High Flow Oxygen, Just What the Doctor Ordered

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, Roman got RSV on Friday after coming home on Wednesday of the big kids' fall break.  He did okay for a couple of days, but Saturday night was pretty bad.  I slept in the rocking chair with him upright to help him breathe.  The humidifier was working overtime and we even tried to sit in the steam in the bathroom although it didn't seem to help much.  By Sunday morning I was pretty sure his wheezing and retracting was bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER.

His oxygen saturation was in the 80's.  They did an RSV test which eventually came back positive, but because my sister's baby already had a positive RSV test, and we'd been living in the same condo, they proceeded with the assumption that he had RSV.  They tried a breathing treatment with little hope that it would help.  Then the doctors ordered a high flow oxygen cannula and an IV and admitted him.

He had not had an IV put in since his heart surgery.  I was hopeful that it'd be easier now that his heart is working great, but I was wrong.  It took them 5 tries before they finally listened to me and decided it was best to wait for anesthesia (no matter how long that might take) to come and do an ultrasound guided IV.  Unfortunately it took him 2 tries.  Poor guy was wiped!  We had listened to a lot of Living on a Prayer while trying to get that IV.  The nurses thought it was awesome that he loves that song so much.

High flow oxygen was so irritating to him that he was trying to rip it out, and his Aunt Kristen came to the rescue with the perfect swaddle with snaps to keep arms in and let them out when I was at his bedside.  It also zipped from both directions to allow tubes to run into it.

The large tube in the pictures is the high flow oxygen tube.  He wasn't allowed to have bottles or anything by mouth while the oxygen was above 6.  Once he was allowed to eat, he wasn't super interested, but we were confident that this would change once the nasal cannula came out because this guy is "just so" about his eating.  It all has to be the same, feel the same, look the same.

"Let me outta here!"

Once he was feeling a little better, he would lay and play with the cord of the call button/remote if I hung it over just so.  This kept him distracted from the tubes attached to or coming out of his own body.  You can also see how the wires got tangled.  I slept lightly because I was so afraid he'd roll over a couple of times and get a tube around his neck or pull out his treasured IV.

Once he had the lower flow oxygen, the nasal cannula didn't bother him so much, and we were able to let him play more.

This was a rough experience for us all, but the most amazing thing ever did happen.  When we got up to the Peds floor, we found out that the senior doctor on the floor was a pediatric cardiologist and the very next morning his rotation ended and Roman's pediatric cardiologist came on for his shift...his ONE WEEK A YEAR shift.  We were so grateful for that because the nurses and other doctors didn't know Roman and his regular breathing pattern.  Dr. Black is the doctor that we have seen the most times, hands down.  Pre-heart surgery we were in his clinic once or twice a week.  The nurses and doctors would panic because he was belly breathing when they turned down the oxygen a bit, and Dr. Black knew that was normal for him.  We were sooooo grateful for this blessing!

"Oh, my dearest Hedgehog!  How much we've been through together!"  Roman fell in love with his music-playing, vibrating hedgehog in the CICU after his surgery.  He's slept with him every nap and night since.

Home really missed this guy!

 When he finally got released, after 4 days, his sisters and brothers were showering him with kisses, cuddles, and hugs.  I always worry that I'll be greatly missed by the kids when I am at the hospital all day ever day, only coming home to sleep every other night, but it's always Roman that is missed the most!  I wouldn't have it any other way.