After working exhausting 12, 12, 16, and 8 hr days in a row this weekend I pulled in the garage last night at 1145pm to find Carson in severe respiratory distress from croup. He had terrible stridor and was really struggling to get the air in and out. I grabbed him up and we headed back down to work to the ER. They took him right back to a room and started racemic epi on him because he was satting 87. His temp was 101.2 so he was loaded up with Tylenol for the fever and then Decadron to help reduce the swelling in his airway. Carson's subglottic stenosis makes any additional swelling in his upper airway very severe but last night was one of the worst times I have ever seen him. His asthma was acting up also so he had two rounds of Albuterol to help calm the wheezing. Once they had his sats back in the 93-95 range we were off to x-ray. Thankfully it only showed croup and no pneumonia so they didn't need to add antibiotics to the list of meds for the night.
Carson started to have some rebound stridor around 2am so they kept us until 0430 to make sure he was not going to go into distress again and need intubated. Several popsicles and cuddles later, Carson and I finally made it home with q4hr Albuterol, Orapred, Tylenol, and a much more milder form of stridor. It was a long night and we both slept in until 0930 this morning. Carson saw his regular ped at 1145 today and they said just to continue the Orapred (steriods) for 4 more days, keep him on the Albuterol, and watch the stridor for the next two nights.
Al and I were just talking yesterday about how the kids hadn't been in the hospital for a few months. I guess we should have kept our mouths shut. The very long arm of prematurity keep extending it's reach year after year and touching our lives in so many ways. It is amazing to me that almost 5 years after Carson's birth the intubation and ventilation that saved his life, is still having a negative impact. He is our first little wonder but I wish he didn't have to go through these trials so frequently. It never gets easier to see him struggling to breathe during an asthma attack or when he gets croup. Please send prayers that our little wildman gets well soon.
1 comment:
Ahhh...crap. We're in the hospital with pneumonia ourselves. Lincoln was satting 84 when we arrived on Sunday night. Yucky. We've got the same routine - Canada's version of Orapred (Pediapred), Ventolin, Pulmicort, and abx are on our list...Sucks. I'm glad you got home quickly though. I hope everything gets back to normal really soon!
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