whobody had a rough week?

the stuffed helicopter that Cruz received as a momento of his 'ride'

Cruz had a little bit of a rough week. NOW..before I go explaining all of this I want to be very clear.

He. is. fine. :)

He will have no long terms effects from this experience (except maybe a fear of flying ;).  He has conquered whooping cough with flying colors.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday Cruz was able to return home from a 5 night stay at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City.  This stay was bought and paid for by a positive case of Pertussis (whooping cough) and hopefully our insurance company. :)  Of course, your 5 week old being in the hospital is a very serious thing, but in this post I am going to try to keep it light....because it really never got as serious as it could have....and we are super, super, super, super, super, SUPER thankful for that.

The story starts about 10 days ago.  Cruz started to have congestion...I could hear it when he breathed and nursed....and by Friday night, I could physically feel it when I put my hand on his back.  Over the weekend, it gradually got worse. By Monday I could tell that he was struggling to breathe a little, I was worried he had RSV so I took him to see a pediatrician in Dubuque.  We saw Dr. Hanson...who was very nice, by the way. :) She looked at him and instantly said "well, I can tell you that he is not bad enough to stay in the hospital at this point...." "phew...because that is what I am trying to avoid" I said.  She reassured me that the congestion was not in his lungs but was more upper respiratory....and she decided to test for RSV and Whooping Cough.  Now, at this point I thought she was a little crazy for testing for Whooping Cough, because Cruz was not coughing. (for real) Not yet, anyway.  She called later that day and said RSV was negative, but if he continued to get worse...or wasn't at least a little better by Wednesday she wanted to see him again.

That night Cruz started coughing...nothing terrible, just coughing.  By Tuesday, he had a few spells that sounded bad..... and Wednesday morning I told Jason that I was sure he had Whooping Cough, and I was pretty sure we would eventually end up in the hospital. (I guess my mother instinct was 'on' that day).  Sure enough, Dr. Hanson called at about 3:30....she said she had bad news....Cruz does have whooping cough and she would like to see him today.... I asked, are you planning on admitting him?....and she said, yes....just because of the nature of the disease and his age, I think we should.  She explained that whenever there is a positive case of Pertussis, everyone in the household needs to be treated....so, she gave us all a nice prescription of Zithromax.  Said that the rest of the family should stay 'isolated' until they were done with their antibiotics, just in case anyone else came down with it....we don't want to pass it around. (SIDE NOTE: no one else came down with it! thank goodness).  I threw some things together to stay in the hospital for a night with Cruz...and Jason and I decided that he should stay here with the other 3 kids.  We really didn't want to expose anyone else just in case one of the others did start coughing.  Jason's mom offered...among many others...but we just didn't want to see this get passed around anymore than it might already be.  SO...Cruz and I took off for the clinic in Dubuque.

The instant I got to the clinic, Dr. Hanson came in, took one look at him and said "yeah, we are definitely keeping him" because he was really struggling to breath. (Although...his pulse ox was actually still good...which was a great sign).  She did warn me that if he did get much worse, she would want to send him onto Iowa City...because Mercy either has Pediatrics or ICU...and if things got too serious, the Peds would want to hand him to ICU and the ICU would say 'we don't know babies' (her words, not mine).  I said, okay, I understand...but I did not really think that this was going to happen.  She also explained that she would be consulting Iowa City throughout his treatment, because they have dealt with pertussis in babies before, and she had not.  SO....

sorry...this is wordy.

They took us to his hospital room at Mercy in Dubuque.  The nurses got him all hooked up to monitors and put him on oxygen by nasal cannula (??? I'm no doctor...so I am just writing what I remember)  He just had the oxygen tube running under his nose.   They also started an IV...they tried both hands and feet, but couldn't get it...and ended up putting it in his scalp. (yikes)  Then, just as we were about to get settled in for the night, Dr. Hanson called. The nurse came in and said that Dr. Hanson called Iowa City and they just want her to send him there....because even though he wasn't that serious yet, they expected him to get bad....and wanted him there for when he did. So...I asked if I could ride in the ambulance with him, they said....no ambulance....they will take him by helicopter. 

This was when I actually started to freak out a little bit.  As far as I could tell...and as far as the nurses were saying, Cruz's vitals were great, and he wasn't looking like he needed to be 'airlifted' anywhere!  Keep in mind, I was there alone...Jason was home with the kids. We just didn't feel like there was any other option.  At that point, I obviously wanted Jason there with me...but he wasn't...so I took a few deep breaths, and cuddled my baby before his first helicopter ride.  Dr. Hanson walked in the room shortly after that.  She reassured me that Cruz was doing great, but with his age and Pertussis, they wanted to get him to Iowa City as fast as possible, and if something would go wrong on the way, the helicopter...and the crew inside of it....would be better equipped to help him. I was freaking out on the inside. (as any mother would be)

Not too long after that, the flight nurses came into the room (it is only a 35 minute flight from Iowa City).   They switched Cruz over to all of their monitors and tanks....and loaded him into the isolette (that looked like a spaceship :) and they took off down the hall with him. He was not a happy camper, of course....and neither was I. I grabbed all of our stuff, and took off after him in my car.  Of course, i called Jason about 50 times while at Mercy...and called him again the instant I got to the car.  He, as usual, kept me grounded.  As I drove around the corner to get onto Hwy 20, I saw the helicopter take off of the top of the hospital with my baby inside of it. My stomach was obviously in my throat, but luckily I was on the phone with Jason, and was able to keep things in perspective.  I knew that they would take good care of my 'Baby Coo' and that I just needed to get myself to Iowa City safely.  Now, I know that having your baby 'airlifted' sounds serious....and don't get me wrong, he wasn't healthy by any means....but he was also never critical (if that makes any sense).  So...it wasn't NEARLY as scary as it could have been. On one hand I was scared to death...on the other hand, I felt like they were making a lot of drama over something not so serious.  Jason pretty much talked to me on the phone the whole way to Iowa City. Did I speed? yes, a little, but nothing ridiculous....because as I said, Cruz was really fine.... they were just doing these things in case he took a bad turn.

Cruz arrived in Iowa City just before midnight on Wed. and I was about 1 hour behind him. I found my way to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) and they led me to his room. He was sleeping soundly on the bed...swaddled and very cozy looking.  At that point 4 doctors and a couple of nurses came in and told me that he was really doing great...he was mad when he got there, but just mad... His vitals were good and they were just going continue to watch him.....because as I heard over and over and over again....with his age (5 weeks) this disease can really make a baby turn downhill fast.  So...I got as comfortable as I could in the PICU room....

Now, the PICU is a very...I don't know...humbling place to be. There are so many kids there....I can't imagine what their parents go through. I knew that I was just there for something temporary and most of the time, treatable. I was also there, not because he was serious enough to be in intensive care, but because they expected it to get much much worse than it was. (Thankfully it never got near as bad as they expected....we were  very lucky to have caught it early...and to have such a strong 5 week old).

The PICU is not a fun place to be, but it was an amazing place to be. I was absolutely amazed at the wonderful care we had by the nurses.  If they weren't in the room with us, they were keeping an eye on him through the window.   The nurse came in the room every time he coughed, cried, or cooed.  The first day he had a nurse all to himself....and the second day, she only had one other patient.  Every time I talked to any doctor, they were amazed at how well Cruz was handling whooping cough....

After 2 nights in the PICU,  on Friday the doctors were comfortable letting him move to the regular Peds floor. They were pretty sure that by that point he was 'out of the woods' so to speak. So late Friday afternoon, we got moved to a regular hospital room.  This was very reassuring to me...because even though the doctors and nurses would tell me repeatedly how good Cruz was doing....It was hard to believe their words when we had been airlifted there, and we were in the ICU.  When they moved him to the regular hospital room...I knew he was going to turn out okay.

We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night in that hospital room.  The kids weren't done with their antibiotics until Sunday night, so Monday was officially the day that we could send them to school and have someone else watch them so Jason could join me in Iowa City.   My days were spent talking to doctors and nurses, feeding and caring for Cruz, and trying to find my way around that HUGE hospital to get meals.  My brother, Steve and his wife, Lisa, live in Iowa City, so they came to visit quite a few times. They also did my laundry, brought me Olive Garden :) and kept me a little connected to the outside world. It felt VERY weird being there without Jason... and had Cruz taken the turn that they were expecting, he would have been there in a heartbeat.  Once in Iowa City, it never really seemed that bad or scary....things never got near as bad as expected. I tried to keep Jason posted through lots of phone calls...and we decided that since the kids were cleared on Monday he would come then, whether we got to go home or not.

On Saturday, they said that we could possibly go home on Sunday...but wanted to monitor Cruz without oxygen for 24 hours first. They took him off of it, but they weren't happy with how he did on Saturday afternoon...so they put it back on him for the night....and waited to try again on Sunday.  He tolerated it well...and all day Sunday the only things that Cruz was hooked to were monitors... (that was nice!)

On Monday morning, the doctor came in and gave me the good news that we could finally go home!!! Jason was already on his way down to Iowa City (his dad gave him a ride).... After the doctor put the 'order' through....the nurse came in to take his IV out (it wasn't actually hooked up to anything anymore, it was just there just in case they needed it again) and took him off of all of his monitors.  5 minutes later, Jason arrived....and lucky him, he didn't even have to see Cruz all hooked up to everything! I happily nursed Cruz....finally without worrying about stickers, cords and tubes....and packed up our stuff!  Early Monday (yesterday afternoon) we finally took off for home.

a picture of Cruz with the coloring Lola did for him while we were gone....

It was great to be home last night....I really missed the kids... and Lola really missed Cruz. (She is truly his little buddy).  Cruz seems to be feeling much much better...and has been doing great since we have been home. His coughing has even improved, which the doctors said might not happen for 6 weeks.  His cough, by the way, was never a whoop. (Infants are not strong enough to have the whoop, I guess).  He would just cough 5 or 6 times with the last cough or 2 sounding a little like he was vomiting (although he never did).  I guess this was even a mild cough for someone with Pertussis...although when it was my baby doing it, it didn't feel mild at all. It made my stomach hurt every time. While in the hospital, Cruz was only uncomfortable while he was coughing (and if they poked him for tests or anything).  Other than that he was content and comfortable....which made his stay a LOT easier on this mommy. We are so happy to have Cruz at home again, and so happy that things never got as bad as they could have.  He will have no long term effects from this...thank the Lord.  We just have to really watch him for respitory illnesses because his lungs have already been through the ringer this winter...and are just trying to heal.

NOW...to address the whole Whooping cough thing. We have no idea where Cruz got Pertussis....and we never will. I guess that sometimes Pertussis can present itself as a common cold with a cough...sometimes persistent sometimes not. From what we gather from the doctors here, Pertussis is common, and is only 'confirmed' when a little one like Cruz gets it and actually gets sick enough to go to the doctor to get tested. We have been trying to be careful to not cause mass hysteria :) with his diagnosis. People hear whooping cough and sometimes go a little nuts. (which is understandable because it can be really serious and even fatal for babies). If you would like information, both the Mayo website and the CDC website have great information on the disease.  When Cruz tested positive, we all got treated, and therefore NONE of us can be contagious anymore...even if one of us does come down with a mild case.  Hopefully, no one else that we were around in the weeks before Cruz got sick, comes down with Whooping Cough.  It was right over the holidays...so we had a lot of people that we contacted to make them aware they may have been exposed. Fingers crossed and prayers sent up that Cruz is the only case in Clayton County!

Well...I just wanted to write this blog post so that people know what happened... It wasn't very easy to keep people updated while I was in the hospital. (I also wanted to document this for myself...because I know all too well, a few months from now it will all be kind of forgotten, and our days in the hospital will have all blended together).  I didn't do any facebook posts til we got home, because I didn't want to worry anyone unnecessarily...and like I said....we wanted to avoid as much drama and mass hysteria as possible. Thanks so much for all of the thoughts and prayers! Once again, we are very fortunate to have healthy, happy kids.

Today, I am truly counting my blessings....especially this one: