I am completely overwhelmed by the prayers being offered on Aaron’s behalf. Not only friends and family, but on temple
prayer rolls and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. Every one of them are felt. May God bless you for your love and
compassion.
7:00 a.m.
Aaron didn’t start running a fever yesterday, but he slept a
lot (not surprising since he was up most of the night) and I did get a nap with
him. But when we woke up, I tried to
shift his body in his bed and he started sobbing again. I figured that was enough. It might not be much to worry about, but we
needed to get some tests just to make sure.
That turned into a bit of a circus.
I called his ped, Dr. K, and asked for a chest x-ray, a
urinary cath, some blood work and a viral panel (where they check for the most
common respiratory illnesses: RSV, flu, rhinovirus, and a couple of
others). No problem. He was more than happy to order them. Except, we needed to stop at his office for the
cath because the outpatient lab at Primarys at Riverton doesn’t do caths. Okay, so another stop, oh well.
We get to Riverton and do the x-ray, no issues there, except
there’s a significant patchy area in his lower right lung that I’m not used to
seeing. Go to the lab and find out that
they don’t do viral panels there, but they can do his blood work. Or maybe they can’t. They’re only allowed two sticks before they
have to stop, and Aaron wasn’t being cooperative. So since we had to go over to the ER for his
viral panel, we’ll do blood work there, too.
There are RNs and IV teams over there that have more options of where
they’re allowed to stick and so on.
Over to the ER. When
we get there, we’re actually seen pretty quickly. As the doc comes in to check on us and say “hi”
I asked him about the x-ray. It’s
already been read and they’re reading pneumonia. Yep, that patchy spot. It’s decided that he needs to go up to the
main campus for admission and the question is, by my car or by ambulance. Since I don’t have anyone else with me and
Aaron has been known to go bad pretty quickly, we decide ambulance is
best. It takes a while to get the blood
work and they also want to start him on his antibiotics.
About 7:00, Aaron decides to show them what he can do. He starts needing more and more oxygen. Up until this point, I’m still a little
confused at his behavior. He’s very much
right in the middle of his baseline oxygen needs. No changes there at all. That’s about to change. He needs a little more, then a little
more. I let his nurse know that I would
really like to be on our way as he’s starting to act up and I’d like to get
there before he really struggles. She gets
the doc and Aaron decides he really likes his oxygen. More please!
It’s decided that he’s going by chopper. The pediatric team that was needed to go with
us is in the air and on the way. I have
told that boy time and again that it’s only one ride per customer, and he’s had
his! Like the obedient child he is, he
started to settle down. When the
pediatric team got there, they reassessed and decided that ground would be okay
after all. So we loaded and got on our
way.
We’re currently sitting in the PICU. He started running a fever again after we got
here, but Tylenol helped out and he had a fairly restful night, was even down
to two liters for a while. But about
6:30, he wanted to show off again. He
was so sad and started desatting again.
He ended up in the 70’s and needed 10+ to come back up. Gave him more Tylenol and suctioned some more
and he’s settled down again.
Probably most telling is that he’s just not happy. He has these big sad eyes, with his eyebrows
furrowed. I haven’t been able to get a
smile. They’ll round later this
morning. Last night, the docs here were
thinking that it might be atelectasis, collapsed lung tissue, instead of
pneumonia. There is obviously more to it
than that because of his fevers. Not
quite sure where this stay is going. He’s
on his home vent and home settings, but not quite stable on his oxygen.
Rounding
We’ve decided that he definitely needs to be observed in the
hospital. His demeanor and his varying
oxygen needs just are too out of whack to release him. But he’s also doing well enough that we can
go to the floor. So sometime today,
probably this afternoon sometime, we’ll head up there. And if he decides to go south again, the PICU
is only a floor away. Somehow it’s not
nearly as hard emotionally to bounce back to the PICU as it is to bounce back
to the hospital from home.
“A man is powerful on his knees.”
-Corrie Ten Boon
Oh, Rebekah . . . my heart just pounded as I read this. We are praying for Aaron and for your family ... and for the doctors, too.
ReplyDeleteRebekah,
ReplyDeleteWe're all keeping you and Aaron close in our thoughts and praying for a quick recovery and triumphant trip home very soon!
Victoria
I've been so worried about Aaron since I read about him being sad and about his long crying session. Poor little guy! I've been praying for him, and you all. Please keep us posted as you can. God bless you!
ReplyDeletePrayers for you and for Aaron. You have such an indomitable spirit.. (yes, even if you don't feel it. We all see it and your fruits show it!) I see that Aaron does, too!
ReplyDelete