November 19, 2008
Sorry it has been so long since the last update. After her last cath we had decided to place her in daycare for a little more structure and activity with children her age. She had been in less than a month and she began to get sick. One day I received a call at work stating that she had not been feeling well that morning and was not eating, felt a little warm, and was breathing very shallow. I arrived at the daycare to find her not being her happy friendly self and very tired. Once we left, I decided to call her pediatrician to see if I should bring her in. They advised for me to bring her in, so we made our way to the doctor. By the time we made it there, they immediately brought her back and took her temperature. It was 105.2 degrees and her oxygen percent was running around 68-70. They placed oxygen on her to help her breathing and gave her tylenol to bring her temperature down. After about 10-15 minutes she was not improving quickly enough and the doctor decided to send her via transport to Cabell Huntington Hospital.
So, I took Jenna over to CAMC Teays Valley hospital since the transport cannot go directly from their office. They were waiting on the PICU team to come from Huntington. Nurse Jackie was great enough to stay with Jenna and I until the team arrived. While waiting in the ER they decided to prep Jenna for the hospital. They attempted to place and IV in but she was too dehydrated to place it in. They attempted to stick her over 10 times in various places, until they were able to put one in her neck. I was very upset and after they attempted twice with no success, I insisted and told the nurses to get someone more qualified to do the job. No offense on nurses but I was not going to set there and allow them to poke on her all day. So an anesthesiologist was the one who was able to get the IV in. By the time the PICU arrived, her temp was down to 102, and her oxygen was still running in the 70's. The transport PICU nurse told me that they felt that it was possible that she had pneumonia, but they needed to further evaluate her at the hospital. So off we went in the ambulance to the interstate, where Daddy was waiting for us.
Upon arrival, lots of tests were ran and she was placed on a continuous Nebulizer of Albuterol for the next 24 hours. We spoke with the doctor who confirmed that she did have a form of pneumonia but cultures were taken to determine if it was walking pneumonia. Her white blood count levels were checked and they were over 40,000-normal is under 18, 000. She was already placed on a antibiotic to help get rid of the infection. Over the next 5 days, she remained in PICU and began to improve over time. Eventually she was able to move to the regular floor. After the cultures came back, it was noted that she did not have walking pneumonia, just bacterial pneumonia. They felt that she developed this from an upper respiratory infection developed a couple of weeks ago. Since she has reactive airway disease, she was not able cough the mucus developed from the illness, which eventually lead into the pneumonia.
Once she made it to the regular floor, she was a new baby girl! She was still very tired, but was gradually getting better. Finally, she did not have a fever for a couple of days, oxygen levels were back to normal 85-95, and white blood count was almost at a normal level. So, finally the day before Thanksgiving we were able to go home and recover after being in the hospital for a week. It was a scary ride, but she pulled through as usual since she is such a fighter. We will post at her next visit to Cincinnati for her heart cath in December.
Love,
Jenny, Justin, and Jenna
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