Dallin's Week

Having a sick baby is heart-breaking.  They can't tell you what they need, they can't tell you where they hurt, they just look at you with those big blue eyes and you just know that something's not right.  That's how it's been with Dallin this week.

On Sunday, my sweet little 5-month old woke up with an old man smoker cough.  It wasn't horribly frequent, and he didn't seem too bothered otherwise, so I didn't think too much of it.  By Monday morning, I could hear crackling and wheezing too, so I took him in to see his pediatrician Monday afternoon.  She could also hear the wheezing and crackling, but said it didn't seem too serious yet. She tried an Albuterol nebulizer treatment to see if that would lessen the wheezing, but it didn't make any significant changes.  She sent us home with instructions to come back if his condition got worse.

Not more than five minutes after arriving home, Audrey started to complain that her ears were hurting - go figure, so first thing Tuesday morning, we took her in to verify that she had an ear infection.  While we were there, the doctor listened to Dallin and sure enough, he sounded a little bit better.  The rest of the day, he continued coughing and crackling a little bit, but he seemed to be getting better, until right before bed when he threw up.

As soon as he woke up on Wednesday morning, I could tell that he was getting worse.  His coughs were not as strong, as if he were getting tired of working. After his morning feeding, he threw up again. I took him back to the doctor (trip #3!) and his condition was getting worse.  Now his breathing rate was getting elevated and his wheezing was getting worse.  We did another breathing treatment and some deep suctioning, and this time it helped his breathing rate come down a little bit.  

 We went home, and I tried to feed him, but he was just too tired to eat.  He just wanted to sleep and could hardly keep his eyes open.  Within a couple hours, his fever spiked up to 103 degrees and he was lethargic.  I took him right back to the doctor and she could see that he had taken a turn for the worse.  She did another deep suctioning treatment and put him on oxygen.  It was pretty obvious that he was going to need to go to the hospital for more intense care, so we started talking about going to Riverton Hospital for observation, but his breathing rate kept getting higher and his condition was getting critical.  The doctor ordered ambulance transportation with paramedics to Primary Children's Medical Center.  Before I knew what was going on, a group of 6 or 7 EMT's and paremedics rush into the room and I got Dallin ready for his little ride.  They asked if I wanted to ride in the ambulance or follow in my car.  I couldn't bear the thought of not being next to my little man, so I left my car at the clinic and hopped in next to Dallin.

At this point, I'm having total deja vu from Isaac's bout with RSV right before his 3rd birthday.  He had very similar symptoms and also had to be transported via ambulance from the doctors office up to Primary.  I remember the conversation with the EMT while in the ambulance reassuring me that he was going to be just fine, they didn't even need to turn the lights on.  She said that when the lights are on, you know it's serious.

So as soon as I climbed in with Dallin, then saw the lights blaring and siren wailing, I knew that things were serious.  His breating rate was over 100 breaths per minute, where it should be between 40-50.  He was working so hard to breath, they were expecting him to just quit at any minute, so the paramedic assured me that if that happened, he would be able to resuscitate him and keep him alive.  (AT THIS POINT I AM FREAKING OUT!!!) 

As soon as we get to the ER, they put him on the exam table, get him assessed, and start an IV to get him hydrated and give him some Tylenol to reduce his fever.  Within the hour, his heart rate was slowing down and he started to perk up a little bit.  They swabbed his nose to see what was making him sick and ran a bunch of blood tests.  A couple hours later, it came back that he has RSV and pneumonia!  I had suspected RSV, but it was different from our previous experience with RSV because he wasn't having the copious mucous secretions that are one of the tell-tale signs of the disease.  But the pneumonia helps explain the coughing fits and why his disease progressed the way it did.  One of the blood tests measured how much carbon dioxide was in his blood to see how well his lungs were functioning, and since his numbers came back good, he didn't need to be in the ICU.

By about 10pm, we were taken to his room and met with a handful of doctors that went over his condition.  He started antibiotics for the pneumonia, and supplemental oxygen to give his lungs a rest, and by morning, he was feeling a lot better.  The criteria for being able to come home were 1. to not need deep suctioning, and thank goodness, his mucous was not a problem. 2. be able to eat, and during the night, he nursed ever few hours and was able to have satisfactory urinary output, and 3. be able to breathe with a half liter of oxygen.  Since he was able to do all those things, we were on our way home by lunch time. 

My sweet brother Chris was able to give us a ride from the hospital back to the van so we could take our car home.  Dallin is still on oxygen and will be for a week or so.  He's still coughing and not feeling very good, but at least I am able to feel confident in my ability to take care of him. 

I'm grateful that I had  been through a similar experience with Isaac nearly five years ago so I knew what signs to look for, and I'm so glad that I listened to my gut feeling to take Dallin back to the doctor for the 4th time, just hours after being there before.  I knew that I was not able to help him feel better and that he needed more help. 

I am also humbled by how wonderful everyone was taking care of my sweet boy.  In D&C 18:10, we learn that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.  Well, last night, I was pretty amazed when the cavalry showed up to take Dallin to the hospital.  All those medical professionals cared enough about the health of my sweet baby boy to take him to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible.  He's also worth enough for all the commuters coming home during rush out to get out of our way so that we could get my son where he needed to go.  Even though it was dark outside and I was looking out the back of the ambulance, I could see that people were getting out of our way so that we could drive as quickly as possible.   Yep, my son is worth all that fuss, because he's pretty darn special.