Saturday, November 12, 2011

And Back Again

Leaf wasn't feeling well Wednesday, so we went to the pediatrician. Everyone felt it was just a minor virus, and we could ride it out at home; she was cranky and feverish but otherwise unfazed.

Thursday morning she had a cough, but was in a much better mood. Thursday evening, she was getting progressively congested, so we ran some albuterol, called the pediatrician, and headed to the ER, fully expecting to be admitted for observation.

Friday was calm, but still with a lot of coughing and nebulizers.

Saturday morning, they called to say that she was being put on CPAP, and that they'd put an IV in to give IV steroids instead of oral, and to switch her reflux meds to an IV. We finished up breakfast and I headed that way within an hour of the first call, intending to hang out for the morning and comfort her...

...and my phone rang as I stepped off the 5th floor elevator, with news that they were going to intubate because CPAP wasn't working. She'd been just fine overnight, and things had gone downhill over a 2 hour period from "just fine" to "not good."

So, the good news is I was there. I saw her without the vent, and saw how much more comfortable she is with it. I'm not happy about it, but this is exactly why she was in the PICU to begin with - we knew that if she ran out of reserves, or her illness got worse, things would get messy quickly. We can handle a lot at home, but definitely not intubation.

Have I mentioned our life often feels like an episode of House?  This PICU stay is no different.

Her first viral panel was inconclusive - not a big enough sample, which is hard to believe.

Her second panel came back clean....which leaves us all scratching our heads, because everyone was *sure* she had RSV (hey, at least it's not RSV!).  The reflux makes us all think she might have aspirated, but then why would she show no signs of pneumonia from the first sign of sickness Wednesday until just now? Additionally, today she stopped peeing, which makes no sense at all, but there was plenty in her bladder.

So....the plan this afternoon was to take blood, urine (via catheter) and secretions they're suctioning from her lungs and culture them to see what comes up. At this point, they have no real clue what the culpret is, and so we wait.

This is not the quiet week at home we were supposed to be having.

1 comment:

  1. So sorry to hear this, I hope your little one will be getting better soon.

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