Verdict: Pneumonia - LONG update

We were home from getting Cooper's chest xray for less than 45 minutes (Cooper was still sleeping in his carseat) when we got the call from his doctor with the chest xray results: pneumonia. I'm so thankful Bob was home when this came up - he took the call from the doc with the results and took it all in calm whereas I'm pretty sure I'd have broken down and missed some key info through the tears.

Doc said it's in a part of the lung where it could be fluid (formula) aspirated as a result of his reflux issue, or it could be bacterial from a cold or from a virus. Either way, she said he needs to be hospitalized immediately and she told us she called ahead for us to let the hospital know we'd be on the way over.

Fast forward 6 hours....and here I am sitting in a reclining "sleeper" chair next to Cooper's hospital crib as he quietly plays with some crib toys I brought along (thank goodness I wasn't too panicked to think of ways to entertain him!). It's almost 6:30 pm when I started typing this - and we've been here since about 1:45 pm. Upon our arrival, and after all the usual bureaucratic paperwork, we were escorted to Cooper's hospital room. It's a room for two patients but Cooper is the only patient in here right now thankfully. It's a large room, and comfortable.

Within about an hour of getting settled into his room, we were whisked off to an "exam" room for Cooper to get blood drawn and an IV placed. They drew blood from his calf and they had trouble getting it to flow so they had to "drip" it out and it got messy. I am ok with needles and blood most of the time - I went through a TON of that throughout the pregnancy and then I watched Cooper get an IV and a cath at the ER a few weeks ago and I was fine. But the sight of my baby boy's blood dripping all over his foot and the linens under him made me very queasy and I lost all color in my face. The nurse rushed out of the room and back in with a chair to put me in. I nearly passed out! ;0

After that ordeal was over we came back to Cooper's room. About 20-30 minutes later a phlebotomist arrived and announced that the previous blood draw had begun clotting and it needed to be repeated. UGH. They did it here in his room and it was MUCH quicker and more successful - but of course Cooper might disagree.

The doctor finally arrived at just after 5pm. She reviewed his lab results with us - all very good news - everything totally normal, thereby indicating that the fluid in his lungs is likely the result of him aspirating formula or saliva due to his reflux. They're going to start him on IV antibiotics and the doc will come back at midnight to check him out and then if he's doing really well tomorrow they might release him tomorrow night (fingers crossed and many prayers being said). When he goes home he will be on additional oral antibiotics to ensure that his lung clears up quickly.

As you may have guessed, I brought my laptop with me to the hospital and they have free wireless access which is great since I probably won't sleep much. The little pulse and oxygenation monitor on his big toe keeps falling off and setting off an alarm which wouldn't be so bad if the nurses were responsive and came to fix it (the tape isn't sticking anymore) - I just had to go out to the nursing station to find out when they'd be fixing it - I first asked 40 minutes ago ;0. They finally came in and fixed it.

They're about to come in and start his IV and check his vitals. Cooper is being SUCH a trooper. I'm frankly a bit surprised he isn't screaming and fussy since he's in a strange place in a bed he's not used to - but he's babbling, playing with the little animals I brought along and generally being a super cutie - even the nurses keep commenting on how good (and active) he is. Active b/c he kicks his feet and waves his arms around all the time when he's not swaddled/wrapped up.

Next up, getting them to bring his Prevacid dose (since I forgot to grab ours out of the car before Bob headed back home to tend to the dog). They're about an hour late getting it up here so I just reminded them and they promised they'd go hunt it down.

After they come back with the Prevacid and hook up his IV bag I will swaddle him and rock him to sleep and hope that he is able to get a good stretch of sleep. Bob will hopefully be back before that.

(stepped away as nurse entered)

OK, rather than re-write everything when things happen I'm gonna just step away and come back and update. So anyway, the nurse just brought the Prevacid in thankfully. They didn't have a bottle to put it in which stinks b/c giving oral meds by syringe increases the risk of aspiration. Oh well. Thankfully, Cooper took it like a champ even though we use a bottle at home for it. After the medicine he started crying which I know is because he's exhausted. He's only had one real nap today and it wasn't that great of one - in the carseat from imaging center to home (prob 30-40 minutes in length) and then he napped for about 20 minutes here at the hospital as we waited for the doctor to arrive. He usually has 3-4 naps of 45-60 minutes on a good day, with one that goes 2 hours on a REALLY good day. They haven't hooked up the antibiotics to his IV yet so I had to swaddle him with his IV arm free but once I did that and gave him his paci he immediately calmed down and settled into a nap that I HOPE lasts a good while but I won't hold my breath since they'll probably walk in any minute to do the IV meds. *big sigh*

Bob just called (8pm) and he's on his way back. It'll probably take him 40 minutes or so to get here. We're in a hospital that's quite a way from home b/c our neighborhood hospital does not have a pediatric unit (total bummer since our local hospital is 2 miles from our house).

Another nurse just walked in to show me how to give Cooper a breathing treatment which I just finished giving him. It's a powered mister that puts out medicated mist and I just hold it about 2-3 inches from his nose/mouth while he breathes normally. What a relief that it could be done while he's asleep and without waking him. She said this will be done every 8 hours so the next one will be at 4am.

OK - nurse #3 just came in and started his antibiotics. Turns out it's a 30 minute treatment and then they can disconnect it so that we'll have freedom to move him about the room between treatments (which occur every 8 hours like the breathing treatments) since he has what they call a "hep lock".

It's 9pm now and Bob just walked in :) so I'm going to close out this post. I'll post again later tonight with an update on how Cooper the pooper is doing.

Meantime, please keep Cooper in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy healing/recovery process. We feel so bad for our little guy - he's been through so much in his short 3.5 months so far. It's so unfair, and he is such a good boy through all of it. Thank you!