I say that I do keep a backpack in the coat closet ready with scrubs, slippers, underwear, toiletries, and a book. Easy access for when we have to take Miles in.....because he's always admitted, and we're always unprepared.



So, here's how it all went down this time, basically the same story as the other times. Thursday of last week, Miles was acting normal, having a good mischievous day. We were winding down around 8:30 or so, just getting jammied up and watching some good tv. That's when the puking started, violent puking, adult puking.....all over my "dry clean only" bedspread (why I let my 16 month old play on my "dry clean only" bedspread is another issue all together). I got him bathed and in fresh pjs. He was happy and playful, so I figured something just didn't agree with him. We went back to the bedroom (so I could finish watching the Thursday night lineup), and there it went again. He managed to cover the sheets, blanket, and all five pillows that were on the bed at the time. That's talent. He still wasn't really acting very sick, but the vomiting was much more than usual, and urgent care was closing in a half hour, so I thought I'd take him in just in case. It was a pretty good thing I did because he had a positive strep test. I wasn't suspecting that, but at least we got some antibiotics and got it taken care of. I think.



He did fine for the rest of the week and even went to half of church on Sunday. He's gotten quite naughty at church though (it may have something to do with the fact that our church starts at nap time, and he refuses to sleep at church). After he exploded an entire box of Reeses Pieces all over, we thought it would be best for dad to take him home. Monday he seemed fine; a few sneezes, but nothing significant. Tuesday he was a little more sneezy and had a runny nose, but we also got a few inches of snow that day, so a little weather related cold wouldn't have been a surprise. He was still happy and playful. He even took the place of my visiting teaching partner, and we went out on a couple of visits. (Sorry Brackens. I hope your Wii remotes still work.)



Wednesday was when things got a little more concerning. He added a mucousy cough to his sneezing, and his breathing seemed to be a little labored. We went into the pediatrician, and his oxygen levels were still in the high nineties. He didn't have a fever or anything, so there really wasn't anything to do at that point that I wasn't already doing (we started the inhaler every couple of hours when the runny nose started). To help wipe things out a little quicker, we got a prescription of baby prednisone to add to his smorgasbord of medicines. His breathing progressively got worse, so we went back to the pediatrician around 7:30, but his oxygen was still at 96, so again, there wasn't anything else to do other than let him rest and let the prednisone do its job. That night was not good though. Of course, right around the time that his doctor's office closed, it got really bad. Luckily, Ben got home a little early, around 10:00. We had decided to really try to keep him out of the hospital, but I needed Ben home to help me make the decision of what was "too bad". We kept giving him his inhaler and tried to calm him down and get him to sleep. That didn't work too well, and around 1:30 or so he started coughing hard enough to throw up. Back in the tub for him.....and back in the wash for all my bed linens. He calmed down quite a bit in the tub, so we tried going back to sleep. Again, he started coughing and threw up. We had another bath, then Ben gave him a blessing. Things didn't seem to be getting any better, so we gave in.



We decided to bypass Mountain West Hospital this time. All it is is an extra co-pay, so we just brought him straight to Primary. When we got here, his oxygen was only in the mid 70s. We (mostly me, Ben left after a couple of hours because he had school in the morning) were in the ER from about 3:45 to 8:00. While we were there, Miles was put on 2% oxygen, got suctioned and had a super neb. We got moved into a private room despite the busy flu season (one of the few benefits of having heart disease--private room priority). Thank Heaven! None of us had slept at all in the past 36+ hours.



Since then, it's been business as usual....except a little less of it.....and a little more of it. A little less treatment and a little more examination. He's only had a couple of nebulizers because the doctors are starting to doubt the effectiveness of the albuterol treatment for him. They are keeping him on some steroid maintenance treatment though. What the doctors are seeing and what they are hearing seems a little contradictory. Miles' oxygen has been low, and he has had very fast labored respirations, but his lungs are basically clear, making the doctors once again think that this is not asthma. Great! Only problem is, what is it? The closest thing to an answer I've been able to get is, "this may just be the way that his body is reacting to being sick". If this is how his body reacts to sickness, then the question returns, how can we prevent ending up here every time he gets a cold. Haven't really gotten any definitive answers to that one. Just the standard: wash hands frequently, keep him away from sick people, etc. We do have the maintenance steroid now that should hopefully help us through the winter season. We've also kind of come to the conclusion that unless we can get Miles to wear a surgical mask, church is just out the question for a while. Anyway, we're kind of back where we started.

For the short term update, he's doing great. They just took him off of oxygen completely. We're doing a little experiment now to see if he can keep his levels up without it while he's asleep. We were told that if he can, we might be able to go home today. That's one requirement. The other is that he eats something and keeps fluids down. (I forgot to mention that Miles had thrown up yesterday and had massive diarrhea last night and had to have an iv to replace fluids.) Well, he's asleep right now, and his oxygen is at 95. Beautiful! He wouldn't eat any of his breakfast this morning, but he did eat about a quarter of my bagel. Of course. He's still having a little drinking problem though. He's only had about an ounce of milk since he woke up, so I guess we'll see.

Anyhow, grug.....

I'm sorry to anyone who was planning on coming to my Halloween party. I was super excited about it, and Miles has about the greatest costume in the world that I was really looking forward to you all seeing. Hopefully, he'll be well enough to make a couple of costumed visits tomorrow. I'm sure that if we don't get out today, we will tomorrow. We better. Even the Halloween party here was cancelled. I feel so bad for all of those sick little kids that are going to miss all the festivities now.

Well, I guess that's about it. Long enough to make up for my last month and a half of nothing. I'll try to post a little more often. With the holidays on their way, I should have some fun and happy things to write. 'Til then...