Long last week and weekend

This is the first chance that I have had to sit down at a computer (My lunch break at work)and let everyone know what has been going on this past week. Last week on Monday Garet got all of his 6 month shot, flu shot and got a weight check so they could ship his synagis shot. (A vaccine given to preemie babies and babies with special illness to prevent RSV during the flu season) The pharmacy was suppose to have already shipped this last week but for some reason wanted to do a weight check before sending it out. He did fine getting all of his shots and him and daddy went back home. Then on Wed he started to get a little bit of a cough. We did not think much of it until Wed night we were working the church pumpkin patch. Garet had had his normal bottle and about 30 minutes later got sick all over. At that point his cough seemed to start to get worse. So back to the Dr Garet and Daddy went on Thursday to have a listened to his cough and check him out just in case. They said that is was most likely just a little cold or a small reaction to his shots and that they could not hear anything worried them. So home they went again. Friday Garet went to his Mimi's house under the precaution that he might not be feeling so well. I called them a couple time during the day and Mimi said that he had gotten sick again with his formula. So I decided to call Dr Fricker in Gainesville and get his opinion on what was going on. He said that if he was having an issue keeping his formula down and was having any dificulty breathing that he would like to see him later that Afternoon. So I got off work early and went to pick him up with plans to go to Gainesville for a check up. On my way home Dr Fricker called and said since his normal Pediatrician had just seem him the day before that it might be wise for us to stop and see her before driving all the way out to Gainesville. So that is what we did. As soon as we walked in and she listened to him she said that she thought he had RSV. So they started did a breathing treatment in the office and sent us home with breathing treatments every 3 hours for what we thought would be for 5 days. They stopped formula and put him to a clear juice/pedialite diet. The breathing treatment every 3 hours seemed to help a little. But only about 30 minutes after the treatment he sounded just as bad as before. We made it almost threw Saturday doing what we had been told to do. But when it got to Saturday evening about 7 he was really having a hard time breathing and was just not a happy boy at all. Matt and I then made the decision that since the symptoms for RSV are the same as if something is going wrong with his heart that we were going to take him in. Since his dr had not done the test to confirm RSV we did not want to go on the chance that that was what was wrong. We decided we were going to take him to Gainesville to have a chest x-ray and ECO just to make sure that it was not something more serious. We called Dr Fricker and off to Gainesville we went. We sat in the back of the emergency room until about 3 in the morning when they finally had a room open up in the PICU and up we went to the all to familiar 10th floor. Once we got him settled and got a couple hours of sleep the test started. They tested for RSV (came back negative), they tested for multiple kinds of flu (All came back negative) The did an ECO( looks the same as the last clinic visit) they even put in a IV to make sure if something were to happen that they had easy access to giving him med. Poor baby they could not get an IV in his arms and they did not want to put one in his foot because he would most likely pull it out. So they put it is his head.
That is why in all these pictures he has a cool dinosaur head band to keep him from messing with his IV. Any way test after test and nothing is coming back telling us what it might be.So they have pretty much decided that it is a bad case of bronchialitis (baby bronchitis) and since this is making such a flem build up that his formula was making it even thicker and he was unalbe to keep it down. So we thought that they were going to send us home yesterday with his breathing treatments and additional meds to help him get threw it. Then one of the dr in the PICU decided the wheezing and crackling sounded a little like it could be allergies or Asama as well. So in order to rule these out that would have to give him a 5 day round of Steroids to see if they could get the cough to go away. They were also concerned that since he has only been able to hold down fruit drinks and that he is not getting his formula that he may start to loose some weight if they did not get the cough taken care of there in the next couple of days. So instead of going home we are still in the PICU for a couple more days. This is just fine with me, I would rather be safe and have him monitored then to go home and have to come back in a couple days because it is not getting better.

Above is Garet sucking on a bagel Sunday morning. He had been in a some what of an ok mood Sunday and Part of Yesterday until he decided that he had had enough of just sitting in bed and watching tv. So last night he was not such a happy boy. So now they have done one round of the steroids and they have done 2 doses of the meds that are suppose to help if he has some sort of flue that they were unable to test for. He should be getting another dose of steroids today. Last night he was able to start keeping a little bit of formula down so we are working on that slowly. We are just praying that one of the meds that they are giving him will get rid of this nasty cough and will get him back home soon.

Yesterday was a mommy and Garet day in the PICU and today I had to go back to work so today is a Daddy and Garet day in the PICU. Yesterday they were talking about moving us down to the 4th floor (Pediatrics) but he will have to have a room of his own down there and they do not come very easy. Hopefully today they will listen to him and we will be able to go home and ride the rest of it out at the house. It is so scary that this is only the first month of cold and flu season and we have already had to make a trip back to Gainesville. This is just a big reminder to us that if we are going anywhere we are going to have to be careful if anyone is sick to just stay home. This is hard when you hang out with family a lot and a lot of cold and flu do not show up until after that person has already been contagious for a day or so. Big reminder to everyone WASH YOUR HANDS ALL THE TIME!!!!!! This is so important. We we still hope to be able to get out and visit everyone but if for some reason you are not feeling well or even have a small cold please do not be upset if we show up and decide to leave. We love to visit family and friend but we do not want to send any more time in Gainesville then we have to. Thank you for all the prayer that have been continuing to come our way and We play that everyone has a healthy cold and flu season. I will be back when we have some more updates. Have a great day to all.