During the final weekend of January Reid seemed to have a little cold. He was congested, had a slight cough, no fever, but most importantly seemed to have fast, labored breathing. Shannon decided to take him to the pediatrician on Monday morning. The doctor checked him out and did not like his low pulse ox (his pulse oxygen measured by pulse oximeter). With the congestion she was hearing, she was about 95% sure that he had RSV, but did not test for it because it would not change their treatment. His pulse ox was about 85 or so, which was not bad enough to go directly to the ER, but not good enough for them to feel comfortable sending him home for good. They decided to put Reid on a half a liter of oxygen, sent him home to rest, and asked that he come back at the end of the day so they could check on his pulse ox again.
I met Shannon at the pediatrician's office after I got off work so Reid's pulse ox could be remeasured and we could determine the next course of action. The numbers didn't improve and so the doctor thought that it was best to head to an ER for closer observation. The only problem was finding an ER close to us that didn't have a long wait. As we later heard, there were widespread hospitalizations of kids due to RSV and the flu. Our doctor found an ER that had little wait, but did not have any beds in the event that he needed to be admitted. So as the snow began to fall and after we picked up Grant from daycare, we headed south to Sky Ridge Medical Center.
At Sky Ridge, the ER doctor was very concerned about how congested Reid was and how hard he was breathing in addition to his low pulse ox. She agreed that he had RSV, and immediately decided that he would need to be admitted for observation, however Sky Ridge had no room. They used a wall suction to clear out his nose (Grant and I left the room) while the ER doc called around and we found out that we would be heading to Littleton Adventist Hospital (after confirming that our insurance would pay). Since we were being transferred, Reid had to be transported in an ambulance to Littleton. Shannon went with Reid in the ambulance, while Grant rode with me. Grant was beyond disappointed that he did not get to go in the ambulance and still brings it up that Reid got to ride in one.
We headed west and arrived at Littleton a few minutes after the ambulance got there, which was getting close to 10 pm at this time. After a long evening, Reid got hooked up to all of the monitors for observation, Shannon got settled in, and Grant and I went back home. The following morning, I took Grant to school and headed back over to the hospital. Soon after I arrived, the doctor came in and checked Reid out. His pulse ox was around 90 or so (on a half liter of oxygen), but she thought that it would be better to increase his oxygen to 1 liter. Since he could not leave if he was on more than a half a liter of oxygen, I knew he wasn't going to go home that day. We spent the day snuggling our little one and hoping that he would be able to go home the following day (at least that is what I was hoping, I think that Shannon was much more realistic and fully expecting to spend a few days there). Late afternoon I went and picked up Grant and took him back to the hospital where we all spent the evening. Note that we weren't concerned with Grant getting RSV because RSV is basically a cold that has more serious effects for kids under 2. Grant actually did have a slight cold and one doctor said that it was more than likely the same virus. Once again, I took Grant home while Shannon stayed.
After I dropped Grant off Wednesday morning, I headed back over to the hospital with the optimism that we would all be coming back home. While Reid was on oxygen, his pulse ox was staying in the upper 90s, which is normal. In the morning, the nurse had weened Reid off oxygen and his pulse ox had dropped to the lower 90s. I thought that was good enough, plus he was in a much better mood, so I thought we were going home. But the doctor wasn't comfortable sending him home, so it was going to be another night at Littleton. Reid had started to get be much more active and loved exploring the room (as far as the oxygen line would allow him), but he also started to refuse to drink anything. By the time that Grant and I left that night, the nurses were even discussing whether they would need to put an IV in to get him some fluids. Luckily, one of them realized that maybe he had a sore throat. After giving him some Tylenol, he started to drink again and by the next morning he was pounding fluids like normal.
Three nights in the hospital without leaving the room was starting to wear on Shannon. Driving around 30 minutes back and forth from the hospital two times a day was really taking its toll on me. So we were thrilled when the doctor told us that we were going to be heading home that day. Reid's pulse ox was starting to be a little more consistent in the mid 90s with a little oxygen and so the doctor said that we could go home with Reid staying on a fourth of a liter of oxygen. We called our pediatrician on the way home and they told us to stay on the oxygen until Monday. It was a long weekend of following him around with the oxygen tank, but totally worth it compared to where we were the last week. By Monday, I felt Reid was well on his way to getting back to normal. At the pediatrician's office, she took him off the oxygen and measured his pulse ox including while he slept when his breathing would slow. He passed with flying colors! He was doing so well that he was able to go to school the following day. After a few days, the rest of his cough and congestion were gone and he was close to being back to normal. Now we are hoping we can make it through the rest of winter without any other major illness, and the rest of childhood with any more trips to the hospital (especially ones in an ambulance).
In other news, Reid is becoming quite the ornery little smart boy. He has now learned how to open the cabinets in the kitchen, which is something that I'm pretty sure Grant never learned (or maybe never tried) to do until Reid showed him. Here is a video:
We wanted to end on a happy note since this was mostly a downer post (and almost entirely about Reid), so here's a picture of Grant at his friend Andrew's 4th birthday party at Build a Bear.
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