I'm not sure where to start in this post as my emotions runnith over and not in a good way. In fact I seriously considered throwing my phone through my plate glass window tonight after getting off the phone with my sister Monique (more on this in a later post as I need to process first).
It was quite a weekend, B was supposed to come home for an overnight Friday night but I had been feeling a bit off for a few days so I postponed it to Saturday night. I woke up Friday with a heaviness in my chest and I figured it was allergies since they'd been bugging me earlier in the week but it got a bit worse as the day went on to the point that I asked the Paediatrician to listen to my lungs with her tiny stethoscope (funny right?). She said I was a bit wheezy but was otherwise seemed okay. As Friday wore on it got harder and harder to breathe and by 8pm I knew I needed to go into the walk-in clinic because it felt as though someone was pushing on my chest and back and squeezing me tight. The Dr took one listen and said it was Pneumonia, no doubt with the amount of blockage in my lungs. So here I am on oral steroid, antibiotics, inhaler steroids and ventolin. The sad part? I had just finished a course of antibiotics from when the boys had Scarlett Fever so that I DIDN'T get that.
I had to be on the antibiotics for 24 hrs before seeing Mr.B again so that put us back another day. I was also terrified that I'd passed it onto him, that's what I get for assuming it was allergies. In my defence though I wasn't coughing really and just felt run down, no huge surprise there. So I stayed away from the hospital and Braeden had one of his favourite nurses with him, Deb, so he was set for my absence. Word got around that I was sick so he got inundated with visitors as usual. Deb was laughing on Saturday morning at the shift change because she was tripping over nurses that were coming in for their morning smiles and love from Mr. B.
The big plan today was to bring him home this afternoon (Sun) for the first time and see how I was feeling to whether or not we'd keep him overnight. So the boys and I trooped over to the hospital to pick him up and they were SO excited that they got to bring him home. We got there and Braeden was all smiles and happy to see us and then just out of nowhere started retching and retching. The poor boy! His nurse Deb had had a great morning/afternoon with him with no issues and then I arrive and BAM, here we go! Nora (afternoon nurse) had to suction him out and then we vented his G-Tube as he'd just finished eating and we thought maybe he was just really gassy. He all but pushed back out his whole feed into the vent syringe but did seem better after that. He also had to have his G-Tube treated again today for prolapse (granulated tissue) so I got out the silver nitrate sticks and did my first treatment. Now for those of you that don't know what silver nitrate is, it is caustic to the skin for one thing and can give you one hell of a chemical burn. It is designed to do just that, I had to burn his granulated tissue. Deb chastised me for saying I had to burn him, she said I need to be more positive and say I had to 'treat him' but really, I had to burn him (sorry Deb). It actually went not too badly aside from the fact that I felt as though I might vomit throughout it. Nothing like chemically cauterizing your child's wound! In all reality, as horrible as it was for me, B is such a trooper that he really didn't hate me for it and I'm one step closer to that medical degree.
If you're not already a bit queasy this really might put you over the edge. So, retching, burning and then the poop. He had a huge diaper and Nora and I figured that that was the problem with the retching, his tummy was very full as was his need to poop. So the feed went back in, he retched once again but only the one time then was settled. They asked if I wanted the resident to look at him but I figured we were good, he was happy so really what else could it be?
Homeward bound we went with our van full (take a normal diaper bag, times it by 10 and then add three tanks of oxygen) and B enjoyed the car ride with his brothers talking to him and cooing at him. Torin's best quote in the car was, "yep, we're your brothers Braeden, we are your brothers". We got home and quickly changed another poopy diaper, and another and another and another. Poor Mr.B had it coming out of him faster than it was going in. I phone the Nora back at the hospital to say that he had diarrhea and she told me to keep her informed and to flush his G-Tube with more water so that he was getting additional fluids. By the fifth diaper change and third sleeper I figured it was time to take him back. The crazy part was that he was in a great mood for the most part, aside from being tired as his nap in his new crib was short lived as I forgot I had to give him his heart med and had to wake him. What I wasn't anticipating was the boys to be crushed. They were both in tears when I was leaving with Braeden to take him back, those poor boys have been through so much.
I hauled all the gear back to the hospital including all three tanks of oxygen and got him back to his bed. His nurse weighed the bag-o-diapers I brought (yup, each one saved in a ziplock). For the amount of fluid he lost he wasn't complaining. He was happy to watch his mobile and happy to be back where he knew, not to mention he got a parade of nurses through to welcome him back (don't know what they are going to do when he leaves for good!). The resident came into have a look at him just as I was taking off another soiled sleeper and changing diaper number 6 in four hours. Lucky (?) for the resident he got to have a good look at the poop and they sent off some samples to the lab. He started B on pedialite and commented that he wasn't all that well profused but wanted to see if they could get the pediatlite to work before going to an IV. I have a sneaking suspicion that the IV will be in before the night is out. So BACK on isolation he is as we wait to see what bug is travelling through him this time.
It's all a bit ridiculous this life of mine, I couldn't make this up if I tried.
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