2 months 5 days old
Hard to believe it has been a whole month since I have updated. Ameir now weighs a whoppin' 7 pounds. Since my last post Ameir has been back in the hospital 3 times. I absolutely hate the fact that he has spent more days in the hospital than he has spent at home. Ameir has had 3 ambulance rides and a helicopter ride. I have been so busy at home with Ameir I have not had much time to update so here it is in a nutshell.
Today September 21, 2012
After being home a short 2 days.....I sit here at University of Michigan next to my son who is on the ventilator with a PICC line in his neck unable to be held by his mommy :( How we got here: Wednesday September 19th Ameir had a follow up appointment with his pediatrician after being released from the hospital with RSV on Sunday. I called the office at around 10am to say that Ameir was breathing kind of heavy and instead of an office visit I wanted to try to drive him down to U of M to see the pulminologist. I got a call back from the office within 5 minutes that if he was having issues driving 2 hours was not the smart thing to do PLEASE start at Covenant in Saginaw. I called my mom to come pick us up. In the next 5 minutes Ameir tanked and I could not get his oxygen above 60 so I had to call 911. The ambulance arrived in about 4 minutes and Ameir was blue but still breathing. The ambulance said we needed to go to Bay Medical Center because it was a matter of a minute ride rather than a 15 minute ride and he would be better to be stable before going to Covenant. I had a bad experience here so I will leave that alone for now.
Here he is resting what little bit he had for the day.
After a few hours and the ER poking him a ton of times to get an IV started he became somewhat stable. I asked several times to please call our pediatrician because we needed to be at U of M rather than Covenant. U of M accepted Ameir and sent the helicopter for him. This meant my baby would be at his destination in 20-30 minutes and I had to drive 2 hours :( We got here around 5pm and Ameir was in the ER until he got a bed in the PICU. My mom drove me down and we got him settled in his room and mom went home. I get back up to the room and within an hour the head of the PICU sat me down and said he really needed to be intubated and got my consent. I agreed Ameir had not slept the entire day and he was having an awful time breathing he was making the movements but no air was moving. He was intubated after 3 attempts and it was very difficult. I sat here shaking the entire time and when the OR showed up to go to surgery I completely lost it. Luckily the head Anesthesiologist got the ET tube in and got him on the vent without going to surgery. BUT when they intubated him they accidentally ripped out the IV in his head and he bled a lot. Since he had no veins that were not blown it was decided he needed a PICC line. I was not allowed in the room for that because it was a direct line to his heart so complete sterile area was a must. After he was on the vent and had the PICC line in he was given some sedation because it was so hard to put in the breathing tube it is a must that he not move and have it pulled out accidentally. Now on to diagnosing what the heck put Ameir into this place to begin with. He had a positive RSV test last week and was admitted at Covenant from September 13-16. It was initially thought that the RSV was just getting worse. Ameir had a chest x-ray that showed left lung pneumonia which he was admitted for on August 30-September 2. Poor kiddo if only we could get his lungs cleared out he would be ok. Today all the cultures came back negative for Influenza, MRSA, RSV so it was determined that he has a bacterial pneumonia. Today his red blood cells were really low so he was given a transfusion. He is getting so much fluid and medication by the PICC line that his soft spot felt a little full so he had an ultrasound of his head which was completely normal. His chest x-rays are looking better. His vent was turned down from 40 breaths per minute to 25 and put to SIMV mode which means Ameir has to initiate the breath on his own and then when he does the machine assists him through it. We were initially told he may be on the vent for 1-2 weeks but now I am not sure if it will even be that long.
Here is my little buddy today with 7 pumps going. 5 medications, 1 feeding, and 1 fluid.
I will try and update during this stay as we hope to get off the vent and just remain stable for a little time before rushing home.September 13-16, 2012
Admitted at Covenant Medical Center. Ameir had a fever all week that was somewhat controlled with Tylenol but I did take him to see his doctor on the 12th. We were told likely a virus and just watch him and give him extra breathing treatments if needed. Well on the 13th at 11am he started to act a little strange and was throwing his head from side to side and I thought he was having a seizure. Luckily the nurse was on her way and witnessed and she also thought a seizure so she called 911. We got to Covenant and there was no further seizures. His chest x-ray was not really bad but the RSV was positive. This is a bad virus he will be immunized against since he is medically fragile starting in November. He was also the first case in our county this season and it is very early in the season to see RSV so it is an indicator that this may be a bad year for illness. NOT GOOD FOR AMEIR!!! On a positive note he had another EEG that was completely normal. Covenant called daily to U of M for a bed but there was not one available and he was doing well so he was discharged on Sunday September 16th.
August 30-September 2, 2012
Ameir was sent over from a pediatrician appointment because his lung sounded congested. We were home all of 3 weeks and headed back in :( Made for one sad mommy. He was sent to U of M and ended up having aspiration pneumonia. This means that he inhaled either some spit up or some milk. He spent 4 days admitted - 3 in the NICU and one on the general pediatric floor. Ameir had an ECHO that showed his PDA has closed up 50%. I also learned that the 2 small VSD's (holes in his heart) are restrictive and IF he had shunting it would be left to right of oxygenated blood rather than unoxygenated blood. I guess if you have shunting this is the one you would want.
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