Posts with a # at the beginning
are part of our story. They are from when Stacey was little. All the
other posts are current day or have a year or age noted. If you're new
here and want to start at the beginning, just find #1 and at the end is a
link to the next part so you can read in order.
Enjoy! Thanks for being here! :)
Her
Pediatrician broke the news: "It's pneumonia. Come look at the xray with
me." We walk down the hall to a small room with desks lining the wall
and a light-box in the back. I'd never read an x-ray before so I had no
idea what I was looking at. "Raging pneumonia" he said. "Raging? What do
you mean, raging?"
"Well, it's in both lungs. They are completely full of fluid. We don't know how we
missed it, but this seems to be the problem." I'm confused. "But she
hasn't coughed, had a fever or anything, her only symptom was last night
when her o2 dropped." He showed me the first x-ray from a few days ago
and the difference was astonishing! Even this "answer" was bringing more
questions.
I just wanted to scoop her up and take her home, give her some medication and forget all this ever happened!
He must have seen these thoughts flicker in my eyes... "We need to
treat her here. She's very sick. We have a lot of work to do. Babies her
age don't cough very effectively (she hadn't coughed once at this
point) She'll be on a 7-10 day course of IV antibiotics.
An end is in sight! We have a plan, we may not have all the answers, but we have enough to give us a plan and date to go home!
Posts with a # at the beginning
are part of our story. They are from when Stacey was little. All the
other posts are current day or have a year or age noted. If you're new
here and want to start at the beginning, just find #1 and at the end is a
link to the next part so you can read in order.
Enjoy! Thanks for being here! :)
We
were in a routine now. They would routinely draw blood at 7, 12, 4 and
10. Her veins are filling with scar tissue and the sticks are getting
harder to do. Sometimes it takes a few tries. She fusses a little and
although it makes me sad, it's encouraging. She's fighting. We just
don't know what. The lab results keep changing, but not giving answers.
Then, her blood gas dropped. This tells
how her blood is oxygenated. It should be around 20, her's dropped
suddenly to 11. A retest confirmed. They have to do an arterial stick -
meaning they do a blood draw from an artery. This requires local
numbing first since it's way more painful than a regular draw. She
actually cried. She sounded hoarse and week, but it was a cry, not just a
whimper.
Based on the arterial stick, they decide to order
another chest xray. They'd done a series the day we arrived, and it was
clear but she was quickly requiring more oxygen and her respiration's
(speed of breaths) were climbing.
After another night of
dozing between consults, changing diapers, soothing and feeding her
(half nursing, half pumped breast-milk from a bottle), we woke to what
some would say is horrible news for a 3 month old, but for us, it was an
answer....
Continue story here:
http://highfivesforstacey.blogspot.com/2013/08/12-raging-whaaat.html
