Yesterday Joe earned his very first trip to the emergency room at Lurie Children's Hospital.
It all started out on Wednesday night as what sounded like croup. Barking cough, trouble
breathing...but by morning it had died down a little bit. The cough and runny nose were still
there but the cough didn't sound so croup-like. I figured it was just a cold.
The cough and runny nose stayed pretty consistent until Sunday night. But then it jumped
to a different level. Joe became really uncomfortable. I went to put him to bed and while he
normally goes right to bed, that night he fussed and tossed and turn for almost 3 hours.
After a few cuddling sessions in his room and an attempt at having him sleep in our bed,
I finally got him back to sleep in his own bed.
He woke up pretty upset Monday morning. I went right in and gave him a cup of water
thinking his throat was sore from all of the coughing and that's what was causing him to be
uncomfortable. He threw up immediately after he drank the water. I also noticed that he
had thrown up in his bed at some point during the night. I tried giving him water a little later
with the same result. He couldn't keep anything down. It was time to see the doctor.
I didn't know if it was his throat or possibly an ear infection, but something wasn't right.
I took him to Dr. Taback and after listening to him she said it sounded like he had a little
pneumonia. She put him on amoxicillin. I took him home, tried to give him his first dose and
he threw it all up. I went to change his clothes and diaper and that's when I noticed a huge
bulge the size of an egg in his groin, basically to the left and slightly above his penis.
I called the doctor back right away and brought him back in for her to look at it. She said it
was a hernia most likely caused by all of the forceful coughing and vomiting. What was
concerning is she was unable to reduce it (push it back in). With a normal hernia you
should be able to push it back through the abdominal wall where it came through, but she
was unable to do that with this one. So she sent us to the ER.
When we got there one of the first things they did was give Joe a little pain medicine
to help him relax. The hope was that if he relaxed, the abdominal muscles would relax and
make it easier to push the hernia back in. Then they started him on an IV to get him some
fluids. Since he was unable to keep anything down, they wanted to get him rehydrated.
They also noticed his blood oxygen levels were low so they put him on oxygen. Basically he
wasn't getting enough oxygen into his blood because his airways were blocked with
mucous, so the extra oxygen helped keep his levels stable.
Then they ordered a chest x-ray to confirm they pneumonia. The x-ray came back negative
so they did a nose swab to check for a number of different viruses. He ended up testing
positive for RSV. To any healthy child or adult RSV presents itself like a typical cold. But in
babies it can cause a few more complications because their airways are so small.
After Joe's initial assessments he had an IV coming out of one arm, the oxygen cord
wrapping around his ears and this pulse oximeter taped to his toe to monitor oxygen levels.
Moving around with him was quite the challenge with all the cords hooked up to him.
Once the pain medicine has kicked in and Joe was completely relaxed, the doctor came in
and was able to massage the hernia back in. What a relief! The alternative was them
having to do surgery, so this was good news. He'll still have to have surgery to repair the
hernia, but at least we can wait until his respiratory infection is gone.
They turned off the oxygen they were giving him to see how he did on his own. His blood oxygen levels dropped back down so they admitted us to the hospital for the night. Not only
to give him the oxygen he needed but also because he was not able to keep anything
down. Once his oxygen levels stabilized on their own and he could eat and drink without
throwing up, we could go home. They told us it could be a day, it could be a week.
Fingers crossed we didn't have to stay any longer than one day.
Joe did pretty well overnight. His oxygen levels dropped a few times which had me worried
we were going to have to stay longer than I wanted, but he bounced right back up. He slept
like a champ, which is more than I can say for myself. I will never understand why
they can't make the sleeping arrangements for the parents a little more comfortable.
But as long as he was getting his rest, that's all that mattered to me.
Here was his home for the night.
Quite the heavy duty crib. He was so exhausted that he slept through various alarms going off on the monitors when his oxygen levels would drop, 3 rounds of vitals being taken on him (including rectal temp) and all the other background hospital noises. He hadn't been
sleeping well for a couple of days and had a lot of catching up to do so this was a great start. Here's our sleeping beauty right after he woke up.
His morning consisted of taking a few more naps (I've never seen this kid so tired),
And showing the doctors he could keep some food down.
Around 5:00 AM they had turned off Joe's oxygen and he was able to maintain his levels on
his own. Once they saw he was able to eat a little breakfast and lunch they gave us the ok
to go home. I know one little boy who was super happy to be home in his own house with
his dad and big brother, no more cords attached to him and no more people poking,
prodding or suctioning him. And his momma was just as excited.
He'll still have to have surgery to get his hernia repaired, but for now I'm just so thankful
to be home and for us both to get a great night's sleep in our own beds. You suck RSV!
