Sunday, April 2, 2006 - Back in Hospital

Well I'm home ... again ... for a few hours ... to get some sleep ... so I'm going to have to try train my fingers to be short and to the point.

Little James is back in the hospital. We were so excited, but yet nervous, to take him home Friday. We took him home only because they guaranteed his tests would be done just as fast if he was an outpatient. As well, they told us that if we needed to come back in we wouldn't have to go through Emerg again but could contact Pediatrics right away ... if that was the fast way to get back in ... I sure don't want to know the regular or long way.

Saturday began good, had I known it would be such a short visit home I probably would have spent my time a bit more wisely. But needless to say ... we have clean clothes ... not folded and probably a bit wrinkly .. but we won't smell too bad!!! :) Saturday afternoon James condition slowly began to deteriorate. He started getting fussy, and stopped eating again. Then he vomitted again and became quite irritable. And so we decided to take him back in. We called ahead and they advised Emerg would be waiting to admit us. We soon found out this did not mean we would right away go back to Pediatrics ... that didn't happen for another 14 hours. We spent hours in the overcrowded, overbusy Emerg just waiting for blood work to be done. The results came back pretty good, his condition had improved. But regardless he had not eaten and was hardly drinking and his liver and spleen remain inflammed. They hooked him up to an IV and advised we stay a few more hours to get some fluids in him. They decided to prioritize his CT Scan so that it would be done Monday. With that in mind they felt that it would be okay to take him home and just try and get what we could in him for the next 24 hours.

About an hour before his IV was done he suddenly spiked a fever of 103, his heart began to race, and he began to have laboured breathing. This meant he could no longer go home. Swab tests were done and we waited 4 more hours before x-rays were done (to check for pneumonia) and we finally arrived at our room. They are waiting for tests results on the swab to see if he has RSV, so for the time being he has been placed in isolation. As if that isn't bad enough, he was hooked up to so many cords he was basically stuck in his bed or in the chair beside it. Not feeling well he slept most of the day, but restlessly and need lots of "walking" (if you can call it that - stand-up-rocking would be a better term) and comforting. In the evening he perked up a bit and they agreed to take some of the cords off until he was sleeping so I could try comfort him and keep him busy. Seeing as we never heard back about the x-rays my assumption is that they did not find anything, otherwise they would have started him on antibiotics right away. The results for the swab tests take about 48 hours to come back. We have not yet heard when his CT Scan will be done - it's the weekend and it cannot be booked until tomorrow morning. They make lots of promises, but we seem to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for things to happen, so I'm not holding my breath that it will all come together tomorrow, since they said they would come today to check him and see if he was able to be sedated ... and that never happened.
So at this point ... we are still not much further ahead. We pray the CT Scan will bring some answers, if not ... we will have to go ahead with the biopsy. He had lost weight again, but today gained a bit back now that he's back on IV. His fever comes and goes along with the laboured breathing. We sure hope we get some answers soon, but in the meantime I really have to try get some sleep since it's just not happening at the hospital .... James' sleep is too sparadic and I don't do well on cat-naps ... it's starting to catch up.

I (or Rob) will try to keep you updated via e-mail as this is the easiest way and saves having to repeat myself too often. I really have no idea how long James wil be in the hospital, much depends on the CT Scan ... and they haven't said if they'll keep him until they know the results of the swab ... regardless he has to stablize and start eating first.

Good night all