RSV

I am writing this from David's hospital bed.  Poor thing sounds like he's coughing up his lungs.  That's an improvement over the tight barky cough of yesterday and the day before.

David has had a cold for a little over a week. At first he seemed to be handling it well but Wed. night was a night of almost constant coughing and no sleep.  He seemed to have cleared things pretty well by morning and when his nurse Michelle checked his oxygen level during his routine bi-weekly check up, his levels were normal for him.  You and I live with O2 saturation levels of close to 100% unless we have bad colds.  Most people are hospitalized if they are in the 80s.  David lives with oxygen saturation levels of 75-85 %.  When he gets to regularly sat-ing in the mid 70s it will be time for his next open heart surgery.

By Wed. afternoon when she checked his O2 levels again his sats had dipped to 70.  I had been doing nebulizer treatments but they weren't bringing his levels up. I called his Pulmonologist, Cardiologist, and pediatrician.  Finally one of them called me back, followed by the others.  Go to the ER was the advice!  Andy was a few min away and the kids were coming home from school in the next half hour so I decided to give him nebulizer treatment again, pound on his back and steam him in the shower.  After his treatment and some pounding I took his sats again and they had come up to normal (79%.) I decided to do treatments every two hours and wait it out, hoping his chest would clear.  I also started him on steroids. Steroids suppress your immune system so I was hesitant at first, due to his already weak immune system and lack of good abilities to fight off infection.

Friday morning was a whirl wind of treatments, meds, steam showers, and pounding on him almost constantly.  His sats were a good 78-80% until around 9 pm when his treatments would only bring them up to around 73%. That was very boarder line and my concern grew. An hour later his sats were dropping in to the high 60s. I gave him back to back treatments with little improvement and headed to the ER.

His o2 level was 63 when we were checked in.  The put him on 2 liters of oxygen just to get his sats to 75 or so. After another few hours he was on 3 liters!  They kept asking if he was on oxygen at home. He never has been so 3 liters is a big deal!
We have now been here for 2 days. His oxygen level is 80% and he's on 1 an 1/4 liters of oxygen.  They hope to ween him down more later today.  If we can get off it we can go home.. Other than that they are doing the same stuff I was doing at home, same steroid, pounding, and nebulizer treatments.  I talked them out of an IV since he has a g button and I can bolus water into him at will.

He is grumpy and tired but finally coughing more.  The night we were admitted he had started suppressing his coughs and his chest would just flinch tight with no resulting cough.
Oh, I forgot to say that it's RSV.  Yep.
The kids are at home are with my mom and dad.  They drove in from Houston right after they heard we'd need them.  Jentrey has it and missed 2 days of school, but seem to be feeling better now.  Andy has been up coughing and coughing every night. The boys at home seem to only have slight colds and are running around playing normally. I worry the most about Lydia.  So far she is fine but I have only just started feeling sick and since she is a breastfed and only three months old, she has stayed here with me in David's hospital room. I don't even know if she can take a bottle.

I'm sorry this is so scattered. David was admitted at 2 Am after hours in the ER observation room.  once admitted we had almost non-stop doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and nurses aid till 4 am.  He was having treatments every two hours on top of that and sleep has been something hard to come by ever since. I am so thankful that Lydia slept from 11pm to 7am even if David and I couldn't!

Over all, we are doing well. David hasn't developed any infections so far.  He is sleeping peacefully and waking up with more energy to fight the nurses with. : )
Thank you to Mom and Dad for watching my babies.  Thanks to Leasa for helping too and for the cheese cake you brought up here! Thank you to the Relief Society sisters at church for feeding my family tonight while I'm here, and Thank you SOOOO much for to every one who has been praying for David.  He's a trooper. It's hard to watch him fight to get enough air and cry to go home, but i am so thankful he can get the help he needs here.
Now if he's just stop saying "All done! All done" every time they put a mask on his face!