Sunday, October 21, 2007
Update on Parker's ICU Visit
Hey all -- short update. Well, Kira and I are home again for the night, but Parker is doing much better and is staying overnight again but up on the children's wing, as they wean him off of the oxygen supplementation, decrease the spacing of his nebulizers to once every 4 hours, and switch from IV steroids to oral steroids (a different kind). He is a ton better, and now we have to try to figure out what exactly happened this time, and how to be more proactive than before -- and we thought we were! So, I'm hoping this was a one time fluke and the only time he ever must be admitted into the hospital, though I totally understand it may not be.
As for what caused it -- I really couldn't say, and the doctors pretty much said that they could put him on maintenance medications, but as this isn't an allergic reaction, but rather one to the virus, those maintenance medications just don't work on it. They also agreed that it is concerning that he has intermittent asthma, but when he does get sick it is so severe -- it doesn't fit a category, and I could tell they really didn't want the responsibility of figuring it out, as I don't think I'd heard our pediatrician's name mentioned at all before then, and it was mentioned at least once a sentence, sometimes more than that! Too funny!!
So, I'm already resolved to purchase a stethoscope and pulse oximeter for here, and we'll see what else we can do. It seems his chest was getting tighter and tighter, but he wasn't coughing like normal, so he had a ton of congestion and then had the constriction. Luckily now he's doing tons better, and will continue to improve.
His patience is wearing super thin, as he's said the TV is boring (and yet wants to buy whatever the commercials are selling), he's played one of the video games from start to finish, played cards, and has simply lost the joy in an adjustable bed. It is sooooo boring when you have to be in bed with only the "electronic interaction substitutes" around you!! Shoot, even WE bored him! LOL
I am hope-hope-hoping that tomorrow morning he'll be released. On the PICU, they pretty much didn't tell us anything in terms of what they wanted to see, and how it would all progress, but up on the standard floor (what do they call those?), they seem to be more wanting to get him discharged (hallelujah!!). It is an odd feeling to have what we've been able to handle pretty much out-patient (with occasional visits for oral steroids) turn into something MUCH different. So very scary, and yet all the other patients in the PICU seemed to really be doing tons, tons worse, including one little girl that they essentially said they can do nothing more for. She is less than 2 years old. And yet, it could have BEEN Parker (I just can't grasp that right now).
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