Nevermind, This Cold Stinks

For the second post in a row, I'm glad I wrote the last one when I did...

For the third Monday in a row, things have gone wrong...

For the fourth March in a row, Samuel has been in the hospital...

• March 2009 still in the NICU,
• March 2010 in the PICU (after five days at home he took a helicopter back),
• March 2011 in the hospital to get his trache out (yea!),
• March 2012, this past Monday, he took his second helicopter ride and went back to the PICU.

Luckily this stay was short, and things are so much better now, but the 24 hours between midday Monday and midday Tuesday were awful.  That cold I wrote about got the best of Samuel.  He was handling it fairly well last week, and even went to his morning school last Thursday and Friday with his oxygen.  As soon as he walked into the classroom his smile was a mile wide, and his teachers said even though he seemed a bit tired he participated.  On Sunday morning, Samuel had so much energy DB and I were commenting that our boy was back!

 From Sunday morning, full of energy, smiles, and mischief!

Then came Sunday afternoon, and it was not good... Samuel woke up from his nap with really low oxygen sats.  It took more oxygen then normal and extra meds and what felt like a long time to pull him back up.  But, by evening things seemed to be okay.

Monday morning things seemed pretty good again!  But then came Monday afternoon... when Samuel woke up from his nap, things were terrible.  A shade of gray/blue that toddlers just shouldn't be.  Rachel was at the house, and I'm pretty sure he scared her to death... I know he scared me.  (I've already begged Rachel to forgive him :) )  One call to the pulmonologist, we had spoken the night before too, and we were off to the local ER.  I was actually pretty panicked, I used all the tricks we had at home and couldn't get Samuel to a decent place.  That hasn't happened since the first week he was home... since then, I've been able to manage, even if it wasn't pretty.  What an awful feeling.

The first time I cried was when they told me he would be transferred to our main hospital by helicopter.  I think for two reasons, one being that meant I couldn't go with him.  We would have to watch him take off, head home to get a car since DB would stay with George and Olivia, and then drive by myself... knowing that entire time he would be without his parents.  Ugh.  He's now old enough that he cries every time I leave his bedside.  Although, I heard later from the flight team that he tried to look out the helicopter windows :)

I think the second reason for the tears was when they decided he needed to be airlifted, the severity of the situation became more real.  I know, sounds ridiculous, I guess our tolerance for emergencies is maybe a little too high?  Nah, some normal bumps and bruises still make me jump.  Who knows, but I do know that's when things sank in.

We were very lucky, after 12 hours of continuous nebulizers and a ton of oxygen, Samuel seemed to be on the mend.  The crazy part is that after all the tests came back, the only thing Samuel had was a cold.  Literally, a virus that is so common we all get it, but probably don't know it has a name because it's not something we would go to the doctor for.  There are also 100 strains of it, so no vaccination.

By Tuesday afternoon he got to leave the PICU and head to a room in the step down unit.  YEA!  By Wednesday afternoon, we were headed home.  So thankful!  Also thankful to have such great friends at the hospital :)  Every visitor was amazed at our big, handsome, funny little man.

The last couple days have still been a roller coaster of good hours and not-so-good hours, but nothing we can't manage from home, yea!  Those feelings I mentioned in the last post of "why do things have to be difficult for Samuel" definitely creep back.  Then, you spend some time in the PICU, and quite honestly realize how lucky you are.

 By Tuesday afternoon, Samuel was looking much better :)

Hi fish!

Once Samuel started to feel better, a little walk around the hospital was a welcome adventure!