Karsen had a cold earlier in the week and since we have already dealt with a minor cold with him, I didn't think much of it. We just went through the same routine of getting out the cold air humidifier, using the bulb syringe to get any snot out, and we elevated his mattress. Unfortunately, his cold was not going away and he was showing signs of getting worse. Thursday evening he was eating significantly less and Thursday overnight he refused to let me put him down. I held him most of the night as he tried to sleep. As he was sleeping, I noticed he was breathing much faster than normal and things just didn't feel right. I told Bruce that I wanted to wake him at 2a so we could come to Children's Mercy because things just didn't seem right...buuuut I didn't want to be THAT mom who blows things out of proportion. Lesson learned...FOLLOW YOUR GUT!!
Friday morning, as I was getting ready for work, I decided to call Ask-A-Nurse to talk with a nurse about his symptoms. Everything she was saying said "Take him to the ER" so after I got done crying (sheesh...I was a mess) we packed up the car and the kid and headed to Children's Mercy...right in the middle of morning rush hour. Ugh. We sat in the ER for a few hours as Karsen was hooked up to all sorts of probes and leads to monitor his breathing a heart rate. Things were much higher (or lower, O2) than they should be. The ER doc came in and said we would be admitted for the weekend. Cue mom crying again. All I could think was "What did I do wrong?! How could I have prevented this?!"
Friday late morning we were moved up to our inpatient room and started sending texts and making phone calls to people who would need to know our where-abouts. Everyone we talked to said "Sending thoughts and prayers your way" and man that helped me relax and gave me a sense of calm during this storm.
Friday was the worst day. Karsen was not himself. He was still heavy breathing, and only woke up for a few minutes at a time. He hardly ate anything, otherwise he would fuss a little and fall right back to sleep. At this point, the nurses were really watching his Oxygen levels. They were incredibly low on Friday morning, but with the help of a breathing tube thingy, his levels were where they should be. Of course, the goal was for him to breathe on his own without the help of the Oxygen tube. Friday over night, Karsen got some good long stretches of sleep, but he still needed help with his breathing. The oxygen line was on all day Friday and Friday overnight.
We woke up Saturday and the nurses noticed signs of improvement, so they would come in and turn the oxygen off while he was awake. His levels seemed to be good, but still, when he would doze off for a nap, the levels would drop and the nurse would come in to turn on the pump. At least on Saturday, he would spend more time awake and less time fussing. He actually smiled a little for us too! Saturday, mid day, I asked the nurse what our goal was so we could get the heck out of here...she told us "Oxygen free for 12-24 hours." Ugh...as low as he would drop during naps, we were not feeling confident we would be leaving any time soon, and the nurses lead us to believe it would be late late Sunday night or probably Monday before we would be discharged. Suuuuuuperrrr...(sarcasm).
Saturday night, Karsen had some more good sleep and even got a solid 3 hour stretch in from 4a-7a. He even rolled over to his tummy during that time and slept really soundly...so soundly, that I woke at 7a wondering what time it was and had I missed him crying at some point. NOPE! There was my happy baby, partaking in some self-induced tummy time. He was just cooing away in the crib and loving life. Even better was that the nurse came in for shift change and said "I didnt need to turn on the oxygen once last night!" YAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! What a huge relief! They nurses seemed surprised that he made such a quick improvement and they said "Looks like you are going home today." Music to my ears.
As I sit here still in the hospital room, I hear Karsen "talking" himself to sleep as Bruce rocks him in the rocking chair. In situations like these, I just think "How did I get so lucky?!" Yea it TOTALLY SUCKS that we are even here in the first place, but dang it, this kid is getting back to his normal self, and I have a wonderfully supportive husband who was here with me through it all.
Bruce and I "celebrated" our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday. Truthfully we tried to go out to dinner Thursday night with Karsen and had to get our food to-go because he just wasn't feeling quite right. Later, I found out that Bruce had a whole evening planned for just the two of us on Friday night. My mom was set up to take Karsen for the night and we would be free to enjoy our evening. HA. The good Lord had other plans and that is ok. We have made it a yearly tradition to order a "cake topper" of the spice cake we had at our wedding. After we got settled in the hospital room, Bruce ran out to pick up the cake and ran home to get other necessities. We still enjoyed the cake...just in a hospital room and not at home. Boo.
A memorable anniversary for sure...but at least my baby boy is feeling better and we have made it through this tough time.
We are so thankful for all of the prayers and thoughts that were sent our way. What a blessing to have such caring friends and family!!!
MB
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