I originally wrote this post on Tuesday, but so much has happened over the past several days I decided to incorporate everything into one longer post.
Tuesday, June 29th
Okay, so Stacy called me at work Tuesday afternoon to tell me that James wasn’t doing well. He had his lunch at 12:30 like normal. At around 1:15 he started getting upset…he was desating, breathing heavy and had a distended stomach. She vented his belly via g-tube to release some of the air that was built up.
I asked her if she wanted me to come home and she said “no, I got it, just wanted to let you know.” “Okay dear. Let me know if things change and you want me to come home.”
Stacy gave him a breathing treatment at 3:30 and another one at 5:00. He spiked a fever of 102.4 so she gave him some Tylenol which reduced the fever a bit. She fed him at 6:00 and he was able to handle it without a problem. She put him to bed at 8 pm and he slept well.
Wednesday, June 30th
Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday, only this time he started getting upset after his morning feed. Since I normally don’t leave for work until after his morning feed, I decided to stay home. James couldn’t keep his sats above 90. He sounded very moist, but we weren’t able to get much out when we suctioned his nose and throat.
We gave him breathing treatments at 2:00 pm, 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm. At 4:30 he had a fever of 102.4 again so we gave him Tylenol.
Because this has happened two days in a row, we called home health and asked for a nurse to come over. The nurse checked him out and called our pediatrician. They decided that we should take James to the ER. Fortunately, there is a hospital only 10 minutes away from us…and they happen to have a pediatric ER.
At the ER James had:
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- CBC blood work
- Comprehensive metabolic panel
- Urinalysis complete
- Blood culture
- Urine culture
- RSV rapid nasal test
- 2 chest X-rays
- 2 Neb treatments; albuterol .5ml and ipratropium bromide .5MG
James seemed to bounce back so they didn’t think he needed to spend the night and sent us home at 9:30 pm with a prescription for an antibiotic just in case they missed some infection: Cefdinir for 10 days.
He was pretty wiped out by the time we got home so we put him to bed. He slept good; his sats were good; and his breathing was good. He still had a bit of a fever so we gave him some Tylenol every five ours to bring the fever down.
Thursday, July 1st
James got through his 8:30 am and 12:30 pm feeds without a problem. Stacy thought he could use some fresh air so they went for a walk. After they got home, James started having breathing issues again and was getting really juicy. We use the term “juicy” to describe his secretions. When he starts to have secretions coming out of his nose and the corner of his mouth continuously, we say he’s juicy.
Anyway, Stacy gave him a breathing treatment at 5:15. She also checked his temperature, but it was normal. Stacy has been down this road before and knew that it was only a matter of time before James had a fever so she was proactive and turned on a fan next to him and put a cool rag on his forehead.
Stacy called the pediatrician at 6 pm and he wanted us to give James breathing treatments every half hour, keep track of his breaths per minute and temperature and keep him posted.
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- 6:26 pm – breathing treatment; 86 breaths per minute; lots of secretions coming out of his nose and mouth.
- 7:00 pm – breathing treatment; 66 breaths per minute before treatment / 80 breaths per minute after treatment; temperature 99.2 degrees.
- 7:35 pm – breathing treatment; he was really juicy; his sats dropped and heart rate increased.
- 9:45 pm – gave James a feed with all of his meds and Tylenol
- 10:15 pm – he started to calm down; temperature 101.8
Friday, July 2nd
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- 10:30 am – temperature 99.5 degrees.
- 11:00 am – breathing treatment; 34 breaths per minute.
- 11:20 am – blow out poop (Stacy’s words).
- 12:30 pm – temperature 98.4 degrees.
- 12:45 pm – another blow out poop.
- 1:30 pm – started a feed.
- 2:00 pm – started to have a hard time breathing so we stopped the feed.
- 3:30 pm – breathing treatment.
- 4:45 pm – temperature 102 degrees so we gave him some Tylenol.
- 4:50 pm – gave him some Pedialyte to keep him hydrated.
- 7:15 pm – temperature 102.4 degrees.
- 8:45 pm – meds and Tylenol.
- 9:15 pm – breathing treatment; breaths per minute 42.
Saturday, July 3rd
I don’t know what changed between last night and this morning, but James seems to be back to normal. Maybe it was the breathing treatments. Maybe it was the Tylenol. We just don’t know. This morning his breaths per minute were 38 and his temperature was 99.3. James was able to get all of his feeds today without any issues. Fingers crossed he stays this way!
