Dear God

Thank you.

Thank you for saving our baby. 

Thank you for giving the strength, expertise, and knowledge to the ER staff of Carson Valley Medical Center.  Thank you for Care Flight.  Thank you for the Care Flight paramedics that kept Jake breathing during his flight.  Thank you to Renown Hospital for taking such perfect care of Jake.  Thank you for giving us a doctor that wasn’t worried for his recovery.  Thank you for it all.  I can’t say it enough…

Love, Everyone

Jake has croup.  He started barking like a seal.  I took him to the ER, for a breathing treatment or something that would make him feel better, all while thinking they were just going to send me home saying there was nothing they could do for a virus.  After 2 hours of waiting for the doctor, Jake went into Respitory Failure and was intubated and sedated…

During our wait in our room in the ER, Jake started crying and barking and couldn’t catch his breath.  4 people ran into our room, started giving him a breathing treatment with Epinephrine and he passed out.  The doctor woke him back up and saw his oxygen levels were very low, and they grabbed him from me and ran into another room where they started the intubation process.  All of a sudden there were 6 or 7 people working over him.  He was crying and barking, throwing up, screaming with no voice, all while everyone was panicking.  I stood there, at the end of the bed, watching him and crying.  The doctor came up to me and told me what was going on, but I didn’t hear him.  I didn’t take my eyes off Jake.  I couldn’t believe what was happening.  I called Scotty in a panic and he came down with his mom.  We all stood together, hugging, in the hallway, crying.  The crying didn’t stop.  We couldn’t stop it.  The doctors called Care Flight.  They came right over and Jake was getting stabilized.  I got in the helicopter with the Care Flight paramedics and I didn’t take my eyes off his stats the entire time.  His heart rate was between 200 and 220 instead of the normal 120 to 150.  The paramedic was breathing for him.  She kept giving him more medicine to keep him sedated, as medicine in infants wears off very fast. 

We arrived in Renown in 20 minutes, landed on the roof (we like to call it our ER moment) and was transferred into the Children’s ER for immediate care.  Then about a half hour later we were upstairs in the Pediatric ICU.  We saw the doctor about a half hour later and he said he was going to take the breathing tube out the next day.  His airway was completely swollen.  He was hoping to hear there was an air leak around the tube, meaning that the airway swelling was lessening, but there wasn’t.  Jake was pumped full of steroids to get the swelling down.  It still didn’t work. 

We went home to get situated and get our bags to come back the next morning.  We went back and he was still asleep.  He started waking up and trashing around because he was angry about his tube.  We had to hold down his arms and legs so he wouldn’t move the breathing tube.  The doctor came over and removed his tube and started a breathing treatment.  The nurses then gave Jake to us to hold and I never put him down…

He was agitated and hurt all day.  He was in pain.  The only thing that helped him was to cuddle in our arms and for us to talk to him in his ear and just love him.  He was on Oxygen all day and night to keep his saturation levels up.  He hated it and kept pulling it out.  By night time, he was sleeping on his own in his crib, and without oxygen. 

The next morning he gave a smile when Daddy walked in.  He was awake more.  He was smiling.  He was chewing on his cords.  He was crawling through his crib.  He had the strength to sit up.  He was smiling.  The doctor sent us home that day, a day early.  He was a new baby.  He was smiling and crawling around and trying to find food on the floor to eat.  He was our baby again.  It was amazing.  We were thankful.  We couldn’t believe the turnaround on him.  He is resilient. 

We are now home.  The whole family.  Jake gets cuddles whenever he wants.  And he wants it all day long.  He is exhausted.  He isn’t awake more than about an hour and half without needing a nap.  He is eating solids, but can’t keep baby food or formula down.  He is crawling and laughing and smiling.  Did I mention he has a double ear infection too?  He is in pain from that so I am hoping the antibiotics kick in soon.  We are all getting better and getting rest. 

Thank you to all your thoughts and prayers during this time.  He needed it more than anything. 

 

Saturday night in ICU with his breathing tube.

Sunday afternoon.  The breathing tube just came out and he was just on oxygen.

Our first snuggles.

Daddy’s turn.

This is where he was all day Sunday.  On my lap and chest. 

Sunday night.  8 pm.  He finally let me put him down.  He slept in this position until about 3 am.  He made sure his little face was right up to the edge of the crib so he could see me.  He even cracked the tiniest of smiles when he saw me. 

He got to try some diluted apple juice the next morning.  He loved it. 

Monday, late morning.  A whole different child.  He had strength to sit up and smile.  It was the best. 

On our way home.  A day early.  We didn’t even have clothes for him because we didn’t think we were leaving.  The nurse grabbed a brand new pair of Nemo pajamas, took the tag off and gave it to us. 

We had a follow up appointment at our doctor the next day.  He was so good he got his first lollipop. 

Back at home safe and sound.