Monday, November 30, 2009

Our recent hospital stay.....

Last week we had a little scare with Carson. Cody had a tournament in Memphis and for the better part of the trip, there I was giving Carson breathing treatments. We managed to get home okay and I though I better take him to the doctor since I couldn't get a handle on it. Dr T took one listen to him and sent us straight to Children's. His sats were running 77-81 and he just wasn't acting himself.

Once I arrived they sent him straight back and the doctor was in there within minutes barking orders to the nurses. I have seen him sick and have a lot of issues with asthma but never at this rate. Before I knew what was going on, they had Carson on IV's, O2, and the respiratory therapist was giving him a very long breathing treatment. While on O2 and after an hour long treatment, his sats were still in the high 80's -low 90's. We were told immediately that he was looking at a 1-3 day admit so I was trying to prepare myself.

Once everything settled down a bit, Dr J explained that his whole right lung was completely diminished and it could have been 15 minutes or 2 hours but his lung was likely to collapse. She also told me that she was asthmatic herself and would be in no hurry to kick him loose.

Once upstairs, we hooked Carson up to some feeds since he had only about 16 oz of apple juice and nothing else. We put him on O2 and ran the rest of his steroids and another med through his IV. Respiratory came up every 3-4 hours at first for treatments and he had to hold his sats at 94 and have treatments spread out to 6 hours before we could be released. We got the treatments spaced out but his sats kept running 89-92.....not 94. So 2 days into the hospital we made a deal with this wonderful doctor. I was to report first thing to Dr T Monday morning and have Carson placed on home oxygen. So that is what we did.

I know that a lot of our kiddos have been in children's hospitals and that the personal is usually good or great. But I have never seen a doctor like this one. He came in and spent an hour here, hour there with Carson. Sat with him and had me go down to the cafeteria and grab some late lunch/ early dinner. He would sit with Carson and watch movies and draw with him on his etch and sketch. I asked him if he was new and he told me he has been with Children's for over 4 years. It was just a really great feeling to have such good nonstop care with Carson. I asked our favorite nurse Jessica and she said Dr C usually doesn't spend that much time with a patient. So I guess Carson just had a soft spot on his heart. He was also very informative. He had studied Carson's charts and even researched acid reflux, dysphagia, and asthma and trying to find a common denominator. So with that said, Dr C....you were wonderful and I was truly blessed to have such excellent care for my son.

So Monday we went to see Dr T and he already had all the charts faxed over. We went ahead and got an X-ray on his right chest cause is right lung was filling up again. He wanted to rule out pneumonia and that did come back negative. His lower right lobe is still congested and every time he coughs, it is like it settles back down there. So we are working on productive coughs and breathing treatments, and home O2. The doctors want to give his right lung a little rest but we also recently downloaded the pulse ox machine and Carson always rides in the high 80's at night so they want him on O2 until further notice. His script is for minimum 15 hours a day. He has so far tolerated it.

Here are some pictures from the hospital. I was absolutely surprised that Carson spent most of his time in the bed and really didn't want to get out of it. So he was really easy to take care of.

He was watching Thomas the train movies here. I couldn't even get him to look at me for a picture.
I brought my computer and thought I was going to update my blog but the wifi wasn't really working. So I spent a day downloading my pictures on CD's thanks to Cary at Dream Big, and Renee at My Special K's.....they had computer problems and lost a lot of pictures. It has always been a worry of mine.

Grandma bought Carson a couple of trains so we played with those for a while.


The second day there I was going stir crazy from staying in his bed and his room. So we went on a wagon ride. With Carson having his respiratory problems, they wanted us to not venture out to far with all of the flu and virus' going around.
He was happy that we were escaping the room as well,.
Back in bed and thankfully I have about 30 games on my phone so that kept him busy for a while.

He really got tired easily. That is when I know my son isn't feeling well. He is usually a ball of energy.
Peaceful baby....

We finally convinced the doctor that we didn't need to stay in the hospital a third day. But they were sneaky and didn't discharge us til almost 6. They would have liked it if we would have stayed another day. I felt like I could give him the perfect care at home with all of our equipment. There is just something about being home.

Thanksgiving Pics

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We have been very busy with soccer, hospital visits, illnesses, and all the other things that goes along with the busy mom job.

Coltan has just finished up his JV soccer and they did very well. They won 14, tied 6, and lost 2. I think that is a pretty awesome season. I have seen him play even better this year with his new coach. He played mid and forward mostly and did a heck of a job.

Cody has been to St Louis, Wichita, and Memphis since my last post. He has been playing very well and we have moved up in our national and regional stats. I have some pictures for later posts to show everyone.

Carson has been keeping me busy with H1N1, impetigo, staph infection, and we were recently released from the hospital after staying for a few days with problems with his asthma.

I will post later on all of the above and wanted to keep this post dedicated to the things I'm thankful for.

First and foremost, I'm thankful that I have been blessed with three wonderful boys. I love them more and more everyday.

I'm also thankful for my parents. My mother has been such a backbone for me to help me deal with day to day problems associated with life. My stepfather has also been a huge help. He is always at my house fixing something or lifting things for me. They have also made it possible for me to travel with Cody on his soccer tournaments.

I'm thankful for the rest of my family as well. We have a large family. My aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews all live close by so there are several family members to mention.

I'm thankful that I have God in my life. I had quite the scare with Carson last week and I'm so glad he was looking over us and gave the medical personal the wisdom to know what to look for and treat him very fast. Carson's right lung was completely diminished and it was a matter of time before he was going to be in serious trouble. The doctor we had was asthmatic herself and took extra care with him. Then after being admitted, we had a doctor that spent several hours at a time in our room with us. I have never seen that before and was so thankful that he was willing to spend that extra time with my son.

Here are some of the pictures of the family. This first one is my sister, three of her five children, her boyfriend and his parents.

Here are two of my nieces. Emma and my nephew Geno went with their dad out of town to his family. Carson was so proud to take a picture with his Apie and Ali.
Here is Carson's favorite Grandma. She always brings him Thomas the Trains. He really likes his Papa as well.
Here is a 4 generation picture. My grandfather, father, sister and I, and 4 of our 8 kids.

My three boys and I. Not very often that I have all three of them with the Coltan and Cody's soccer and social lives.
Aspen spends a lot of time with us and I'm not sure if Carson realizes she is his cousin. I think he thinks she is his sister.
Pics with the grandparents.