God, Please give me strength!

I've finally have a moment to send an update. I started this on the day Ethan was admitted back to Children's on Tuesday. What's crazy is that Ethan never showed signs of the rhinovirus last admission 3 weeks ago even though he was positive for it. He never had a cough or congestion. We followed up with our cardiologist 10 days after we were discharged and he was starting to have some nasal congestion but his oxygen levels we fine and lungs were clear....

(from Tuesday) Over the last week he developed a cough and some congestion. Sunday was terrible. I even questioned his color, but his color is always not so great :( over the course of the last 24 hours, he was coughing up so much phlegm that is seemed like he was drowning himself in it. He was choking on his own secretions. Once again I was packed and ready to take him at 3am. Of course he cleared up and fell asleep. So I called our pediatrician first thing and got him right in. I wasn't crazy, his oxygen level was 72%. Ethan is normally in the mid 80's, mostly 90-92%. He was pink and not in any respiratory distress, some faint wheezes. They rechecked it on both hands and feet, still 72-76%.  So he thought it would be best to have the children's ER dr take a look.

So we drove on up. As I tote him down the hallway bags and all, he starts grunting and making these terrible noises (no nurse, let alone a mother wants to hear!!) The waiting room is slammed, seriously 40 or more people. I'm thinking to myself, you better bet I'm telling them we cannot possibly sit out here and wait. I tell them who we are, a nurse comes around the corner, takes one look at him, scoops him up and says "come with me, he needs to go back now". The rest is pretty much a blur. His oxygen levels were in the 40's by this point, the room was filled with everyone doing their best to help Ethan. I seriously thought he was going to code right there before my eyes. They were giving him breathing treatments and suctioning tons of secretions out of his lungs. What seemed like an eternity, lasted about 10 minutes. I was numb... How on earth did I not see how sick my baby was? He actually pulled through only requiring a few breathing treatments and some oxygen. His chest X-ray showed a few different things, he has possible pneumonia and /or increased pulmonary vascularities (blood backing up from his heart since it can't pump the blood out as well). His symptoms maybe be from the virus or he might have another virus going on. We will know more about that tomorrow...

I'm the meantime, we are back on the cardiac step down unit on the 4th floor. Due to flu/viral season. There are no visitors. His oxygen levels do keep dropping and he's pretty congested. The breathing treatments and suctioning help but it's a temporary fix for an hour or two. It's going to be a long night. They have already said they might need to transfer him over to the cardiac ICU. So we wait and see...

(Fast forward to today...)
He had another episode today with his oxygen levels dropping, congested, wheezing. Only this time his oxygen levels did not go up with a breathing treatment or suctioning, he stayed a dusky ugly color. The nurse and residents decided they needed the ICU team to come look at him since he was working so hard to breathe. Times like this I am very thankful I have the experience I do. It can be quite scary, maybe I'm in a little state of shock. There was about 25 people, including extra nurses, drs, ect. They decide on a quick plan for the best possible outcome to avoid going to the ICU. So they started him on oxygen, increased breathing treatments, started steroids. He is doing ok at the moment. They are hoping this is the peak of everything and won't get any worse. Not sure how long this will last... hopefully not long. He is getting excellent care, I don't even have to blink and someone is always right here checking in on him.

Will certainly send updates! Thank you all for your love and support through this...