October 15, 2011

It's funny because October 15, 2009 was the happiest day of my life.  It was the day I found out I was pregnant with my monster.

Fast forward 2 years later, and October 15, 2011 was the scariest day of my life.  It was the day Jonathan was admitted to the ICU.  I found this old blog entry that I never posted last year so I figured I'd go ahead and post it now.

We went to our pediatrician's walk in hours to get Jonathan checked out because he had a cold and his breathing was fast.  They noticed he was working hard to breathe and checked is blood oxygen saturation, it was at 75%.  That was very concerning since normal is above 95%.  Anything under 90% is not good.  They gave him a nebulizer treatment to try and open up his airways, which he fought with all the energy he could muster up.  After the treatment, it went up to 92%.  The doctor told us since he's working so hard to breathe that we need to go to the emergency room.

We got to the ER at Evanston hospital.  They immediately put him on O2 and another nebulizer treatment.  His O2 sats stayed in the 90's, but as soon as we would stop the treatment and O2 he would de-sat into the 70s and his lips would start to turn blue.

They did a chest x-ray and found that it was pneumonia.  At first, they were going to admit him, but since he required more closer monitoring they wanted to transfer him to a hospital better equipped to do so.

Lutheran General transport team came by ambulance to pick him up and bring him to their pediatric ICU.  Only 1 of us could ride with him, so I went while Marc went home to get some of our stuff.  They told us we would be in the hospital for a few days.

Things were such a blur on Saturday, I don't even know what happened.   What I do remember is that there were about 4 nurses, 2 doctors and 3 respiratory therapists working on him.  They were trying to start 2 more IVs in both his feet.  Jonathan kept fighting them, so they had to sedate him.

The scariest part was the urgency you could hear in their voices and see on their faces.  As usual, I was a wreck and Marc was holding it all together.  Then they wheeled in a ventilator and I just about lost it. That was the one thing I was afraid of.  They told us that when kids work so hard to breathe, sometimes they can get so tired they just stop.  And since Jonathan was working so hard just to breathe, the ventilator would breathe for him and give him a chance to rest.  It calmed my feelings about the ventilator, but I was still hoping he didn't need it.

Then they wheeled in a gigantic helium tank.  Since Jonathan's airways were so constricted, and helium is lighter than air, it would help make the oxygen flow deep into Jonathan's lungs and make things less turbulent.

Jonathan had 3 IV sites, in both feet and his left arm.  He was receiving medications to help his breathing, 3 antibiotics, and IV fluids.

Slowly, the amount of people started to decrease in the room.  Which made me feel a little better since I felt they wouldn't leave if something was really wrong.

That's about as far as I got.  I still get all teary eyed thinking about that day.  We woke up thinking we were going to take him to a pumpkin patch, to going to the doctor, then to the emergency room, and then to the ICU.

This was the first day in the ICU.

This was his second day in the ICU.  Still sedated but looking better than the day before.  This was the day all my cousins came to visit.  Of course this being the first they've seen of him, they were all very scared.

 

Jonathan finally taken off sedation.  Poor guy looks so sleepy. But that didn't stop him from wanting to play Angry Birds!

 

Still in the ICU, but doing a lot better.  Of course his belly has to make an appearance.

This is when he was transferred from the ICU to the general pediatric floor.  We went home the next day!

I will forever be thankful to the amazing staff at Lutheran General.  I love them with all my heart, but I hope I never see them again!

It's absolutely frightening how quickly life can turn on you.  The thought that you could lose your child is a feeling I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Obviously he's all better now...but man did he give us a scare.  And I will constantly remind him of this when he's older...in addition to the crap he pulled when I was pregnant...and went into labor. Little jerk. =)