Wednesday, March 20, 2013

First ER Visit (and second)

On Sunday morning about 3:30 am, Ryker woke up so upset, just crying and we could tell he was uncomfortable trying hard to breath.  We turned the shower up full blast to see if some steam would help him, but it didn't and his poor little chest and intercostal muscles were working so hard to breath.  He wanted to sleep so bad but couldn't breath so we rushed over to Jordan Valley hospital.  His temp was 99.8 and his oxygen level was really low.  He was given oxygen right away and then an albuterol treatment followed by some suctioning of the nose.  He had two chest xrays taken, fortunately they came back clear.  The doctor said it was bronciolitis.  After his Oxygen level stabilized, they sent us home with an inhaler and instructions to come back if his chest heaving got worse.
He was finally able to get some sleep but when he woke up he was still having a little trouble breathing.  Throughout the day, it continued to get worse, even though we were giving him the inhaler regularly.  He was not wanting to eat or drink and we were starting to worry again.  My Dad and uncle Reid gave him a blessing and almost immediately after he drank and ate a little bit.  We finally decided to take him back in to be on the safe side.  When we got back to the ER, the same nurse who was getting off duty when we arrived in the morning was getting back on duty.  He told me he was surprised we were not sent to Primarly Childrens Hospital that morning.  Ryker was again hooked up to a monitor and we were happy to see that his oxygen was up and looking good, but the chest heaving was still a worry.  He got another breathing treatment, and deeper nasal suctioning where they went clear down with tubes.  We saw a different doctor who also felt it was acute bronchiolitis, but that maybe there was an asthmatic factor as well due to the fact that he was having such a hard time breathing.  She gave him a steroid and gave us a prescription to give him the steroid for 5 more days.  She sent us home but said if we needed to come back in and get him suctioned out again we could.  ( She said she thought we would have to.)
Luckily when we got home, Ryker slept very well and we didn't need to take him back in for a treatment.  We took him to his regular doctor the next day who used to work for Primary Childrens Hospital.  He checked his O2 which was still looking great, and the chest heaving had greatly improved.  He still was a little feverish.  Our doctor said to him it seemed like RSV and he thinks maybe the labs came back wrong.  The treatment for RSV and bronchiolitis are the same though, it is a virus so antibiotics won't help.  He gave us tubing and albuterol to use for nebulizer treatments at home and instructed us to keep giving him tylenol and ibprofen to help him to be comfortable. 
Everytime a nurse or doctor came into the ER or doctors room, Ryker would get so upset.  He would not be comforted and just knew that these people were up to something that he didn't like.  Our ER nurse gave him his first sucker and that helped him calm down a little, but not much. 
He is doing so much better now and I just hope it only keeps improving.  It was a scary experience for us, but we had a lot of help from family and are so happy it seems to be getting better.