Sickness Update

This is Aaron posting (I hope this works) in the wee hours of the morning. I've not done this before but need to post an update for those not on Facebook. While Haley did recover from her swine flu and finally had a normal temperature for a full 24 hours, she's not able to go to school Friday due to the closure from the snow. (This is the second full day of closure after an early dismissal district-wide on Wednesday though she's not been there for any of it.) Preston was not started on Tamiflu after his Monday appointment because he lungs, ears and nose all looked good, and the side effects for his age outweigh the potential benefits. Since I'd stayed home with kids on Monday, Tara stayed home on Tuesday. Preston wasn't too interested in eating but was still drinking somewhat.

On Wednesday we had a snow day due to the massive storm hitting the area (most of Colorado, 2/3 of Wyoming, western South Dakota, the Nebraska panhandle and now into western Kansas also; currently I-76 is closed from our exit to the Nebraska border.) My work was closed and Tara's boss had already let her work from home. Her office ended up closing early later in the day. Preston's coughing began to sound more labored and he was drinking less and less. We decided to call the doctor to find out their answering service was in effect because they'd closed due to electrical problems undoubtedly related to the storm. We spoke to Dr. Bledsoe who'd diagnosed Haley last Friday and had been consulted on Preston's diagnosis on Monday. She was concerned about the posibility of pneumonia, so she recommended we go to the Children's Hospital North Campus (just over 15 miles west of us in Broomfield) rather than our local hospital--where their offices are located in the adjoining medical building. We'd been there with Preston when he broke his finger in May, so we figured we'd at least not need to update any insurance records or anything like that. Tara's visiting teacher from church was kind enough to come over in the brutal weather and stay with the other two so we could take Preston to Children's.

We were lucky enough to catch a break in the weather heading over there. We were the only ones in the waiting area when we walked in, and seemingly the only ones there period, but things still seem to take longer than needed. They checked his ears really good and found no signs of infection. His chest x-rays came back clear, so they sent us home mentioning that the most important thing was to push the fluids. They also told us if he went more than 8 hours without a wet diaper that we should come back. Brekken also got his first high fever that day and is likely coming down with swine flu now too.

On Thursday (which is still "today" to me since I've not gone to bed) Preston was extremely lethargic and alternated between sleeping and crying. There was almost nothing intelligible coming from him, and he refused to drink about anything. The cough still sounded horrible. We called the office to get the answering service again, and Dr. Campbell called us back. She recommended we return to Children's for IV fluids because he was quickly getting dehydrated. We were able to reach our friends the Hoopes who live in Thornton right on the way to the hospital, so we were able to drop Haley off there since she's better and no longer contagious. Brekken had to go with us, but he did amazingly well for being in a small room with little to entertain him and little to eat. They did the same things as yesterday getting the pulse-oxygen and more chest x-rays. This time though they needed to give him fluids and also decided to do some blood work. They had me take Brekken out of the room for the needles so he wouldn't get scared. I could hear Preston crying the entire time. He really had it rough. Our nurse warned us they'd likely want him there overnight. It wasn't long after the first IV was going in that they confirmed they wanted to keep him there. I'm not sure what the results of the blood work were, but the x-rays were a little cloudy today; and they'd put him on oxygen because his pulse-oxygen rate kept dropping when he'd fall asleep. We weren't about to try and have all of us stay there, so after a while of waiting for us to be moved to a room I finally had to take Brekken and go get Haley. We picked her up from the Hoopes house, where she'd fallen asleep, around 10:15 p.m. and headed home. Poor Brekken really didn't get dinner, but since he'd fallen asleep on the way home he was too cranky and tired to drink any milk. I hope he'll sleep OK. (I just returned from consoling him back to sleep moments ago.) Eventually I need to try and sleep.

We need all your thoughts and prayers for Preston to start recovering and Brekken to not get worse. I have to admit I'm seriously lacking in the faith department lately, so I'm really having a hard time with it. I usually try and be the strong one outwardly and then cry privately when I'm driving or alone. I had to do that when our cat George died back in July, and I'm trying to hold it together to be strong for my family, but I'm really scared right now. This is the first time I've ever had a child in the hospital overnight, and to not be there with him is really difficult. The only bright spot is that they're not allowed to admit anyone at the North Campus if they believe they will need to be hospitalized for more than 72 hours, and the doctor really hopes he'll be coming home later on Friday. Our friend Melissa Sherman has been kind enough to watch Haley and Brekken in the morning so I can go back to the hospital. I will need to possibly figure something else out for the afternoon and evening if need be. Tara will be updating from her phone on Facebook and there's a link to her status page from this blog down near the bottom-right of the page that I think anyone can access. I don't do Facebook so you'll have to figure out how to "friend her" if that's necessary. I'm sure she'll update the blog herself over the weekend. Thanks for all those who are sending us their love and support and especially to those locally who are watching our other kids.