I think all of this work on the fundraiser has been stressing James out a bit. Not really, but maybe seeing mommy and daddy under stress is causing him to get stressed. He was a bit cranky Thursday morning, but his numbers (sats and heart rate) were fine, so we thought he was good to go to school. In hindsight, we probably should have kept him home. He came home from school with a high heart rate. That is usually the sign that he is not feeling well.
We kept a close eye on him overnight Thursday night, but Friday morning he woke up with a higher heart rate than when he went to bed. His sats had also dipped a bit…from the mid-90s into the high 80s. Stacy put him on some oxygen to get his sats up, help him breathe easier, and hopefully bring his heart rate down. She also started him on some Pedialyte to keep him hydrated.
The pediatrician is out of town—how dare he take a vacation when our kid is sick—so Stacy called palliative care to have a nurse stop by and assess James. The nurse thought his lungs sounded diminished and, as much as we try to avoid trips to the ER, she thought it would be a good idea to go to the hospital to get an x-ray to make sure it wasn’t pneumonia.
Unfortunately, it was. He also had a 104-degree fever, so they started him on an IV antibiotic and sent him up to the PICU.
Fortunately, it was only a one-night stay. He’s a tummy sleeper and was able to sleep through the night without oxygen. He woke up with no fever, and his heart rate was still a bit elevated, but nowhere near where it was. Because his fever was gone and he was doing so well without oxygen, they didn’t see a need to keep him in the hospital, so he came home last night with a prescription for an antibiotic.
Today he was struggling a bit to keep his sats up so we’ve had him on 1 liter of oxygen. We’ll keep him home from school tomorrow, and maybe Tuesday depending on how he’s doing.
