T'was the week before Christmas .......

..... and instead of packing up the car, and heading to Canada to spend a wonderful Christmas with family that we don't get to see often enough, we ended up in Hackensack Hospital. Monday Ryan came home from school very tired, cranky and full of the sniffles. Tuesday we kept him home from school and started nebulizer treatments for his cold, hoping to stay out of the ER. Our nanny worked late so JB and I could do some last minute shopping before heading to Canada. About an hour into our shopping we got a call from Anna to say she wasn't able to waken Ryan and he was running a temp of 103. He had been hovering between 99 and 101 all day with regular Tylenol. but the 103 temp was after an hour of of last Tylenol dose. JB and I quickly rushed home and off to the ER. Ryan was satting in the low 80's and his temp had now risen to 105.4! In normal Ryan fashion when he gets very sick he also turned a lovely shade of yellow although Drs don't seem to be concerned with this regular occurrence. A chest xray showed RSV and bilateral pneumonia and he was started on nebulizer treatments, Motrin, antibiotics and steroids and admitted to the pediatric floor.
The first night he had to have continuous O2 to keep his sats up and was started on fluids for dehydration. At this point he was refusing any liquids and sleeping non stop. He also wouldn't let go of John so JB ended up sleeping with Ryan on top of his chest all night. He said it was a form of extreme torture to have a 35lb boiling hot water bottle clinging to you all night while a regular parade of strangers came and went , poking and prodding, taking vitals and giving treatments.

The next day was more of the same, still spiking temps and needing O2 and fluids with continuous sleeping. He also had tachycardia and hyperreflexia, his body was continually twitching probably from the albuterol. The only nice thing about being inpatient around the holidays is you get loads of visitors bearing gifts. Unfortunately Ryan was too sleepy to appreciate Elmo was in the doorway.

His IV dislodged that day and flooded his arm, causing it to swell to about 4 times its regular size and his fingers to turn black! The below pic was taken the next day after the swelling had gone down significantly however you can still see it a little. Luckily the swelling didn't cause the skin to blister which was the Drs chief concern.

Day 3 and hes starting to wake up but still very sleepy and non responsive to toys. I think it might have some residual PTSD from Ryan's babyhood when his milestones came very slowly and I would spend hours willing him to reach out and touch something. I was starting to panic that he was having a serious regression when I couldn't get him interested in any of the toys at all. Although his temps were better controlled he was still showing dehydration on his blood results and refusing to drink anything. His heart rate was still very high even when his temps were down which was a little concerning. When he wasn't sleeping he was just lying in bed staring off into space. Heartbreaking to watch.

Day 4 and although still needing blow by O2 at times he starting to perk up and actually eat and drink a little.

Day 5 and we are waiting to be released.

We're outta here!!! Just in time for Santa!!!