Yesterday (Friday), Rebekah woke up with a cough. It wasn't a bad cough, and we decided to just watch it and see what happened. We put Rebekah to bed a little later than usual, and by the time Drew and I went to bed, she was coughing a lot. That translated to us being up and down almost all night. By the time morning rolled around, I was up and on the phone with the doctor's office as soon as they opened. They wanted to see Rebekah right away, so we took off and were there by a little after 9:00. By the time we got to the doctor's office, Rebekah was coughing so much that she could barely take a breath in between coughs. We had only been back in the room for a few minutes when the doctor (one we have seen in the past, but not our usual pediatrician) came in with a breathing treatment. He ordered two Xopenex treatments given about 10 minutes apart. When we finished, he came back in to listen to Rebekah and said that she was still working to hard to breath and that we needed to head to the hospital. Dr. Belvin did not actually do any bloodwork or testing at the doctor's office, but he said that Rebekah had all the symptoms of RSV.
When we got to the hospital, it took a few hours to be admitted, get settled into our room, and get all of the normal "admission" paperwork and other stuff out of the way. By mid-afternoon, the nurse was ready to draw blood for the labs the doctor ordered. In a few hours, the RSV test came back: negative. We are very thankful that Rebekah does not have RSV!! It is a particularly nasty little cold bug that can seriously restrict airflow through the lungs and cause problems for babies with immature lungs, or in Rebekah's case, for those with only one working lung. With that being said, though, we really don't have a name for what Rebekah has. It appears that this is playing out just like last winter. We are in the hospital for an unspecific respiratory virus that is causing Rebekah to have lower oxygen sats, a very congested nose and a really, really yucky cough. She also has been running a fever between 100-101.2. So far Rebekah has avoided being on oxygen, but she was very close around 9:00 when she had a bad coughing spell and her sats dipped to around 80. She has been able to bring her O2 up on her own each time it dips, so we are just waiting to see if her body can fight this bug off without the extra oxygen. It is ready to go, though, if she does happen to need it in the night.
So, that's where we are at and how we got here. I am really hoping that after a day or two of observation we can go home and monitor this cold from home. The only drawback is that we no longer have oxygen or a sat monitor at home, so we aren't able to check Rebekah's sats from home.
Please pray for two other little heart babies that live near us. Mason was flown to MUSC in the early morning hours on Friday and had an emergency open heart surgery late Friday afternoon/evening. The surgery did not go as planned, and he will need another one in a few months, but he seems to be stable right now. You can read more about his story by clicking here. Brandt is also at MUSC this week, and he had his second open heart surgery Tuesday. After some ups and downs with his blood pressure (and his self-extubation!!), he was doing well enough to be moved to step-down today. Yeah, Brandt!! You can read all about Super Brandt by clicking here.
I guess that's about all for now. I am anticipating seeing some snow in Greenville tomorrow or Monday. After all, it snowed at some point during every hospitalization (in Greenville) that Rebekah had last year. It's an amazing record that I would hate to break now! :)
In all seriousness, please pray that whatever this virus is will go away quickly. Pray that Rebekah can breathe well enough to sleep tonight and that her airways will open up more. Also, please pray that Rebekah's oxygen levels remain high so that we don't need to use oxygen.
Nancy
