Tater's in the hospital, AGAIN (sorry to the family who is reading this-it's been a helluva day and we didn't get around to the phone during decent hours). He's had a cough since Saturday so after a bad night last night, I made an appointment with the pediatrician (not his regular one, who was out today, but another one in the same practice) for this afternoon. While we were headed out the door for a neurology appointment this morning he had another "blue" episode when I took him off his oxygen. This one was way worse than any of the others and I was really freaked-he was blue all over. But he pinked back up fairly quickly once I turned the O2 back on so I just took our portable canister with us to the neurologist and he seemed fine.
Tater still seemed fine once we got to the ped's office after lunch. He looked a little tired but I had woken him up from a nap and honestly didn't think anything of it. Even when the nurse seemed a little worried about him I just thought it was because she hadn't seen him before. But then she took out the pulse oximeter to measure his oxygen sats. Whoa nelly. If sats in the low 90's are kinda okay and sats in the mid 80's are bad, then sats in the 70's get you an ambulance ride to the hospital. The doctor very professionally freaked out as soon as he got in the room. He pulled out a breathing treatment, told me to go get Tater's oxygen out of the car and had the nurse call an ambulance. An ambulance to take Tater to the hospital that is less than a mile down the road. I was way more than freaked at this time. Mostly because I was kicking myself for not getting Tater to a doctor sooner. I knew he was getting bad but I kept telling myself to take it easy, it was just a cough. So we got on the ambulance-after the driver told me to go put our oxygen canister in my car so it wouldn't get mixed up with theirs (apparently the situation wasn't THAT urgent). And Tater was acting really normal, clicking his tongue and looking around and absolutely loving the ambulance ride. But at least we got a room right away (last time we had to wait 1.5 hours for one) and we got to hear over the ambulance radio about a guy who drank too much Listerine and passed out drunk then started a fight with the EMT who tried to help him out and had to have the cops called on him. Who knew Huntsville was so exciting?
Now, the down side to a ped freaking out and calling an ambulance is that you go straight to the PICU. The upside to the ped freaking out and being taken to the PICU is Doctor Mama. You may recall Doctor Mama from Tater's last PICU visit. She takes no prisoners and gets things DONE. Within 2 hours of Tater touching hospital ground he had seen a ped cardiologist who diagnosed him with pulmonary hypertension and she has mapped out a plan for helping him/us at home. The plan is: O2 ALL the time, no breaks, and a pulse oximeter at home so we can keep an eye on his sats without having to run to a doctor all the time (ahem-Halo-we're still willing to be the guinea pigs for a ped version of your product).
And as with all Tater visits to the hospital, we're getting a few things done while we're there. His neurologist mentioned at the visit today she wanted to run a couple of tests in the hospital but wanted to wait until RSV season was over. Now we'll be doing those over night tomorrow night and hopefully get to go home on Thursday. This neurologist is the most amazing and compassionate woman. She stopped by to see "Handsome"-her name for the Tater- on her way home tonight even though she had no obligation to. She's always hugging me and telling me how proud she is of all us and does it in a way that is in no way condescending. We are so blessed to have caring doctors who are really concerned about Tater. Even his surgeon and surgeon's nurse heard he was in the hospital and stopped by to check on him. We are definitely in the right place and could not ask for better care for the Tater. Sure, we see more knowledgeable people at Vandy and UAB, but no one cares for him like his Huntsville docs.
One more thing at the risk of going overboard with this post: today when Tater was turning blue, Toser ran upstairs and came back with a sing-it box (music box). He said, “I get sing-it box to make Tater feel better.” When Tater calmed down with Toser playing the box next to his ear, he said, “See Mommy, I make Tater all better.” Isn’t Tater lucky to have such a great big brudder? Aren’t YB and I so lucky to have such a great son?
I’ll try to keep you all updated. We don’t have Internet service at the hospital and I’ll probably be there all day tomorrow. Rest assured that Tater is fine and is in the best hands. So is Toser-he’s with Wissa getting spoiled rotten and being sweet about it.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Housekeepin'
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Old Lane Sign
Happy New Year! 2007 was a strange year to say the least and ended very hectically. We have many hopes for 2008 and are happy that it has started out to be a good one so far.
The Thursday before Christmas, Tater started running a fever and turned blue on me a couple of times. When he “turns blue,” it means he’s having an especially hard time breathing and his oxygen saturation levels are pretty low. His lips get very blue and he gets a blue tinge around his mouth. Although it doesn’t happen too often and I know to be on guard when it does, it’s just something that is to be expected with breathing problems like his. This time the blue episodes were different/worse and I got a little freaked* and took him to see his pulmonologist. When they checked his O2 saturation level it was in the mid 80’s, which is not good, so off to the hospital we went. He was in the hospital Thursday and Friday nights for a respiratory infection and so they could monitor his O2 levels. He really wasn’t that sick and wasn’t acting like it at all after we got to the hospital-he only had low O2 levels. They did give him steroids to make it easier for him to breathe and the kid became crazy. My sister, Wissa, stayed with him while I came home for a bit and she said he never stopped moving the 2 hours I was away. And then he moved and babbled for 3 hours straight when I came back. We would tell him to wave bye-bye and he would clap. We would tell him to clap and he would wave bye-bye. He babbled mamamamama constantly. It was pretty funny. Of course that was Friday night when I got to come home to sleep (I stayed Thursday night) and Ben had to stay up with him. I don’t think he finds it as funny as I do since he had to bring Tater down from that high.
Anyway, Tater came on Saturday morning, YB’s sister (Leeda) and her family (husband Uncle Cracker and sons Doodle-2.5 and Nick-4 mos.) arrived an hour after we got home and things didn’t slow down until last Thursday when YB’s other sister (Kajja) left. It was crazy and we loved it. Toser and Doodle did very well playing together and Nick is just as cute as Tater. My sister, Manny; her husband, Hunter; my brother, TyTy; and his wife JenJen were all in town that weekend as well (Wissa and her family live here). We had 25 people at our house on Christmas Eve and went to Coco and Papa’s house Christmas Day. The boys both got too many toys and loved every bit of the craziness as well. Tater’s doing tons better and has met a few more of his therapy goals-but that’s a post for another time.
I hope everyone is doing well and survived the holidays!
*I tend to deal with these type situations calmly while they’re happening and completely fall apart later when all is over. This drives YB crazy because it seems I’m not reacting (although I am, I just don’t show any emotion). On the other hand, he reacts immediately and is frantic. This drives ME crazy because it seems he’s just freaking out and not taking care of the situation. In all actuality, it doesn’t matter how it’s dealt with as long as it’s dealt with. The point being-when I get freaked about something, it’s weird and I don’t deal well. It probably didn’t help that I was sick too. And so was Toser and he was hungry and wanted M&Ms. So I gave him a snack bag of potato chips and told him if he ate the whole bag he could have the M&Ms. What? Potatoes are a vegetable and my standards were a little low then. Not that they’re always high when it comes to food (that’s YB’s area) but they’re usually a tad higher than a chip and M&M lunch. And Toser knows not to look a gift-horse/sick-stressed-mom in the mouth and was quite happy with the whole deal. Plus, he got to stay with Coco and Papa while Tater was in the hospital and that’s like a constant chip and M&M lunch.
The Thursday before Christmas, Tater started running a fever and turned blue on me a couple of times. When he “turns blue,” it means he’s having an especially hard time breathing and his oxygen saturation levels are pretty low. His lips get very blue and he gets a blue tinge around his mouth. Although it doesn’t happen too often and I know to be on guard when it does, it’s just something that is to be expected with breathing problems like his. This time the blue episodes were different/worse and I got a little freaked* and took him to see his pulmonologist. When they checked his O2 saturation level it was in the mid 80’s, which is not good, so off to the hospital we went. He was in the hospital Thursday and Friday nights for a respiratory infection and so they could monitor his O2 levels. He really wasn’t that sick and wasn’t acting like it at all after we got to the hospital-he only had low O2 levels. They did give him steroids to make it easier for him to breathe and the kid became crazy. My sister, Wissa, stayed with him while I came home for a bit and she said he never stopped moving the 2 hours I was away. And then he moved and babbled for 3 hours straight when I came back. We would tell him to wave bye-bye and he would clap. We would tell him to clap and he would wave bye-bye. He babbled mamamamama constantly. It was pretty funny. Of course that was Friday night when I got to come home to sleep (I stayed Thursday night) and Ben had to stay up with him. I don’t think he finds it as funny as I do since he had to bring Tater down from that high.
Anyway, Tater came on Saturday morning, YB’s sister (Leeda) and her family (husband Uncle Cracker and sons Doodle-2.5 and Nick-4 mos.) arrived an hour after we got home and things didn’t slow down until last Thursday when YB’s other sister (Kajja) left. It was crazy and we loved it. Toser and Doodle did very well playing together and Nick is just as cute as Tater. My sister, Manny; her husband, Hunter; my brother, TyTy; and his wife JenJen were all in town that weekend as well (Wissa and her family live here). We had 25 people at our house on Christmas Eve and went to Coco and Papa’s house Christmas Day. The boys both got too many toys and loved every bit of the craziness as well. Tater’s doing tons better and has met a few more of his therapy goals-but that’s a post for another time.
I hope everyone is doing well and survived the holidays!
*I tend to deal with these type situations calmly while they’re happening and completely fall apart later when all is over. This drives YB crazy because it seems I’m not reacting (although I am, I just don’t show any emotion). On the other hand, he reacts immediately and is frantic. This drives ME crazy because it seems he’s just freaking out and not taking care of the situation. In all actuality, it doesn’t matter how it’s dealt with as long as it’s dealt with. The point being-when I get freaked about something, it’s weird and I don’t deal well. It probably didn’t help that I was sick too. And so was Toser and he was hungry and wanted M&Ms. So I gave him a snack bag of potato chips and told him if he ate the whole bag he could have the M&Ms. What? Potatoes are a vegetable and my standards were a little low then. Not that they’re always high when it comes to food (that’s YB’s area) but they’re usually a tad higher than a chip and M&M lunch. And Toser knows not to look a gift-horse/sick-stressed-mom in the mouth and was quite happy with the whole deal. Plus, he got to stay with Coco and Papa while Tater was in the hospital and that’s like a constant chip and M&M lunch.
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