scary stuff

I was at a conference in Cincinnati last week on breast cancer and the environment when I received a call on Friday from Jana that Drew was very sick, having trouble breathing, and that she was headed to the hospital. I immediately got in the car and drove straight to Lansing to the hospital.

On Friday morning Jana woke up to Drew having a hard time breathing. His breath was rattly (like congestion) and raspy (like asthma). My mom was coming that Friday to watch Drew on her day off, and when she arrived she too immediately noticed that something was not right with Drew. This was further confirmed when Drew started to vomit and vomit and vomit some more. He did not seem to be getting any better so after a second call to our pediatrician (Jana had already called earlier in the morning to set up an appointment), my mom and Jana decided to take Drew to the doctor immediately and not wait any longer.

At the doctor's office Drew continued to vomit and was given a breathing treatment that didn't have any effect. At that point, our doctor advised taking Drew immediately to the hospital. Drew was admitted into the hospital immediately upon arriving there on Friday morning. He stopped vomiting, but was getting dehydrated, and was having difficulty breathing. One lung was raging with an infection that was diagnosed as bronchiolitis. All total, Drew vomited close to 15 times on Friday morning and he was listless and lethargic. The doctors got Drew started on an IV to give him fluids and attached him to a monitor to measure his blood oxygen saturation, which was low.

I arrived at the hospital a little after 6 p.m. to a very lethargic Drew and a very worried Jana and grandma. Here are some pictures of Drew on Friday night. In this first one Jana has a smile plastered on her face. Drew was quite sick, but somehow getting through stuff with him seems manageable when the two of us are able to face it together. Over Jana's right shoulder is the monitor showing Drew's heart rate (152 bpm) and oxygen saturation level (95%). The heart rate is a little high, but that oxygen level is decent. You can also see the big "mitt" on Drew's left hand for his IV. It's not an easy thing to keep an IV in a 21 month old!

Here's a close up showing Drew with his sad little IV attachment. He did a wonderful job of leaving it alone and continuing to use his left hand for playing.In this picture Jana shows her true feelings . . . NOT HAPPY! Drew was listless, his color was bad, his breathing and heart rate were rapid, and we had a steady stream of respiratory therapists, nurses, and doctors coming in to check on Drew. It was heartbreaking to see Drew attached to the IV on his arm (to Jana's right in front of the monitor) and to a biomonitor on his foot. It was hard to move him around with all the tubes attached to him.

We mainly held Drew, even for sleeping, but here is a picture of Drew's "crib" in the hospital. We thought it looked like a prison, but at least no baby could get out of this thing when it's all set up (it has bars on the sides and plastic on the top and upper parts).

On Friday night I settled into that armchair that Jana was pictured in with Drew above, and we both tried to get some sleep. Friday night was not a good night. The infection spread to both Drew's lungs and his oxygen levels lowered and his heart started to race (>180 bpm). The monitor emits an alarm whenever the oxygen saturation is below 90 or the heart rate is above 170 and it was going off left and right. The respiratory therapists got concerned and decided to put Drew on oxygen to help him breathe. The oxygen helped a lot (it allowed him to work a little less hard to breathe), it stopped the alarms from going off all the time, and it allowed Drew and I to get some sleep. Hooray!

We still had an unhappy, lethargic boy on our hands on Saturday morning. You might be able to see in Jana's face that we were still worried and we didn't get the best night's sleep on Friday night. In this picture you can also see Drew's oxygen tubes, which were taped to the sides of his face to hold the tubes in place. At this point he was receiving oxygen, IV fluids, and attached to a monitor. That's three tubes too many attached to my boy!!

Most of Friday and Saturday morning Drew was content to sit in our laps and play quietly. About midmorning Drew started to perk up a bit. Grandma Sue came from Grand Rapids again to give us a hand, and Drew even started to have some smiles for us. He didn't talk on Friday, which is unusual for him, and on Saturday he started to chat again.

Saturday was a day of great progress for Drew. He started to drink again. He started to eat again. By Saturday afternoon Drew was coming out of it! Drew first was able to get rid of his IV. He drank enough fluids on Saturday that the IV was no longer necessary (he was wetting diapers left and right!). In the afternoon, they started to wean him off the oxygen and by late in the afternoon he was breathing room air again.

We had a good night in the hospital last night with good oxygen levels and without any major episodes. Actually, as Drew slowed down and slept his lungs sounded almost clear. We were all able to get a little sleep (as much as you can get in a hospital), and we were optimistic about today. Jana's parents came from Grand Rapids today to provide support. We've been very grateful for the support we received from our church (our pastor and her husband visited us) and from our family. They made this whole experience much easier to deal with. This afternoon Drew was discharged from the hospital and we are now home! Hooray! It's so nice to be at home after three days and two nights in the hospital.

Drew handled the whole episode beautifully. He learned some new words: doctor, nurse, numbers, monitor, mitt (for his IV mitt), and cough (he's learning how to cough on command). He was VERY well behaved even while not feeling well, and we received many compliments from Drew's nurses, therapists, and doctors on what a good little boy he was. Drew had smiles for everyone who came in to check on him, and he did a great job of taking deep breaths and coughing for all the people listening to his chest. Now that we are home though, it's nice to have Drew back to his squirmy, into-everything, exploring his environment self. It was weird to have him sit so still!

Drew's is still a little bit sick. His breathing is a little raspy and asthmatic, he's still experiencing some retractions (drawing in of the neck and chest), and he's got a cough, but his breathing is MUCH improved and we're happy to have him home. We need to keep an eye on him for the next week, but it is expected that he'll be fine. Drew is happy to be rid of all those tubes and to be mobile. He's been all over the house. We've enjoyed getting our pajamas on, being home, and starting to breathe a little easier (pun intended!).