Back in the hospital, in the PICU

As most people know, we ended up back in the ER on Friday night. She'd started getting a cold and went downhill fast. The ambulance brought her to LGH, and then they tried to get her to breath better, she was struggling so hard. They eventually got her up to the PICU floor, and Dr. T. here told me that they were going to have to intubate. On oxygen or her BiPap, she was not moving enough air in her lungs. She has pneumonia again, and it was all over the lungs. Plus, she had a area where the little air sacks were filled with fluid or mucous, so that was making it worse.

They started to try and intubate her, and after about 25 minutes, I see a doc. and nurse go scurrying over to her room. I ran down the hall and one of the nurses came out to tell me that they were having a hard time getting the tube in, her airway is so small and constricted. They did get it though, but it scared the crap out of me. And the tube they used he said was a little small for her body size, but they couldn't get anything larger in. In the process, they knocked out her two top teeth as well. They were loose to begin with. And they found one in her tummy, but they don't know where the other one is yet. They're still looking.

Once they got that in, they had to x-ray to check for placement, then put in a central line, as well as another IV into her artery. Finally after 3 hours, around 4:30 a.m., I was allowed back into the room. And I crashed hard!!! Luckily, we're in the entirely all new PICU floor, and it's so much nicer, so I did get some sleep.

Yesterday was pretty much a low-activity day. They would suction her mouth out, as well as the tube. There was just so much mucous in her. They also had a tube through her nose into her stomach to drain out all the bile and such there. They collected about 600 cc's from that. In the afternoon they took that out and put in a feeding tube, through her nose, into her stomach. They gave her pediasure through that. She was running a fever of about 102, so they also gave her Tylenol for that. She was getting Ketamine for the sedation and then a baseline series of antibiotics, to treat whatever she has. They still didn't have any cultures back to see exactly what it is.

She's pretty much just been sleeping and resting. Although seeing her on the vent sucks, and I don't like it, her body is able to rest and sleep. She's not trying to color, talk, complain, or whatever. Her body is able to fight and heal.

Of course, all of this leads us to the question of what to do for school?? She may not be able to attend kindergarten. If her immune system is this fragile. I realize nothing says that she got this sick from being at school, but we all know how germy those places are. We're going to have to see what develops from this.

She's having a CT scan later this afternoon, so they stopped her feeding. They are also trying to wean her off the vent, so she does wake up every few hours, when the sedative wears down. But I think they've got her on a drip again, there was Versed, Vancomiacine, and Ketamine, I just don't know which one she's getting right now.

We are holding up OK. Our little Nutty Buddy though, I know this is hard on him. The poor guy said some mean things, but it's just that he doesn't know how to react. It's so hard for him to have to be second with all that's going on. We're trying to keep things normal though. So he'll go to school tomorrow, and do those kinds of things. He did visit her today and saw her. I asked him if he was scared and he did say yes, which is understandable. But we've been explaining things to him as well.

I think that's it for now... I will update later on, when we have more news. Oh, and I finally got a hold of my parents!! They went on a trip to Southern IL, and they were staying in a cabin in some state park, so no phone in the cabin, and no cell phone service! Which means I could NOT get in contact with them. But they've made contact and will try again tonight or tomorrow to call.

Thank you to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers, and messages, they do mean a lot to us!!!