What A Weekend!

Our weekend got off to a bumpy start to say the least. Thursday night Chase started coughing quite a bit, and then throughout the day Friday he got progressively worse. By Friday evening he was working pretty hard to breathe and he was having bloody secretions from his trach, which really freaked us out. So we called the doctor who had us listen to his lungs with the stethascope (thank goodness for my physical assessment class in college), and hook him up to his monitor. His oxygenation was low and was dipping into the 70s/80s, his heart rate and respiratory rate were fast, so the doctor instructed us to call 911 since they would have oxygen and other things he may need on the ride to the hospital. Within 1-2 minutes, we had a fire truck, police car, and ambulance all in front of our house and lighting up the neighborhood. It was all I could do to keep my composure. I rode in the ambulance and held Chase while Chris followed behind. We arrived in the ER at Children's at about 7:30pm. They started an IV, gave him a couple antibiotics, put him on 100% oxygen, and took an x-ray. By midnight they moved us up to the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). They said his chest x-ray didn't look that bad, his white blood count was at the upper end of normal, and said he just has bronchiolitis caused by some virus. They wanted him in the PICU because he was requiring so much oxygen and was still working pretty hard to breathe. Saturday morning he looked alot better and was much more with it than the night before. He was still requiring a little bit of oxygen support, but not as much as the night before. His secretions were just a slightly pink, but not bloody like the night before. So they moved us to the 4th floor. By Sunday he was back to his normal self, playful and smiley, and they were able to wean him off the oxygen. They decided to keep him one more day to make sure he did okay. And we were able to come home today...YAY! Chase was so excited to get into his car seat. He knew he was coming home. Between the days in the NICU and this visit, we feel like we know Children's Hospital forwards and backwards. I can't say we're in any hurry to go back. We do have a follow-up visit with the doctor next Monday, but hopefully we can avoid picking up any germs this time!
Saturday-Chase feeling much better:


A tired daddy:

Sunday-Chase feeling much MUCH better: