What a day!
I first want to start off by saying, Everything is fine. But, I do have a story to tell.
I am sitting in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Primary Children's Hospital here in Salt Lake City where we've been for the past 24 hours now. Brighton caught the nasty RSV and had to be hospitalized for the next several days. Not fun for our little guy that's for sure! I'll give you a rundown on how this all came about.
Yesterday afternoon I went in to our pediatrician for Avery's 2 year check up. While we were in the office, I just mentioned to the nurse that I was a little concerned about Brighton because he hadn't been eating very well and he wasn't having a lot of wet diapers. (He has had a cold the last couple days along with a nasty little cough, but everyone has a cold right now so I hadn't been too concerned. I mostly just wanted to know the best way to hydrate him when he didn't have a desire to eat much.)
Anyway, so the nurse thought it would be a good idea to check his weight and listen to his chest. I got him undressed and when the doctor came in, she listened to his chest and immediatly said he sounded like he had RSV, but she wanted to do some tests to make sure. RSV isn't a huge deal for older kids, but since Bright's only 5 weeks old, it's a little more serious. So, they took Brighton in the other room to do some tests while the doctor finished up Avery's well care visit. (Here's where it gets interesting). So Avery was checked off with a clean bill of health, and then she got the dredded shots. She was a trouper though! As I was cuddling her after her little pokes, they brought Brighton back in and started checking his oxygen levels because he was taking some pretty deep breaths. Well, to make a long story a little shorter, he wasn't breathing well. He was way below what was normal so the doctor started talking to me as calmly as she could and explained that his oxygen levels were not very good and that he'd need to go to the primary childrens hospital and they had already called an ambulance to take him up there. I was in shock! I had just brought Avery up so they could tell us how healthy she was and I was leaving in an ambulance with a different kid! Ahhhhh!! Luckily Brian's mom works minutes away from the doc's office, so I hurried and drove Kaden and Avery over there and I rushed back to the doctors just in time to see my little guy strapped on a stretcher in his car seat and oxygen blowing in his mouth. OH MY GOSH!! He looked so tiny and helpless. I think I was in too much shock to cry. So off we went into the fire truck... lights and sirens in all.
So here we are a day later. He still can't get enough oxygen on his own so he's got oxygen helping him breath. He's got a feeding tube in his nose and all sorts of other wires attached to him in various places. He goes through good and bad moments, but for the most part he sleeps through it all.
I am so grateful to have a hospital like this one here and available to us. As scary as it is to see your little guy hooked up to tubes and need help breathing, it's nothing in comparison to what most of these kids are going through up here. I feel truly blessed that our "adventure" in the NICU is only for a few short days and that he will come back home healthy and happy. I think that's a luxury alot of these other mom's don't get to have.
We'll keep everyone posted. I'll posts some pictures tomorrow.
