Jason left for a work trip in the early afternoon. That night, as I was putting Jacob to bed, I noticed him shivering a little bit. I took his tempurature, but it was normal. He has had a cold all month so I thought maybe it was that and I gave him some Motrin.
I went in to check on him about an hour and a half later and he had a fever of 102. I put cool cloths on his head and the fever broke about 2 hours later. He slept the rest of the night.
February 2, 2009, Monday
Took Jacob to the Dr. He still had a fever, but the Dr. couldn't hear anything in his chest and his blood oxygen level was at 97% (normal is 95-99%). He knew the fever was being caused by something so he sent us over for an x-ray. Jacob hated it. They put him on a little table with his legs dangling out the bottom. Then 2 half tubes are put around his sides with his arms up so they can get a picture and he can't move. He cried and cried.
When they got the results back the radiologist and Dr. said it looked like pneumonia. They gave him a shot and I filled an oral prescription to start on Tuesday. I took him home with the Dr. telling me to come back if his fever was above 101.
We got home and I put him down so I could make a bottle. Usually he will get up and crawl over to where I am, but instead he rolled over and just laid on the carpet. It was so sad to see him so tired.
I held him the rest of the day and gave him Motrin and Tylenol to help him feel better.
February 3, 2009, Tuesday
He seemed to be feeling better and his fever was down. He only wanted to be held about half of the day on this day so I thought things were going better.
February 4, 2009, Wednesday Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary
Jacob got up with a high fever again. I called the Dr. because I hated to keep giving him fever meds. They had me bring him back in. Listened to him again. Dr. felt he could hear some crackling now. Did another x-ray and an RSV culture. Blood oxygen level was 96%. Took him home, the results wouldn't be back until Thursday. Not what I imagined I would be doing on my 3rd wedding anniversary with my husband out of town. :)
February 5, 2009, Thursday
Dr. called me and said the RSV had come back negative. If his fever was still up to bring him back in. Took him in and blood oxygen level was 95%. Dr. said that the results had been misread and Jacob did have RSV. This would explain the fever since that lasts about 5-7 days with RSV. He was surprised that Jacob had not had problems with breathing. Told me to watch him, make him comfortable and that he should be feeling better by the weekend.
That night I thought his breathing was a little fast. Called the Dr. (on call) and he told me what to look for. Jacob went to bed.
February 6, 2009, Friday
Woke up around 4:30 crying. Did not want a bottle, but took a little water. I checked his breathing and it was between 57-65 breaths per minute (should be less than 40 normally and with RSV 40-65, but if over 70 should bring him in).
He slept, but the next morning he couldn't seem to get a nap. I timed his breathing and it was between 70-80 per minute. Called the Dr. took him right in. The receptionists at the front desk don't know what is going on with him, but I get the feeling they are wondering why I am in AGAIN for the 4th time this week.
They checked his blood oxygen level and it had falled (in 24 hours) to 83%! Dr. felt he needed to be sent to Primary Children's Hospital with oxygen. So they called an ambulance to take him and I followed.
We arrived at PCMC around 12:30 p.m. They put us in the ER and the nurse kept checking on us for the next 4 hours until there was a bed open in the hospital. With all that stuff in the room I could never have kept Jacob happy and in that room for 4 hours unless he was sick.
About 5:00 p.m. they took us up to a room in the Neuroscience Trama unit. This is a unit for children with brain injuries, etc., but it was the space they had available. Our nurse was Amber and she was great!
Jason arrived home and to the hospital at 5:30 p.m. I was SOOOOO glad to see him. Luckily he had been able to catch an earlier flight and get home.
They hooked Jacob up to an IV, blood oxygen monitor, oxygen tubes, etc. It is sooo hard to see your baby go through all of that.
One of the worst things was when they suctioned him out. They have this tube attached to a "vacuum", they measure from his nose to his ear and that is the amount of tube they put down his nose to get the mucus out of him.
They gave him an Albuterol breathing treatment. They said it doesn't usually work with RSV, but for some it does, so they try it. It didn't seem to do much for Jacob so they didn't do any more.
Jason stayed that night at the hospital so I could get some rest.February 7, 2009, Saturday
Jacob's fever finally broke. Spent the day in the hospital watching him. Dr. came in to check and felt he should stay another night since he was still needing to be suctioned because of breathing problems. Jason stayed that night too. Helped soooo much to sleep!
February 8, 2009 Sunday
Jacob was feeling better. Not 100%, but they weren't having to suction him as often.
We checked him out, with oxygen, on Sunday afternoon. He was still tired, but he was feeling a little better.February 9, 2009, Monday
We had to take him back up to PCMC be suctioned, but he was on the mend.
February 10, 2009, Tuesday
We took him back to the Dr. to have his blood oxygen level checked to see if he could come off of oxygen. (The receptionist asked if he was feeling better. She apologized as she requested the $25 co-pay saying this was getting expensive for us. I know she meant well, but don't think she knew he had been in the hospital.) He was at 95% so they took him off and sent him home. When he got home he began to eat more and seemed to be more like himself.
It was a long week (especially without Jason until Friday), but I am so thankful for modern medicine. I kept thinking about people who used to go through this without fever medication, oxygen tubes, suction tubes etc. As painful as all of that was I was thankful it helped him breathe!!
Thanks to all who had us in their thoughts and prayers.
12 comments:
Glad he is feeling better. And glad you took pics of it all.
Husbands seem to go out of town at the worst times, don't they? I am sorry you had to go through that without Jason to help.
Suctioning, albeit gross and distressing, is the very best thing for your child. Oxygen doesn't do much good if it can't get to where it needs to go because of the thick snot.
I am glad he is feeling better and eating better. I love the pictures you added. Your blog will be a great journal of the event.
You did a good job of journaling all this that and the pictures are amazing. That is so hard to see. When Neal had a cold in the NICU they used one of those vacuum things and they called it the BBG, Big Booger Grabber...Hope he just keeps feeling better and better!
No way! What a scary thing to go through. I'm glad Jacob is getting better. It is soooooo hard when our little ones are sick.
You did the right thing to continue going back to the Dr. I firmly believe in a "mother's instinct". We had a 3 day fever with Connor a few weeks ago. We have made so many trips to the Dr. office that we are all on a first name basis.
Holy smokes! Poor guy. And that table thing looks just horrible. I am so glad he seems to be on the mend. Best wishes.
That looked like it hurt when he got the RSV test! Glad he is better!AML!
Oh poor little baby. What a hard thing to go through and watch. I'm impressed you made it that long without your husband. It sure isn't easy having them away when you really need them!
I'm so glad he's feeling better.
Those pictures are so sad, but cute, especially the x-ray. Glad he's okay.
Whew!! Even though I heard it before, it makes me exhausted just reading about it!! I'm so glad he feels better now. I know it probably killed him to take the xray, but the picture is really cute.
Poor little Jacob. The x-ray made me want to cry because Matthew had to have the same thing about the same age. I still think about him sometimes strapped in that machine and it makes me so sad. We are blessed to have the medicine that we do. So glad he's on the mend.
What a week. I am so sorry for the craziness & trauma. Going to Primary's is such an eye opener. It's hard to imagine the world still goes on "normally" when you're in there with a sick child. I am so glad he is doing better! Happy Anniversay! You'll always remember what you did on this one.
Oh Linde! I'm so sorry! I felt like I was reading an account from my journal. Jackson had RSV when he was one month old. Similar to you, we had been in the office about 4 days that week, had to go by ambulance to PCMC, and also waited in the ER for a room. The only difference was that I had Chad. That is a lot to handle by yourself! The suction part about killed us to watch him have to go through it. I'm so glad Jason made it home in time to be at the hospital with you both. SO, so glad to hear Jacob is doing better. So grateful for modern medicine, Primary Children's, and good nurses and docs!
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