When Things Go Wrong...

...they go really, really wrong. I'm not sure what happened, I'm not sure how things changed so quickly, but they did.

Last night, we finally got the pulse dose steroids started at midnight without too much trouble -- we did have to adjust the IV, but it worked and the steroids went in easily. Mason needed about 9L of oxygen overnight and was barely holding his saturation in the high 80's. Then, this morning, he slept in and around 9 am or so, he started to do well and I was able to turn him down to 6L. After he woke up, he needed more, but just about the same as last night (remember he usually needs much more oxygen during the day than at night). Things stabilized again and around 1 or so, I turned him down to 7L.

While grocery shopping (we need to eat, after all), I called Bill to see what he wanted for lunch and found out that Mason was having a little more trouble keeping his oxygen level up. By the time I got back to the hospital around 2:30, Bill, the entire pediatrics team, the nurse, and the respiratory therapist were in the room. You could just feel the worry emanating from the room - not a good feeling at all! I steeled myself, went in the room and faced the conversation. To say they were worried was an understatement. They had already called the PICU doctor to come up and triage, the respiratory therapist took it upon herself to change how Mason was hooked up to the oxygen and start him on true high flow/CPAP oxygen, and the attending was talking to Bill about what next steps were including PICU, CPAP, and possible ventilator. How could this happen in the hour I was gone??

Thankfully, things stabilized when we got Mason a wet towel to chew on, changed his oxygen flow, and had a few people leave the room. With a few other hiccups, we finally got transferred down to the PICU and now Mason's hooked up to IV fluids, on 20L high flow oxygen, and finally, FINALLY, sleeping soundly. We are hopeful this will be a repeat of the "just in case" trip to the PICU we took in October, but preparing ourselves for more. Not sure how this one will turn out, please, please pray that Mason's oxygen needs stabilize and we don't have to be reminded of a ventilator or CPAP hooked up to our child. Please also pray that we have the strength needed to make the right decision for him whether that is tracheostomy or continue with the pulse dose steroids.