A Day at the ER

Jesse has been unable to get rid of his cold, going on 3 weeks now. So yesterday I took him back in to our doctor in Sterling who prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid. But then last night his oxygen was going quite low - into the upper 80's while on 1 liter of oxygen. When I spoke to the pulmonary hypertension nurse early this morning, she said I needed to get him in to see a doctor within a couple hours - either in Sterling or Denver. So we decided I should take him to Children's in Denver. I left the house around 6:00am and had him on a pulse-ox monitor the whole way. The first 45 minutes his oxygen was great - around 98%, but then around Fort Morgan it was back to the upper 80's, so I had him turned up to 1 1/2 liters part of the time. When we checked in at Children's he was at 92%, but once we got into a room in the ER he was at 95-99% all day! So none of the doctors saw him when he was having a hard time breathing. The cardiologist originally speculated that it was a heart problem (rather that a virus), because Jesse has also gained over a pound since last week (probably fluid). But they did an echo of his heart which showed his heart was doing great. So the final diagnosis is still a virus, with fluid in his lungs (not pneumonia). One idea for today's improvement is that last night's dose of steroids has started working. We will see what his levels are tonight. The cardiologist said as long as his oxygen stays above 88% that it is ok, and gave instrustions on when to turn up the oxygen, or when to call/come back to the hospital. We left the hospital around 5:00pm, and Jesse and I are staying with Steve and Wanda overnight because I am too tired to drive home. Please pray that his oxygen levels stay up and that Jesse can finally get better. (If he gets over this, his heart cath is scheduled for October 7th.)

Kristan