Where We Are

Aaron was doing great, really great, right up until Wednesday morning.  As he left for school, he sneezed out a huge green booger (TMI?).  His nurse said that all day they were mopping up yellow and green junk from his nose, but nothing from the trach.  Wednesday evening, I started pulling it out of his trach.

By Wednesday night, he was running a fever, and much junkier.  He was still okay on his oxygen, but I started albuterol anyway, hoping to head off things.  Didn’t happen.  He did Okay through most of the night, but by 4:45 a.m. he was struggling quite a bit. 

We had a new nurse last night and I guess he figured he had to break her in.  He was in the mid to high 70’s with his oxygen and really retracting and junky and frankly, a mess.  She had been suctioning several times an hour most of the night.

So we gave Tylenol, got the bag mask out, and started bagging him.  Once he came up a bit, we switched back to give him albuterol through the ventilator.  When that was finished, we went back to bagging for several minutes.  Since he was able to be somewhat stable, it was time to watch and see if things improved with the albuterol.  Um, not really.  We watched for about 45 minutes to an hour, plenty of time for things to kick in.  He wasn't budging on his nine liters of O2.  So it was time to throw in the towel and call for backup.

But hey, we let Lone Peak Fire sleep through the night!   And I almost did.  When we got here, he popped another fever, 38.something (I can’t remember) even though he’d had Tylenol only three hours earlier.  

We’re pulling all sorts of nasty, thick, sticky junk out of his lungs.  His x-ray looked good and they’ve pulled a bunch of labs. The only thing positive at this point is his viral panel.  Good ol’ Rhino, his nemesis. 

Right now, he’s kind of on a bubble.  If it pops (and it’s looking a  wee bit fragile) he’ll go downstairs to PICU.  His fever is back, up to 39.7, even with Tylenol.  We’ve given Motrin again, rechecked the gasses in his blood to makes sure he’s oxygenating well enough.  They’ll repeat it in a couple hours and we’ll go from there.  But I’m afraid it’s a bit telling that the Trach Ninja was in and was not happy with how things were going. 

So for now, I’m not getting too comfy and settled in the room.  It would be great if we can stay here and not need the extra support downstairs.  And so much for getting the ramp built this weekend.  I do love power tools.

For now, please say some extra prayers for our bug.  He’s hanging out on ten liters of oxygen and satting in the high 80’s.  This bug is kicking his tail.

To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.

 ~Henry Ward Beecher