The day my mom left town, a Monday, Jackson got a diagnosis of croup at the pediatrician's office. Wednesday I took him back because he wasn't getting better with the steroids. Doctor, whom I love dearly, took a chest x-ray and determined he had pneumonia and an ear infection, so we added antibiotics. That Wednesday night things got worse.
When we went back to the doctor for the 3rd time that week, I was told to take him straight to Children's and that Dr. Grant would meet me in the ER. It was 9:25am on Thursday morning. Matt was to walk into class at 9:30 to teach. I jumped in the van with Jackson, handed him the GPS so I could hear him doing something and sped off to Children's. And honestly, I only knew that Children's was near the Capitol but that's it. Called Matt. Gave him the update. Prayed.
Jackson spent 6 long hours in the ER, until he was stable enough to be transferred to the PICU. The picture above is what Jackson looked like from about 5:00pm until about 5:00am the next morning. I remember being so happy that he wanted to hold a car! And I covered him up with his very special blankie. That night the doctor told us he did not have croup, nor pneumonia, it was RSV and a pretty bad case.
And this machine is what we watched for the next 4 days. Mainly watching the blue number - how much oxygen was his body absorbing. His number at the pediatrician's office was 85. :( But at the time of this photo he was on "comfort flow" of oxygen at level 7, so he was at a perfect 100!
Matt brought Collin and Katie up to see Jackson that night and I was allowed to take him out of the crib briefly before they got there. But because he was hooked up to so many machines, I could only sit right next to his bed and Collin and Katie couldn't get too close. In fact, they were scrubbed down and dressed in a paper gown and a face mask. I wore the same little outfit until Saturday when they sent him to a regular hospital room. And they were scared. They wanted to see Jackson, but I don't guess you can prepare your kiddos for seeing brother all hooked up and sick looking.
Grammy showed up early Friday morning. Matt was on Jackson duty. I went home to shower and pick up Katie from kindergarten. We went to eat lunch at Cici's Pizza and I remember thinking how weird it was that everyone's life was still going on so normally while my little baby was so sick at the hospital. :(
Friday brought the good news that we could get him out of bed and take off the face masks! So from 5:00am Friday morning on...Jackson was held. By me. By Matt. By Grammy. He loved playing on her iphone, because it has WAY more games than mine! And it was a great distraction from Jackson's 1 video that we had put on loop on the PICU TV...."Buckbase" AKA Backyardigans.
Sunday. Jackson got unplugged from all machines at about 10:00am. Three days earlier than expected! I don't believe in coincidences. I do believe in prayer. And at a time when I could literally only utter the words, "God, please" and that's it, I know it was the prayers of many family and friends that held us up.
Since Jackson had been in a bed for 4 days, he couldn't walk well at all! It was quite humorous. I wish I had videoed it.
The day my mom left town, a Monday, Jackson got a diagnosis of croup at the pediatrician's office. Wednesday I took him back because he wasn't getting better with the steroids. Doctor, whom I love dearly, took a chest x-ray and determined he had pneumonia and an ear infection, so we added antibiotics. That Wednesday night things got worse.
When we went back to the doctor for the 3rd time that week, I was told to take him straight to Children's and that Dr. Grant would meet me in the ER. It was 9:25am on Thursday morning. Matt was to walk into class at 9:30 to teach. I jumped in the van with Jackson, handed him the GPS so I could hear him doing something and sped off to Children's. And honestly, I only knew that Children's was near the Capitol but that's it. Called Matt. Gave him the update. Prayed.
Jackson spent 6 long hours in the ER, until he was stable enough to be transferred to the PICU. The picture above is what Jackson looked like from about 5:00pm until about 5:00am the next morning. I remember being so happy that he wanted to hold a car! And I covered him up with his very special blankie. That night the doctor told us he did not have croup, nor pneumonia, it was RSV and a pretty bad case.
And this machine is what we watched for the next 4 days. Mainly watching the blue number - how much oxygen was his body absorbing. His number at the pediatrician's office was 85. :( But at the time of this photo he was on "comfort flow" of oxygen at level 7, so he was at a perfect 100!
Matt brought Collin and Katie up to see Jackson that night and I was allowed to take him out of the crib briefly before they got there. But because he was hooked up to so many machines, I could only sit right next to his bed and Collin and Katie couldn't get too close. In fact, they were scrubbed down and dressed in a paper gown and a face mask. I wore the same little outfit until Saturday when they sent him to a regular hospital room. And they were scared. They wanted to see Jackson, but I don't guess you can prepare your kiddos for seeing brother all hooked up and sick looking.
Grammy showed up early Friday morning. Matt was on Jackson duty. I went home to shower and pick up Katie from kindergarten. We went to eat lunch at Cici's Pizza and I remember thinking how weird it was that everyone's life was still going on so normally while my little baby was so sick at the hospital. :(
Friday brought the good news that we could get him out of bed and take off the face masks! So from 5:00am Friday morning on...Jackson was held. By me. By Matt. By Grammy. He loved playing on her iphone, because it has WAY more games than mine! And it was a great distraction from Jackson's 1 video that we had put on loop on the PICU TV...."Buckbase" AKA Backyardigans.
Sunday. Jackson got unplugged from all machines at about 10:00am. Three days earlier than expected! I don't believe in coincidences. I do believe in prayer. And at a time when I could literally only utter the words, "God, please" and that's it, I know it was the prayers of many family and friends that held us up.
Since Jackson had been in a bed for 4 days, he couldn't walk well at all! It was quite humorous. I wish I had videoed it.
This is what he wanted to do as soon as he got home - play "ball ball gee shoot". Jackson stayed on house arrest for 8 days and we did breathing treatments at home. He got an "all-clear" from the pediatrician, which was fabulous news. But we also got a warning...Jackson will most likely get RSV again next winter. :( But then the next one, we should be good! Thank you blog friends and family for praying for our boy.
5 comments:
I did pray for him and am so glad he's better! You guys are doing a great job with him and I love his nickname - heard you calling him Choo Choo in the supply room the other day!
Sweet boy - so glad he's okay!
Oh what a scary few days! I prayed & prayed for your sweet boy & am so thankful that he recovered so quickly!
Oh that is so so scary. I am so glad he is better and back to his sweet basketball moves. Love those legs.
Poor little man! That was such a scary few days! Glad he's ok!
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