Annual Hospital Visit?

I thought we might make it through this spring season without what seems to be Ryan's annual hospital trip.  However, Ryan was having problems with his breathing on Thursday.  We kept him on oxygen all day Thursday and all night.  Where there hadn't been any improvement on Friday morning and he seemed to be working hard to breathe, even with supplemental oxygen, I made the decision to take him to the Emergency Room. I spoke with his primary care physician and he agreed that it was the best plan of action.  He was leaving town that afternoon and thus he made sure that I had his cell phone number so that I could reach him if I needed anything and so that I could keep him up to date.  Do you see how blessed we are?

After being in the Emergency Room for a while, we found out that he had Enterovirus and Rhinovirus.  For most of us, that's just the common cold.  Nothing serious. For Ryan, however, it can get serious.  The chest xrays showed that the lungs were surprisingly clear, but he was essentially drowning in his secretions.  Unfortunately for Ryan that meant we had to do some deep suctioning.  If you don't know what that means, imagine a vacuum cleaner with a skinny hose.  Then stick the hose down your throat or up your nose to suck all the gunk out of your body.  Not fun.

The attending physician was going to send him home since we have supplemental oxygen at home and the ability to do suction,   However, Ryan's respiration rate was so high that she was concerned that he might just tire out and so she decided she needed to admit him.  So we spent one night at Pedi and thankfully we had one of our favorite doctors there.  He had some great advice and referred us to the best two Pulmonologists in our area.  They are expecting my call and took my cell phone number so that if they don't hear from me, they can call me.  Nice, right?  Hopefully, we can find out what we need to do to strengthening Ryan's lungs.

In the meantime, I'm sure thankful for pulse ox monitors, portable oxygen machines, nurses, doctors, even suction machines ... although they are definitely not my favorite thing to use.  I'm really thankful for all the kind people on our team.  I am so thankful for all the resources that Heavenly Father provides to make this journey a little easier and more joyful.