Pulmonary Unit

For those of you counting month to month, Jaime is officially 5 months old today!

Jaime finally has at least one official diagnosis...Bronchiolitis.
Bronchiolitis is an illness of the respiratory tract caused by an infection that affects the tiny airways, called the bronchioles, that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making breathing difficult.
(http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/bronchiolitis.html#)

So that combined with pulmonary hypertension....and all of Jaime's other issues is WHY we are in the hospital. We THOUGHT he was getting better last night, then he decided to stop eating completely. He was breathing harder, faster and retracting more. His sats were all over the place, getting as low as 72%. He was on the nasal canula and a "blow bag" for a while. A blow bag is basically a bag that has a mask attached to it that blows large amounts of O2 into the patient's face. This is also the bag that is used when someone is getting "bagged" (AKA resuscitated, or when in transport.) Jaime was NOT bagged, it was just laid next to his face to give him some more O2 at a faster pace than the canula.
He was placed on IV fluids, which at the moment have been stopped because Jaime took a total of 3 bottles today...one being just at 10:00 P.M. If he continues to eat, he can stay off of the IV, if not, back on it he goes!
The ICU drs. had discussed Jaime going home this morning in rounds...until they heard how bad his night was...then they started ordering all sorts of tests and we were visited by lots of drs. He saw 3 cardiologists, hematology, one fabulous pulmonologist and lots of ICU attendings.

Anyway, just about an hour ago, he was transported to the pulmonary unit at Rainbows. This is considered a "step-down" floor. He is better, in that his sats are "normal" again, but he's still requiring more O2 than we have him on at home. His reparations are still very high...60's to 80's at rest and as high as the 120's when awake. He's asleep now...which is where I hope to be heading very soon! They will probably order a repeat chest x-ray, in addition to possibly some labs for tomorrow. If we can get him eating without a problem and get his O2 weaned...while stopping the retractions and tachyapnea (fast breathing), then we can go home tomorrow.
He really just needs some good R and R (me, too!)
So, we'll see how the rest of the night goes!

Here's the only pic I have of Jaime, it's him in his step-down bed...I took it with my cell phone...which by the way is now fully charged! (Tom came up after Jared got home, I went home, repacked stuff, showered and came back up here.) You know, being here is almost harder than being in the NICU, first off, we live further away than the RMH was from Children's...and second, we can not leave Jaime alone at any point! It's very difficult, exhausting really! Now I'm starting to come down with a full blown cold...blah!


Anyway, I'm going on night 3 of no sleep, so I'm going to TRY now to rest!
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, little Jaime can use them right now!