Yesterday was yet another busy day. Jer and the boys went to Utah for his grandmother's funeral, so my sister Katherine came over to help with Kiera. I should have warned her that one night with me could land her in the hospital.
Anyway, the 26th was Kiera's one year anniversary of her tracheostomy surgery. Wow. She's been getting sick with some fevers and increased secretions since Thursday, and last night around 10:30PM she got sick enough despite our interventions to press the limits of our home health systems. Kat was a fantastic assistant and even helped me with a trach change without even having seen one before. I am so grateful she was with me to assist. I had to bag Kiera off and on for about 2 hours, and we had her Oxygen bumped to the maximum our home tanks can pull. She was fine while bagging, but couldn't keep her SAT's up once back on the vent. After some consulting with her pulmonologist over the phone, and some attempts at nebulizer treatments, I ended up deciding it was time to call paramedics and go to the PICU around 1:00 AM.
She is doing better now in the hospital and on the hospital vent support. We will try her on the home vent tomorrow and see how it goes, and maybe get her home Tuesday or Wednesday depending on the results from her cultures and nasal swab. Of course, we are dissappointed she is back in the hospital, but we have been prepared for the fact that WHEN Kiera is sick, the hospital is the best place for her. Common colds for other babies are much trickier for her to get through without the big guns (840 vent and higher O2) that the hospital can provide. It was funny because, the 8 EMT's in my houses joked that I was the most experienced on hand and that they should all take cues from me. I felt very in control during the whole scenario. I mostly needed them for their Oxygen and the ambulance. It was mostly hard to give in and decide to take her to the hospital knowing how many kids with RSV are there right now and not wanting to risk getting her more sick.
The bright side is, my hubby is back today, and we have a high priced sitter and will get some sleep without alarms and medical equipment white noise tonight. There's always a silver lining.
Love,
Therese
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