It was an exciting Easter weekend to say the least. It all started Saturday. Caden’s secretions started flowing like a faucet. The suction machine had barely been used in the past few weeks until Saturday. We initial thought that the secretions were due to teething, but Saturday night brought a little more concern when Caden got a fever. Sherry and I sat in the floor in Caden’s room at about 3AM Sunday morning discussing how we would handle our Easter Sunday. I had not been to bed yet and fortunately Sherry had gone to bed early Saturday night. She moved to the guest room to be able to monitor Caden while I went for some sound sleep for myself. Sunday morning Riley and I went to church while Sherry stayed home to keep a close eye on Caden. By the time Riley and I got home from church Caden’s condition moved out of our comfort zone.
By late Sunday morning Caden was showing signs of labored breathing with a continued fever. We knew from previous experience that after reducing the fever and giving him a breathing treatment that the labored breathing would normally go away. The problem was that we did not have a current prescription for the breathing treatments and we just felt like this labored breathing was a little more than what we had seen come with a fever in the past. We spent our Easter Sunday afternoon at the MUSC Children’s Emergency Room. A breathing treatment and a clear chest x-ray gave the doctors and us enough comfort to take Caden home.
Monday morning Sherry took Caden to his pediatrician for a follow up visit after the ER trip over the weekend. This is were things got really exciting. Caden’s oxygen saturation levels would not come up out of the low 90’s without giving him blow by oxygen. He started showing signs of labored breathing again and his temperature started rising. The pediatrician did not feel comfortable with these symptoms and neither did we. Sherry had called me at work to alert me of these developments. I went over to the doctor’s office and arrived not long before the pediatrician called for an ambulance to transport Caden to MUSC. Yes, Caden and I took another ambulance ride today. We contacted and asked our friend Kim to take Riley while we went through the ER process. God put Kim in the right place at the right time for us today. She was only a few blocks away when we finally contacted her through her husband.
The result of the day has Caden in a private room at the MUSC Children’s Hospital. Sherry is bunking with Caden tonight at the hospital. Riley and I are home for a night of sound sleep. While Caden was initially admitted with a diagnosis of respiratory distress, Sherry just called to tell me that blood tests came back positive for RSV. This is the same diagnosis that Caden had back in January.
Please keep Caden and our family in your prayers. I took a trip to the doctor early Monday morning as well to get a little help holding down some symptoms that popped up on me Sunday night. It was like I all of a sudden started having an allergic reaction the way I used to when mowing the grass. It led to a nasty headache and lack of sleep Sunday night. The headache is gone and I am praying for clear sinuses and some quality sleep.
Please pray that Caden and Sherry will rest good and that Caden will be discharged from the hospital in record time.
A little Easter fun was found on Saturday at the church Easter Egg hunt.
How humbling it is that God gave me the responsibility of being the Daddy to these boys.