RSV

We're home! WHEW! Lincoln is slowly getting better and is currently napping. Here is what happened.

Sunday morning Linc was coughing a bunch and starting to get fussy. He is usually a pretty happy baby, wanting to sit up all the time and play and as always, loves to eat. I knew he was sick when he was fussing but didn't worry too much. He's had little colds and stuff from daycare so I thought it would be a pain, but no big deal. He got a fever that afternoon so I called my doctors, Dr. Misti, Dr. Amanda, and my real doc, Dr. G who is Linc's pediatrician (officially). They suggested that I give him baby Motrin and keep an eye on him. So I did.

Monday morning I called at 8 to get in to see Dr G and they set me up for a 10:15 appt so that is when I went. As soon as the doc saw him she looked concerned and ordered a breathing treatment. We started that then the nurse hooked him up to the pulse/oxygen monitor thingy and his oxygen saturation was only 82%. I knew immediately that was bad because I spent lots of time with my asthmatic friend in the ER in college. The doc came back and sent us to the ER. I panicked a bit and practically ran to the ER at Baylor Grapevine. They got us right in and gave him a couple breathing treatments and an x-ray. My friend Kim came up to hang out with us and help me hold Linc, who was not wanting to be put down and his 21lb 8 oz butt is HEAVY!

After waiting for the results to the swabs the doc did for RSV and the Flu, the ER doc told me that he was sending us to Cooks Children's in FW because he was concerned with Lincs o2 numbers and the rapidness of his breath. They had an ambulance come to get us for the ride over. Thank God Kim was there, she helped me stay calm.

We got in the ambulance and Linc was in a better mood, happily chewing on the oxygen nose thingy. He was calm all the way there - again Praise God! It would have been awful if he had been screaming the whole time. We got there and it was CRAZY!!! There were so many people at the ER but they put us in a private room, probably because Linc has RSV and they didn't want us to infect everyone else.

Linc strapped to the stretcher, getting on the Ambulance.

The nurses and everyone were so nice. You can tell that everyone likes kids and is used to making them happy because they were super good with Linc. He was breathing really rapidly once we got there so Jay went out and started asking for help after we had been waiting for about an hour. The nurse called a doc in and he ordered a breathing treatment. After the treatment he was still breathing fast so they ordered another one and an IV. The sucky part is that I couldn't feed him, they didn't want me too since he was already struggling to breath. The other sucky part is that I was totally exhausted. I had been holding him all day, and was stressed and upset. The respiratory tech told me this was life threatening so I started to freak out on the inside while trying to stay calm on the inside. They finally decided to admit him. First, this guy came and put the IV in while the other guy held Linc down. It was TERRIBLE!!!! I mean TERRIBLE!!!!!!

Linc's splint/IV

I have a whole new load of sympathy for parents of sick babies. Also, for the nurses and docs that deal with them. The people at the hospital, all of them, were so nice (except that respiratory lady who gave me a heart attack).

He couldn't wear his jammies, instead had to wear this gown, which I don't think he liked too much. And we had to get a urine sample which included taping this baggie thing to his wee-wee, which I KNOW he didn't like. And every time they would take is temp and especially when they would take his blood pressure, he screamed like crazy. I think the nurses though I was poking him with pins because they kept coming in and asking if he would take a pacifier. And no, he wont, I've tried!

Anyhow, overall, we are very very blessed and very grateful to be home and to be getting better. Thanks for the prayers and meals.

P.S. Our house is under contract - so hopefully it will be sold soon! If all goes well we close Feb 19th so stay tuned for info on a packing party!