Our Halloween Nightmare

Kyle's first Halloween did not go as we had planned. In fact, it was quite the nightmare.

Kyle had come down with a bit of a cold beginning Friday (10/28) but we had gotten pretty used to this pattern of minor illnesses from daycare. Nearly every weekend seems to get spoiled a bit by it and he's usually better in time to do it all over again at daycare. Kyle was sick enough on Friday that we skipped out on Halloween Party #1 to let him rest. Saturday came, and Kyle had worsened. So we skipped out on Halloween Party #2 (and the one mommy was most excited about... a baby costume party!). His eyes were so goopy that he often couldn't open them after a nap. We could barely keep up with the cleaning of his eyes and aspiration of his nose. Poor guy! By Saturday evening he had worsened so much that we were toying with bringing him to Urgent Care 30 mins away, but we decided to let him sleep it off in hopes he felt better. Sure enough, Sunday morning brought him feeling a lot better. We thought the cold was on its way out! We let him do a lot of resting Sunday afternoon and evening, but come bedtime, I noticed that he had almost asthmatic sounds when he would breathe. I only heard it with two breaths. He went to bed just as easily as always...

At exactly midnight, we awoke to his wailing. We figured he needed some aspiration and a little comfort milk. About two minutes into my nursing him, I noticed something was just not right. He was struggling to nurse, struggling to breathe. I sat him up and comforted him but he just gave me this panicked look. He was barking like a seal and struggling to breathe. He would stop breathing for 5 seconds and just gaze off. I screamed to David "we need to go to the ER, now!" He took a look at Kyle, immediately agreed, and in less than 15 minutes from that moment, we were in the ER. Yes, it's usually a 20-25 min drive, but with an infant struggling to get air, we made it 11 mins. [excuse the pictures of me in my PJs, I did not even waste time changing]. I will tell you, I have NEVER in my life been more scared than I was in those 15 minutes. It was everything I could do to stimulate him enough in his carseat to keep him awake and consciously trying to take breaths. His whole chest was indrawing and you could see his ribs with each breathe he did take.

I called the ER from the car and they got a room prepped for him. They told us to keep him awake and to keep him as calm as possible. For those of you who have made trips like this to the ER know how difficult that is to do. It was everything I could do to keep myself calm. We were both so freaked out. We got to the hospital at 12:20 am and as the nurse sat down with him to evaluate his vitals, she immediately decided to take us straight to a trauma room instead. She ordered cool mist as we rushed into the room. They had me lie on the hospital bed with him so that he could remain calm. They immediately hooked him up to a cool mist nebulizer while they waited for the on-call doctor to arrive. Three nurses attended to him, hooked him up to the monitors and took notes on his breathing. The nurse said the retractions he was having (those rib-displaying indrawings we noticed) are ALWAYS an immediate sign to take him to the ER. Good to know we did the right thing.

The on-call respiratory doctor immediately issued him a nebulizer of epinephrine. This took affect really quickly and stabilized his breathing and lowered the amount of seal barking and stridor he was having. The general physician then came in and listened to his lungs. He said Kyle had pretty bad stridor that in combination with the retractions meant he was going to need some steroids quickly. He also noted that he had a double ear infection but that his right ear was worse. He also ordered a chest x-ray just to be sure he didn't have pneumonia. Dave left the room while Kyle had his chest x-rays on my chest. He held still so well for them!

One nurse gave him the steroids orally while another nurse cleaned up his eyes. They also gave him some antibiotics for the ear infection and some drops for his eyes. Kyle was such a trooper for all of this!

After they got him feeling much better, they brought the respiratory doctor back in to test him for RSV. They took a very skinny tube and inserted it through his nose all the way down to his lungs (13 cm deep!) and sucked out a bunch of fluids. Samples were taken from both nostrils and Kyle handled it like a champ. It was a 3 person effort to hold him down and keep him still, but I have to give him props for taking that so well. I can't imagine it was fun having a tube placed all the way down to your lungs!

After the docs were done medicating and testing him, they let him rest while the samples were evaluated. He slept for a good couple hours on that bed while Dave and I just sat there watching him. The hospital kept him til about 4 am just to make sure there were no negative reactions to the steroids. They sent us home with directions to go to the Ped in the morning (did they realize it was morning!?). The steroids were a miracle though. Kyle's breathing stabilized and he was able to sleep for a few hours. Mom and Dad, of course, did not. What a rough night!

A week removed, Kyle is now doing wonderful. He returned to the Ped a few hours after he woke up the same morning and while Dr. Bob could still hear some stridor, he thought the steroids had done there job and that he should be on the mend. He confirmed the ear infection and warned us that nights were going to be bad but that we should use hot steam from a shower and then cool night air outside to help get his breathing stable should he have any episodes. The next two nights were a bit rough with little sleep and lots of middle-of-the-night trips outside (thanks Dave!), but we only had 2 episodes that really made us nervous but these were quickly resolved with Dr. Bob's tricks. Dave cancelled his work trip to Houston and took care of both Kyle and I the entire week. My mom came over and helped on Thursday so that Dave could present his charts remotely. We ruined yet another weekend with this illness, but I'm so thankful that Kyle is doing better. Kyle's still got a lot of congestion but his energy and happy personality have returned. Now we just need to get Mom and Dad fully healthy!