Pneumonia, Sigh...

Monday afternoon.  I admit, I chose his shirt
because the caption echoed my feelings.

Sooo, here we are again.  That cold we had a few weeks ago seemed to go away, although he never did quite make it back to his baseline.  He was close, but I was still feeling really good about having put off that heart cath.

Except Sunday afternoon, he started struggling again.  It wasn't super bad.  Just a bit junkier, more runny nose, and more oxygen.  But all his secretions were clear, super clear.  Like usually when we suction his trach we get cloudy white fluff, but even that was a lot more like water.  Still...

x-rays

Then Monday was a bit more.  In fact, at one point Monday evening, I hollered for William to come bag him 'cause I was putting on real clothes (as opposed to the ratty stuff I'd been wearing all day) and calling an ambulance.  But then before I was even dressed, William had bagged him up to 100%, and he actually stayed  up where he belonged for several hours.  So we put that plan aside.

Not terribly different than his
usual, but there's some
definite clumps of patchiness.
Yep, that's the bad stuff.
(How's that for medical speak?)

He slept well Monday night and was ready and raring to go Tuesday morning when it came time for school.  I did hold off on accepting an assignment just in case...  Well, there were a couple people in his classroom who weren't feeling great, so I went over to get him early in the afternoon.  He decided that maybe HE wasn't feeling awesome when we got home.  We ended up maxing out on his oxygen and his albuterol, and still not making headway.

Feeling quite pleased with himself for
engineering all this.

Yep, that earned him a ride in the golden (okay, red) chariot (ambulance) up to his favorite vacation home.  I'm serious.  He started laughing when we pulled into the ambulance bay at Primary's.  Goofy kid.

Anyway, x-rays and labs seem to show a pneumonia, and he's gotten worse since we got here.  Last night was kinda rough.  He found himself a spot in the PICU on a ventilator that can deliver up to 100% oxygen.  They've got some high-powered IV antibiotics going.  And he's flirting with the nurses and making new friends with staff who haven't met him before.  I'll tell you, this kid...

At least he's happy, right?  He's always happy.  Man, we could all take lessons from him.

"Happiness is the destination, but it’s also the path."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf