Thursday, May 30, 2013

Ryan's May Hospital Visit

Ryan was unable to maintain his oxygen saturation levels above even 90% at home on 2 liters of oxygen; he was pale white, cold, and his lips and nail beds were greyish blue.  Not a good thing.  Wednesday afternoon, after talking with the Pulmonologist, we transferred him to a portable oxygen machine, loaded up a bunch of machines, and took him to the ER.  By the time we arrived at the ER, he had pinked up a little and was hovering right around the 92% area with oxygen.

Their was a line at the ER; however, we were moved to the front of the line.  I suppose that's one advantage to walking in to an ER with a child already on oxygen and lying across your arms:  you certainly never have to wait in an ER.

The ER doc ordered blood work, a chest x ray, and a viral panel.  Then we waited in the ER exam room for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was only close ... we checked in sometime around 7:30 pm and was moved to our hospital room around 1: 30 am Thursday morning.  I was so tired from the two sleepless nights before that when George was asking me Ryan's history questions, I kept falling asleep.  I felt bad, but at 2:30 am on a good night I might fall asleep on you.  At 2:30 am after not sleeping much for two consecutive nights, and knowing that I now have a medical staff to watch over Ryan, I think my body was just shutting down.

Ryan was placed on the step down unit from the ICU where he can be monitored closely.  He is listed as "guarded" condition, which here is between stable and critical.  We are doing IPV treatments every 4 hours, some new meds, and of course his normal meds.  The little guys is exhausted.  He is still requiring 2 liters of oxygen just to keep his saturation levels at 92-93% and he's still have frequent dips into the 80's. 

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