Here We Are, Yes, Again

Wednesday I frantically brought Ayden to the hospital. I didn't know if we were going to clinic or to the ED (no longer called "ER"), but I called clinic to tell them to be ready to tell me where to take Ayden. As it turned out, we met Dr. Kavanaugh at clinic, and since Ayden was obviously uncontrollable AND his saturations were in the 60's, Dr. K admitted him to 6B, which is the oncology pod. (No rooms were available in 6C.) I am normally viciously biased against noncardiac nurses taking care of Ayden and was initially wary, but the oncology nurses have been very good to our family and have asked a lot of questions to best care for our son.

On Wednesday evening, Ayden had two chest x-rays done, each representing a different view of Ayden's lungs. The x-rays showed some minor plural effusion (wetness), but it wasn't anything anyone was too worried about. However, Ayden was requiring oxygen, so it was difficult to know if the low sats were due to sedative withdrawal or to a wet lung. Dr. K decided to treat both. She put one of the sedatives back on, and put another back at its previous dosage. She also increased his Lasix to help reduce the fluid.

Ayden came off the oxygen at 10:30 yesterday morning, and all appeared to be going perfectly. Ayden slept well, and he maintained perfect sats. We were told he would be discharged this morning.

Then there was this morning... Ayden's sats were all over the place, and his morning x-ray showed increased fluid. While the withdrawal symptoms seemed to be taken care of, Ayden is back on oxygen at .1 liters. That amount is ridiculously small, but in this little guy, it seems to be the thing to help him stay consistent.

Bryan and I can see that Ayden is mentally ready to go home. He is way over this place (and so are we). Please pray that dealing with the fluid issue takes no longer than one more overnight stay.

We have been working with Ayden on side lying, which he tolerates best when we lie with him.
I have experienced many sweet moments of smiles and laughter while side lying with Ayden.