Braden gave us the scare of our lives! Marty was working in Nicaragua. Braden seemed a bit off for a couple of days so I thought he may have been starting to get another ear infection. I took him to the doctor on Thursday, March 18th. Was told he had an ear infection starting but the doc could also hear a slight wheeze in his lungs and said he had RSV. (By the way, it turned out it wasn't RSV) Being a nurse, I know that RSV can turn ugly very quickly so I pressed the doc with many questions. The doc thought since he wasn't having any issues breathing, he'd breeze right through it. HA! I picked him up from daycare around 5:30pm and he looked much worse than he had that morning. We ran a hot shower & sat in a steamy bathroom for a bit that night....it didn't help. So, just to be on the safe side, I slept in his room with him. Neither of us got much sleep that night. About 7 Friday morning I thought I'd take him to the pediatrician's office to get a nebulizer (breathing) treatment when they opened at 9. At 8 am Braden was getting MUCH worse in a hurry! He was suddenly really struggling to breathe and couldn't get enough air to "talk." I rushed him to Children's hospital north campus.
We went through A LOT that day. In an effort to make a really long story short, his condition continued to decline and the weather was getting pretty ugly with a snowstorm. I called Marty and told him he needed to come home. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of flights out of Nicaragua each day. The doc up north decided to have Braden transported south to the main campus where they had ICU "just in case" he needed it. It was certain he would be admitted to the hospital, we just didn't know what floor at that point. We headed south and didn't spend too long in their emergency department before I was told he was being admitted to ICU. Things in the ICU weren't much better, he just kept getting worse. By 11pm that night I was told he needed to be intubated. Talk about scared! I think I just went numb for a second. The thought of losing my little boy was almost too much. I asked the doctor if he thought Braden was going to "make it." Unfortunately, there were no reassurances to be made at that time. The doc told me my son was in intensive care because he was very sick and was only going to continue to get worse for now; he needed a machine to help him breathe. I kept asking if he was going to be okay, I couldn't lose Braden, but no one would say yes. So, I just got the facts from the doc and learned that we would have to get him intubated and see how Braden did with it.
Fortunately, a few hours after intubation, the doc looked at me and said, "He's going to be alright." There went the waterworks again! Braden was responding pretty well to their treatment and was able to be adequately ventilated. It was still an ugly situation with lots of ups and downs but things had just gotten better.
My little guy is such a fighter! He kept trying real hard to breathe on his own. He was fighting the ventilator. So, the docs had to give him a paralytic agent to kick him out of the equation and just let the machine do the breathing for him. He ended up with an IV in both arms, a central line near his right clavicle, an arterial line in his right wrist, a catheter, an NG tube (for feeding), obviously the breathing tube, ECG leads on his chest, pulse ox on his toe, and 8 IV pumps. Yes, I said 8. It was amazing and horrifying all at once. Imagine being in the hospital and the stupid IV pump keeps beeping and waking everyone up. Annoying. Now, imagine 8 of them. Every one of them beeping when they became occluded, empty, etc. And every time his heart rate was too high, the monitor would beep, when his blood pressure dropped, it would beep, when his O2 levels dropped, it would beep. Then there was the ventilator that had alarms as well. All night it was non-stop action.
Braden was very sensitive to the sedatives. If he didn't have quite enough, he'd wake up and fight. Of course, it wouldn't be fun being awake with a tube down your throat and the last thing we wanted was for him to pull the tube out. So, we'd rush over and try to soothe him. The nurse would give him a bolus of sedative to put him back to sleep. Then his blood pressure would drop from the sedative. Then they had to give him dopamine to bring his BP back up. It was a constant up and down with everything. He eventually needed a blood transfusion as well due to his hematocrit levels being very low. Once he received the blood, he got a good dose of energy with it!
Braden would cough, though you couldn't hear it with the tube in. But his whole body would jerk. It was awful to watch. And even worse, he would cry when he woke up. You couldn't hear it but tears would run down the side of his face. That, of course, made me cry.
Dad got the earliest flight home possible and arrived at the hospital Saturday afternoon. What a shock that was for him. There's no way you can ever prepare a father for such a sight. That's all I'll say about that.
Our little guy fighting and coughing, etc. the whole time really helped him. He worked hard and helped get all the mucous out of his lungs which ended up giving him a much quicker recovery. Yeah Braden! That's my tough kid!
So, Tuesday he got the tube out. Wednesday we left ICU for the general medical floor. We were glad to be "moving up" but sad to leave the docs & nurses in ICU. They were absolutely incredible. I can't tell you how GOOD those people. We are forever grateful. We spent 2 more days on the 8th floor, didn't like the docs or nurses much so I had to light a fire under them a couple of times. Friday, March 26 we took our baby home! What an awesome day!!!! The feeling of taking your son home after nearly losing him is incredible. I'm still thanking God daily. What a blessing.
In the mean time....I need to say thank you to everyone who helped us through that really tough time. If I don't mention someone, please forgive me!! We are truly grateful for everything!!
Rick -- thanks for bringing me food and spending time with Braden & I on that really tough day 1. I hadn't eaten in about 30 hours and I was starving! Braden really enjoyed playing with your watch in the ED. Thanks for feeding the dogs, etc., etc., etc.
Angie -- thanks for everything! For always being there at the drop of a hat, listening, crying with me, bouncing Braden when I thought my arm was going to fall off, and most of all, for loving Braden like your own!
Zizz -- Boy, we didn't plan your trip to meet your God son to be like that! But hey, God is really smart! He knew WE would need you. I FINALLY slept because you were there praying over my son all night. Every time I opened my eyes, you were right there. He was in great hands! I told you.....he will love you as much as I do. I was right....again! Ha, ha! :-) There's so much, I can't ever cover it all so, thank you. I'm REALLY glad you were able to hold Braden before you went home.
Phyllis -- Thank you so much for driving 400 miles and taking 5 days off work to help us. Having you there to help me catch a few hours of sleep and definitely to help get Braden to sleep for the little time he was able to was really nice. By the way, your little "your eyes are getting droopy" trick has never worked for me! LOL. Having the support and extra hands is very much appreciated.....by all of us.
Kandi -- Thank you for driving out to help us when we got home! Braden was just exhausted after 2 days of no sleep. My arm was going to fall off...again, dad was trying everything he could think of...it was great to have someone else sing to Braden and love him though his screaming. You got an A+ for getting that little guy to sleep in the crib! Boy did he need it. And I got 12 hours of sleep....12 hours straight. After 8 days of not sleeping, that was heaven.
All our family and friends -- Thanks a million for all the kind thoughts and the many, many prayers. Our sons name was mentioned in at least 3 church services on the Sunday he was in ICU. He was included in many prayer chains and personal prayers. I can't tell you how humbling it is to have SO many people care SO much about your child. The response to Braden's illness was just amazing and overwhelming. My heart still overflows when I think about it. All of your prayers meant more than you'll ever know. God sent our little boy home with us.....that's the biggest blessing ever.
Braden stayed home for another week and went back to daycare on April 5. By the 14th he was clearly feeling great and back to his old self! He's crawling everywhere and into EVERYTHING!
So, below are some of the pictures we took while in the hospital. After Braden had the tube removed, he was so blown up from fluids he looked like a sumo wrestler! I finally got to hold him after 4 days of waiting crib-side. Awesome! And the Don Zizz finally got to hold his God son......
Mom and Grandma talking with Braden
Zizz called the stand with all the IV pumps "The Christmas Tree" :-)
Zizz, Nurse Corey & Braden
The Don Zizz & Braden
Our sweet Braden
The little Sumo Wrestler. He'd just woken up and been extubated.
Grandma and the tough guy!
Grandma finally gets to hold him!
