Tuesday, January 29, 2013

RSV - round two

Because Lochlan was born so very premature (15 weeks early) and because he was on the ventilator for so long, he suffers from Bronchopulmonary dysplasia. (BPD)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002079/

This makes him very susceptible to lung infections including the common cold and RSV. (Respiratory syncytial virus)

http://m.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/rsv.htmlb

For the first winter season after he was born, he qualified for an RSV shot called Synagis which gives the body antibodies to fight RSV.

Season one- RSV shot, no RSV.

Season two- did not qualify for the RSV shot. (The government pays for it here in Canada) As a result, he contracted RSV which turned into pneumonia and spent a week in the hospital.

Season three - no RSV shot - ended up with a virus and then picked up RSV. Now here we are again, in the hospital.

Dr. Flavin stopped by this morning for a consult. He said that Lochlan is right in the thick of the RSV and it is just wiping him out. If his fever spikes again this afternoon and he continues to not improve, they may determine it's bacterial and start him on antibiotics.

(His fever had gone up to 102.9 yesterday afternoon and evening but broke overnight.)

Dr. Flavin said he is full of mucus and secretions and it needs to break up and come up. Good times!

So to help with that, he is getting a hypertonic saline nebulizer every two hours for three doses. Then will be switched back to Ventolin.
The saline thing is a mask that is held over his nose and sprays thus smoke into his face. Needs to be held there for 15 mins too)

The resident came in not too long ago and said that in order for him to go home, he needs to be on room air, drinking enough fluids, and not needing the Ventolin as much. (Every 4 hours would be okay for us to do at home)

So now it's a waiting game. Lochlan is very sleepy still and has been asleep since last night apart from asking for water and being woken up for one thing or another.
He's not interested in eating anything.

This morning while his eyes were closed I whispered that I loved him in his ear and that he was so strong and he said this teeny tiny "yeah" and then went back to sleep.

Thank you for your positive thoughts, well wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery.

To quote my best friend: "Dear Lochlan, we know how strong you are. You don't need to keep proving it!"





Monday, January 28, 2013

Hospitalization

You wouldn't think that it would have to take being admitted to the hospital to get me to write a new blog post. But that what it was. I haven't written much in the past few months because things have been going so very well and there hasn't been much to report except for the day to day. And there have been a ton of awesome moments to write about.  I just rarely have time to just sit down and write about it.

Today, I have a lot of time as I am sitting beside Lochlan's bed in the hospital.

About a week and a half ago, he started getting a runny nose. A few days later he developed a little bit of a cough. Then on Friday, he spiked a fever and had it over the weekend. I had to work yesterday, but Rob said that he just lied around and didn't eat much or drink much. This morning was the same thing. He was very clingy and snuggled right into me. His lungs were retracting quite a bit and he was breathing quite rapidly. When I checked his premature this morning, he did not have a fever but I gave him some Tylenol anyway cause I knew he was feeling pretty crummy. 

We are expecting some pretty bad weather today and tomorrow with snow and then freezing rain so I didn't want to delay getting him checked out.

We got to the hospital Children's outpatient clinic just before 10am. We sat in triage for close to an hour. While waiting he was snuggled right into me. He did ask for some "blub blubs" (goldfish crackers) and some cantaloupe. And he ate quite a bit. And drank a little bit too. Finally it was our turn and the triage nurse took his vitals. He had lost weight. I'm pretty sure he was up to 26 pounds the last time we were at his regular doctor's appointment. Today he weighed 24 1/4 pounds. Not cool. He's little to start with! Can't afford to lose weight when it takes him several months to gain even one pound!

He wasn't sat'ing very well with his oxygen. About high 80s/low 90s. So we were whisked off to another room where he had to have a CPAP mask put on. He was also given 4 puffs of ventolin on 2 different occasions to help open up his lungs. He was pretty chill for a while. Happy to be watching TV and snuggled into mommy. He did eat the rest of the cantaloupe I had packed and also the rest of the goldfish. Wasn't really interested in drinking any water.

They took a chest x-ray and we continued to wait.

While we were waiting, Lochlan's colour started returning and he was even sitting up doing some colouring in his book and placing stickers too. They kept checking his vitals and oxygen level and I honestly thought he was perking up and we'd be able to go home soon.

Some more waiting and then I could tell that Lochlan was getting pretty sleepy. It was 1:30 and he was in desperate need of a nap. He started to fall asleep when the paramedics arrived to take transfer him to KGH. The resident had mentioned that most likely he would be admitted  but I had still hoped that wasn't going to be the case. Obviously with the arrival of the paramedics, I knew that wasn't happening.

I had to take a picture - he looked so ridiculously small
So here were are. The chest xray showed something but it was very likely a virus. They don't think it's bacterial. They are going to consult with Dr. Flavin who has been following him since he was born and compare scans from previous ones. Compared to last March when he was admitted for pneumonia, it doesn't look as bad. They will not be starting him on any antibiotics unless his condition doesn't improve.

They did give him some more Ventolin but this time through some other mask thing. I can't remember what it was called. They didn't want to wait for the puffers to be ordered to get it started again.  They are also going to be giving him a steroid but an oral one I think they said because the Flovent takes a few weeks to kick him to see any results. Chances are he will be back on at least the Flovent puffer over the winter as a preventative measure. Dr. Flavin will confirm when he stops by later tonight or early tomorrow.

They are also thinking of putting in an IV to give him more fluids. He hasn't been drinking much at all so they want to make sure he's not dehydrated.  I asked if we could wait for him to wake up to see if he would drink from his cup before going the IV route.

Okay, he's starting to wake up now. Time for some snuggles. I'll try to post an update when I can.
Wait...scratch that, the nurse just came in and they are going to start an IV. And they are going to suction him. Gah...sorry buddy!

Even more snuggles for you! xo