Last summer, Jake got a cold, which quickly turned into a deep, chesty cough. He had a hard time getting rid of the cough, and he'd wake up in the mornings just coughing so, so much. When we took him to the doctor, he was diagnosed with asthma. We were surprised, as Rick and I don't have asthma, and none of our siblings have it. The pediatrician told us that, often, babies who are born premature, like Jake, develop asthma. She also said that kids who have an asthma "episode" as babies are diagnosed with bronchiolitis, which is what Jake had those few times as a baby. She said they don't call it "asthma" until after the kid turns one. So, we got out our nebulizer again, and Jake got through that episode. Over the past year, we've had to give him treatments a handful of times, usually when he had a cold that turned into a cough, but it hasn't been a major part of our lives.
Until now. Recently, Jake had a cold, and was getting to be pretty congested. He needed to go to his 3 year well-visit, so we figured we'd just have him checked out then. We were seeing a new doctor at a practice that Jake had never been to (Jillian had been seen there since we switched, but not Jake). The doctor checked him out, noticed the congestion, and prescribed breathing treatments and an antibiotic. And off we went. Jillian had dance class that day, so Jake went with us. I noticed he started getting very tired and quiet, but we waited it out through the dance class. Once we got home, it was clear that Jake wasn't feeling well. We let him take a nap in our bed, and once he was asleep, we could tell that his breathing was very labored. He sounded like he was running around playing, and he was sleeping. His chest was working really hard to take each breath. After a few phone calls to Aunt Cathy, our resident nurse, we decided he needed to go to the emergency room. So off we went. Rick stayed home with Jillian.
We ended up in the ER for hours! When we first got there, the nurses tested his blood oxygen level, and it was pretty low, so they took us straight back. Jake was given a breathing treatment and hooked up to a zillion different tubes. He had a monitor on his finger monitoring his oxygen levels, which I could see on the screen. They needed to be in the 95-97 range, and when he got to the ER, he was at about an 84. So I watched on the screen all night long, and they didn't move much. Jake had an x-ray and then back to the monitor. Eventually, a doctor came in and told us that Jake had pneumonia in his lungs, but no RSV, which was good. We got to the ER around 7:00 p.m., and by about midnight, we had no news.
Finally, the doctor told us that Jake would have to be admitted, but the hospital we were at did not have a pediatric unit, so we would have to be transferred to another hospital. We were happy to at least have a plan, but it took forever to get that plan moving. Around 2:30 a.m. or so, we were finally tranported to a hospital with a children's respiratory unit. The nurses had led me to believe that I could ride with Jake in the ambulance, but when it came down to it, I couldn't. I had to ride in the front seat, and Jake was terrified to be riding by himself in the back. That was, perhaps, one of the worst moments of my life - watching Jake's terrified face the moment we both realized that he had to get in the back of the ambulance by himself, after I'd promised him over and over that I would be there with him the whole time. It was heartbreaking.
So we got transferred to the new hospital early early in the morning. The nurses and staff were so nice, and we were so tired. We were finally allowed to go to sleep, but not for long. Jake was poked and prodded all night long. I slept with him in his bed, but neither of us got much sleep. The hospital had respiratory therapists, who we saw a lot of. Someone finally got a bright idea to hook Jake up to oxygen, which helped his oxygen levels go up very quickly, thank goodness. Jake hated having the tubes up his nose, though.
After having the oxygen on all night, the nurses started trying to wean him off of it. He would do pretty good while he was awake, but was having trouble keeping his levels up while he slept. After several rounds of breathing treatments and antibiotics through his IV, Jake was starting to feel better, and was not so happy about being stuck in his bed. We were able to go down to the play room and do some crafts, and we took several walks. But because he couldn't get his levels to regulate while he slept, we had to spend another night in the hospital. By that time, Jake was really getting sick of that oxygen tube up his nose, and he kept messing with it, trying to get it off his face. We had to tape it down. Poor guy.
The next day, Jake was feeling much better. He had a better night, and his oxygen levels were a little bit better, so we were allowed to go back to the play room during the day. Fortunately, we live in Florida, in the land of all things Disney, and the hospital we were at had a Disney pavillion for the kids. Jake scored a "lobby pass," which allowed us to go down and check out all the Disney stuff. (See, us Floridians know how to do a kids' hospital right!)
Jake loved being able to walk around and have a little bit of fun. It was definitely good for him - he had been cooped up for so long.
And when we got back upstairs to his room, the doctor told us that we were going to get to go home, as long as Jake was able to keep his oxygen levels up while he napped that afternoon! Yay! Except, Jake had been in bed for so long, he was not going to take a nap. Finally, the doctor just told us we could go home, and gave us instructions for how to keep him rested and breathing regular. Yay!
So, now we know what to watch for. Now we know when things are getting serious with his asthma. And we know what to do about it. We also got a new device for his maintenance medicine, so we don't have to use the nebulizer machine every day. Jake has an asthma inhaler, and a tube device that allows it to be used for little kids. God bless whoever invented that thing. It takes about 2 minutes to administer, as opposed to about 20 minutes on the loud nebulizer. We definitely had a scare, but Jake is doing much better! Here's hoping we don't have any more asthma related hospitilizations any time soon!
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