Spending 4 days in the hospital is no fun at all! Many of you might know already, but I spent from the day after Xmas (12/26) through 12/29 in the WakeMed hospital. I'm relying on Daddy to remind me of what to say for some of this, because it was one big blur/pain in the butt for me! I had caught a bad cold from Chandler early Christmas week and we didn't really think much of it other than that it was a bad cold. I would spike a fever a little bit here and there and was fussy. I spiked another fever Christmas night, so Mommy and Daddy decided to take me to the pediatrician first thing in the morning to make sure I didn't have an ear infection or something like that. 4 days later I came home :(
They noticed some visual signs that I was struggling to get air into my lungs, so they put on the pulse-ox machine and my oxygen saturation was very low. Because my oxygen sat was so low, it was really considered serious, so they called an ambulance and we were rushed off to the ER. After a myriad of pokes and xrays and noises and irritations and breathing treatments, etc, they thought I had pneumonia (turns out it really wasn't pneumonia). At this point, it was pretty serious and would require a very aggressive treatment of steroids and a continous albuterol breathing treatment. I was then transfered to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). After 24 hours there, I was able to come off of the continuous breathing treatment, but I required oxygen in order to be able to maintain sufficient oxygen sat levels. At that point, they said it was ok for me to be transferred to a regular pediatric hospital room. My lungs were severly inflammed and 'wheezy' and 'mucusy', but they slowly got better with the treatments every 4 hours, then every 6 hours, etc.. The goal was for me to be able to not need the oxygen at all before they would let me come home. On the 3rd day, I was able to come off the oxygen while I was awake and playing, but when I relaxed and fell asleep I still needed the oxygen in order to maintain good oxygen saturation in me. So, finally, on the 4th day, I was able to take a good nap without oxygen, thus they allowed me to come home! The final word was RAD (reactive airway disease). Same thing as asthma, but I will not be diagnosed with asthma since it's my first time having something like this happen, and it was brought on by a severe cold. It's possible I may never encounter this again, so we will have to see. I am on preventitive steroid inhaler twice daily, and I also have a rescue albuterol inhaler just in case.
Regardless, the end to my 2009 was no fun! We give many thanks to the support of our family, the support of our church family, and the support of our MOPS community. Through the powerful circle of prayers, we were able to get through this very trying 4 days! God is Great!
--Brighton
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