Going to Minneapolis

Brody develpped an air leak from his lung into his chest, so we are going by helicopter to Minneapolis.  He is stable and still turning the corner, but we want him down there in case he needs the backup support.  It is possible he could need a chest tube if the air builds up.  I will be off line for a while.

We are staying in St. Cloud tonight. He is getting oxygen into his system a little more and starting to get better. I need to close my eyes now.

Hope

Brody might be turning a corner. His oxygen saturation is now at 97%, the first real progress we've seen.  I don't know anything more than that right now, but this is a good sign.  It is nice to see the nurses smiling.

Doctor said Brody sounds better, but he is no where near better yet as far as oxygenation goes.  The Albuterol is giving him a high heart rate, so they are going to try a different drug with less cardio side effects.  The medical term was that it gave him tachycardia (high heart rate).  The issue is that it is only available in pre-mixed vials vs. the concentrate, so they do not have enough on site to keep him on a continuous neb.  If it works they will need to bring more in from another hospital.  If he does not turn the corner with this new drug in the next two hours, they are sending him to Children's.  At Children's, the treatment would be more of the same, but there would be the comfort of having a technology there that isn't available in St Cloud.  Not that he would need it, but the comfort of being near the cardic surgeons would be there.  The possibility would be a heart-lung bypass machine.  But we don't want to think about that.

His echo reading was good.  All for now, I'll keep posting as more comes our way.

There is no official word yet, but just judging from some discussions I overheard, Brody does not seem to be making a lot of progress.  He was given Ibuprofen for a fever and his heart rate is around 200-210.  They stopped the continuous albuterol about an hour ago, thinking that might have been the reason for the high heart rate.  But, it was expected that his heart rate would have gone down by now, so there is further discussion taking place about what else it might be. The Doctor came in the room, but Brody was getting a treatment so she was going to be right back after talking to Chip about his echo.  He woke up a little bit again and was flailing his arms around until he got more sedative.  The fever just read 100.1, a little higher despite the ibuprofen.  They are keeping a close eye on his temp.  Dr. just walked back in, so we should know more in a while.

Baby Steps

We are still in St. Cloud.  Brody's 2:00 blood gas was about the same as this morning. His CO2 is still high, in the 50's when they want it more in the 30's.  He is still on the acidic side of the pH scale.  He had a big diaper, which is good.  The respiratory technician did a technique with the ventilator to try to open up the air sacs in his lungs and he was oxygenating a little better after that.  He is now running at about 92% on his saturations vs. 89% earlier. His heart rate is high due to the continuous albuterol. It is at 202-209 right now.

He opened his eyes this afternoon and looked at us for a little while.  The nurse gave him a little more sedative and he went back to sleep.  They don't want him to fight the vent. 

No huge progress, but it seems to be getting a little better.  We will know more again at 6:00 when they draw blood again.

Update

The Doctor was just in and said Brody is stable.  He is not better and not worse.  She was encouraged that he was not getting worse.  They are re-starting the continuous albuterol neb through his tube.  They will draw blood again at 2:00 to test his blood gas levels.  His potassium was a little low this morning so they are giving him that.  The hope is that being aggresive with the continuous neb will help him turn the corner toward getting better.  At 6:00 they are drawing blood again to check the Vancomycin (antibiotic) level and potassium level in his blood.  Some time between now and then they will continue to decide whether to keep him here or send him down.  It sort of sounds like he will be staying here, at least for the afternoon.

Brody is "teeter-tottering" on being sent down to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.  We are waiting to see the results of this most recent respiratory treatment.  RT pounded on his chest to loosen up the crud in his left lung, which is now more diseased than the right (where it started).  The air that is flowing in between breaths on the ventilator was turned up to try to re-inflate some areas deep in the lungs that have closed.  They can't turn it up too much, or it could cause other problems. We should know more in a little bit.

Waiting

Well, we are waiting things out now.  When there is nothing I can do, I find something to do and that means taking pictures and posting on the blog! Keeps my mind busy.

If his oxygen needs do not improve, there is a possibility he could be transferred to the cities. We hope not, but all we can do is pray and hope he fights this off today.  Stupid pneumonia.

A huge thanks to Eye Surgeons and Physicians for sending our little Brody Bear a Brody Bear.  And to Abby, Mike, and kids for the adorable little puppy dog.  He is going to be very fond of these, I can tell.

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Our Baby

 

Brody needed intubation last night after his blood gas results came back poor. He wasn't able to take in enough oxygen and expel enough CO2 to keep the gas levels in his blood well.  He is fully sedated, but he can hear us.  He was just moving around too much so he was given more sedative.  They don't want him fighting against the vent right now.  He is still requiring 90% oxygen over the vent, which is concerning the doctors and nurses.  The goal for today would be to ween him down, but yet still give him enough so his body can rest and heal.

I am posting some pictures so you can see the progression of this.  On Sunday, he was absolutely normal except he didn't eat much.  We went to church, then Grandma came down for lunch and he was being silly with his new hat.

Sunday night Brody woke up and threw up.  We cleaned him up and thought he might need a little bit of something since he hadn't eaten all day.  We gave him some milk and part of a banana, which he took great but proceeded to throw up.  We put him back in bed and woke up early to bring Russ to the dentist.  Russ had a tooth extracted on Monday.

 

Monday, by 11:00, Brody had a fever and seemed to be breathing a little heavy, so I took him in to the clinic at 1:15.  It wasn't a black and white decision to admit him, but to be on the safe side he was admitted.  Thank God.

 

Me and my "too big" pj's, just getting admitted.

 

He was pretty normal for the rest of Monday and into Tuesday. He was getting Tamiflu, Prednisalone (oral steroid), Antibiotic, and then nebs every 4 hours.  Since he didn't seem to be improving on his lung sounds, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray, where pneumonia was found.  He had a previous normal x-ray a week earlier at the clinic, so we know we caught it early.

 

He was pretty good on Tuesday, and we even took a walk in the hallway.  He didn't eat this entire time, but he was still drinking fluids and peeing and pooping (sorry if that is too much information, but this blog doubles as my journal for later, lol).

 

Wednesday was a different story.  He was really clingy and sleepy.  He laid on the couch and watched TV, which literally never happens.  So we knew something was up.

 



 

The Dr. decided to put in an IV and run some anti-biotics to get them in his blood stream as a precaution.  Good thing, too, because by the time the IV was in, he also needed fluids.  Three different people had to try to insert the IV because his veins were too tiny.

 

His breathing became progressively worse, he spiked a fever, and he was repirating at 60-80 breaths per minute.  He looked like he was running as fast as he could. He was retracting at the ribs and neck and working extremely hard to breath so they moved him to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). When trying to draw blood, the tech could not get any from his vein so they had to prick his finger and milk it out.  His blood gas was normal at 8:00, but by midnight it was going downhill so they intubated him.

The doctors and nurses think that the problem is the combination of pneumonia, which has now spread to both sides (it was just on the right at first), on top of already asthmatic lungs and now bronchiolitis.

I went home for a few hours and slept last night, first time since Monday.  It is cold out there. Brr.  Russ and Grandma M. are here today too.

Sick Baby

Mr. Brody is one sick little baby tonight.  Let me start at the beginning.  He was running a fever and threw up Sunday night, so I took him in to the clinic on Monday afternoon.  He had a bit of a breathing issue, an asthma flareup, so he was admitted to St. Cloud Hospital on Monday afternoon.  He was being given nebulizer treatments every 4 hours and was playing and happy.  On Tuesday, his breathing wasn't getting any better, so the Dr. ordered a chest x-ray, which revealed a pneumonia on the right side of his lungs.  He was started on an oral antibiotic.  Tuesday night, he started to work harder to breathe, so the Dr. ordered chest PT.  Basically, they pound on the back with a little device to loosen up the crud in his lungs.  His oxygen needs steadily rose and he was up to 4 liters at one point in the night. 

Wednesday (today) got progressively worse.  There is now bronchiolitis in addition to the pneumonia.  He was moved to the ICU tonight, where he is getting IV steroids, IV antibiotics, and fluids.  He is getting continuous nebulizers through a mask with 6 liters of oxygen.  This is in addition to the Tamiflu and instead of the oral antibiotic and prednisalone (steroid) he was on before.  He is very dehydrated.  They had trouble getting the IV in and could not draw blood intraveneously.  They had to prick his finger and squeeze it out, which was a long drawn out process.  He is going to be monitored for the next 2-3 hours and if his breathing does not improve, he will be intubated.  Right now, his temp is 102.2 and he just got a dose of Tylenol.  He is breathing as though he is running full speed.  Watching his tummy retract is crazy.  The respiratory therapist counted over 60 breaths per minute.  We are in good hands; the doctor is a partner of our Pulmonologist from Children's in Minneapolis.  I heard that Children's in Minneapolis is full.  Lots of sick kids in Minnesota tonight.