... Mercer went to the ER Sunday / spent Monday in the hospital / we couldn't take him out today (Tuesday). [Another long blog, but I wrote a PS at the end - which I think Mercer will appreciate one day.]
The little guy seems to be ok now, but Sunday night we noticed that he was having difficulty breathing. His chest was "retracting" -- basically sucking in because of lack of air. We called the on-call nurse who told us to take him into the bathroom for 15 minutes and run a steamy shower then take him straight to the E.R. At 10 pm +/- off we went (it's only 1 mile away, luckily).
They determined that he had croup and administered a breathing treatment and a steroid to open up his throat. He didn't seem to respond, so they observed him and administered another breathing treatment. We waited in the E.R. for more observation.
I had heard of croup before, but didn't really know what it was: basically it's a cold... but instead of lodging in the chest... it lodges in the throat. It's particularly dangerous in small children because it constricts the airway / their airways are so small. If interested, this "moderate to severe" definition seems to fit the bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croup
One thing that's pretty cool: there's a device that wraps around the baby's big toe that can instantly read the amount of oxygen in his blood instead of taking blood and sending it off for results. Mercer's oxygen level dipped down to 96% when we checked into the E.R. Not dangerously low, but not good either. He had lost some oxygen.
Around 2 or 2:30 am Monday, Mercer was transported to a Children's Hospital here in Atlanta. I rode with him down in the ambulance. (The medic who rode in the back of the ambulance with us took a cell phone pic (cheesy, I know, but she offered!)... as soon as I can figure out how to get it out of my phone I'll post it.) I checked Mercer in / and they hooked him up to some machines in order to observe him. He did really well throughout it all and finally fell asleep around 4 am. I crashed about 4:15 and woke a couple of times before Mercer woke up promptly at 7:30. (He ALWAYS eats at 7:30 am -- so it didn't surprise me that he was wailing for food!)
He and I hung out all day in the hospital room. I did leave the room to get some lunch with Todd in the hospital cafeteria, but Mercer was "confined" and was not allowed to leave the room at all. People coming in were wearing masks and gloves. It was a little daunting -- but it dawned on me / I learned later that we were in a Respiratory ICU wing of the hospital... and there are some kids there with some very serious diseases. It was as much for his protection as it was theirs.
After a day of observation, he was released. Once home / after visiting the pharmacy, Todd took Mercer duty and I crashed at 5:30 pm!! I could have slept all night, but did get up for a couple of hours before going to bed for real. I slept in Mercer's room because I was worried about how he'd do through the night. Every noise he made had me jump up (Todd too -- he was listening & watching on the baby monitor which resides on his night stand)... it wasn't until about 6:15 this morning that I actually got Mercer up and into the steam shower again. It sounded like he was having breathing distress. We have a nebulizer here at the house from when Mercer was 3 months old & had a respiratory infection. We gave him an at-home treatment and waited until we could administer his steroid this morning.
Basically, croup is not treated with antibiotic b/c it's viral. It has to run it's course through him... and relapse is definitely a possibility. We had a follow-up with Mercer's pediatrician this morning. Again, he sounded good, however, the doc agreed with something I was concerned with: why did the hospital prescribe the steroid in the morning instead of before he went to bed?! This doc wrote a different prescription for the same steroid with "modified" instructions for evening and morning administration. I haven't had time (in all of this rush) to research what this treatment does to him... but at this point... keeping his airway open is most important to us!
I need to run - it's late - I'm going to sleep in his room again, but expect that I'll sleep better than last night. You know -- through it all -- the little guy is happy... playful... and really doesn't show sign of not feeling well. He is such a good baby. I am SO glad that I had received my 100% medical clearance on Friday and was able to spend this time with him Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I feel that I really got a chance to (strongly) bond with him again.
Good night.
Candice
PS -- I began this blog shortly after Barack Obama was announced as winning the presidential election. I know that blog readers are of varying political parties... and Todd / I are not "in your face" about politics... so we don't really talk about it publicly.
But we do want to share with Mercer that we are excited for him... excited for the possibility that lies ahead of him... excited that a new path has been paved for him in the future of this great country. Mercer is bi-racial and will hopefully be of a generation that will not see prejudice. He will hopefully see opportunity... fairness... hope.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment