Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Ryan's First Christmas.

 OK, so first off, I have no clue how to move pictures around in here.  We're lucky I can even upload them, so sorry they are all out of order and off center!  Don't ask me. :)

If you are my friend on Facebook, then you already know that we did end up having to take Ryan into the ER yesterday.  We were really trying to avoid it if at all possibly because so many doctors and nurses had warned us that if he ever got sick it was pretty much a guarantee that they would admit him into the hospital to be monitored.  We feel that we are pretty darn good at monitoring him, and we have all the equipment here at home that he would need to get through any illness.  And we REALLY didn't want him to spend his first Christmas in the hospital.  Just thinking about that scenario gave me the shudders.  But, after he was up a lot of the night coughing and wheezing and he had two desaturation spells where he dropped down into the 80s, we knew we needed to take him in just to be safe.

The timing actually turned out to be better than we expected.  We are so thankful we bit the bullet and went in on Christmas Eve because if we had waited, he most likely wouldn't been worse today, and we definitely would've had to take him in.  Plus, it really wasn't crowded when we got there.  We didn't wait more than 5 minutes to be seen.  The took a nasal secretion culture to do a rapid RSV test and they drew some blood to run some labs.  They also did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia.  The rapid test came back positive for RSV right away, so he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis with RSV.  The ER doctor understood our concerns about admitting him over the holidays when we have all the equipment necessary to take care of him at home, but she still said she needed to call over to CHOC pulmonary to make sure they were ok with it.  I was a bit nervous at that point because they've always been VERY conservative, and they were the ones who used to tell us in the NICU how it was pretty much guaranteed he'd be hospitalized if he ever got sick once he got home.  It was seriously a Christmas miracle when she came in and told us that we were going to give him a dose of decadron (steroid) and give us a prescription for another steroid (prednisone) to take at HOME!  I don't think we've ever packed him up in his carseat as quickly as we did in that moment. 

What we didn't expect was that Ryan would get worse before he got better, even with all the steroids.  Last night he slept ok, but he would keep us awake with his wheezing and coughing.  I am not complaining in the least because I would so much rather lose sleep in the comfort of my own home than in a hospital room, especially on Christmas Eve!  But it was a rough night for us all.  He's been desatting still throughout the day and he needs to be suctioned A LOT.  Poor boy is so gunked up with thick mucous.  By the afternoon, his wheezing started to sound so bad I actually got concerned that maybe they missed something and he had something else going on besides just the RSV, so I called the on-call pulmonologist again.  It was the same doctor I spoke to on Sunday night, so he already knew the back story on Ryan.  I explained that he seemed a bit worse and asked if this was just normal for RSV or if there could be something else going on.  He said it is normal, and it can last up to 2 weeks.  He is hopeful that with Ryan having the synagis shot on board that it might not last as long, but we're prepared for the long haul.  Thank God for the timing again because hopefully he'll be better by the time we have to go back to work in January.  The doctor asked if he was still able to eat, and thanks to the g-tube we've still been able to feed him just fine.  Another major blessing.  So he increased the amount of the prednisone and assured me that he's ok as long as his sats are above 92%.  But if he drops lower than that on 1.5L then we have to bring him in.  After I gave him the extra dose of the prednisone this evening, he was able to relax and fall asleep and he finally started satting in the higher 90s.  Now he's just had his bath and Dave is putting him to bed and he's satting 100.  We're praying he'll stay comfortable and have a better night tonight!  It's so hard to see him so uncomfortable and sound so congested.  :(  Thank you all so much for all the prayers and well wished you've been sending for Ryan.  We know this could've been a lot more difficult for him and us, so we're thankful for the many blessings and answered prayers that are helping make this inevitable sickness a little bit easier to manage.  Merry Christmas from our family to yours.









Ryan playing with his IV that they placed "just in case" when they drew his blood for the blood tests so they wouldn't have to poke him twice if he ended up needing one.



Dave getting Ryan out of dodge!
Ryan pouting because he's sick on his first Christmas.

 Finally sleeping comfortably while daddy and sister play with some of the gifts Santa brought.


 Big sister playing with her new princess castle.
Napping in mommy's arm earlier in the day when he was looking not so hot. :(


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