All Better

Kyle came home Saturday afternoon after a week in the hospital. In addition to the pneumonia, they discovered that he had RSV again, which is probably what caused the pneumonia. They treated him with steroids, antibiotics, IV fluids and breathing treatments. They would have discharged him earlier except that his O2 sats (blood oxygen saturation levels) kept dropping below 90% while he was sleeping unless he was on oxygen. O2 sat levels should normally be as close to 100% as possible but at least over 92%.

During his stay, Kyle got visits from some of his favorite NICU nurses and respiratory therapists and made friends with a couple of new nurses. He had Scott and Melissa as nurses for most of the week. He had three roomates come and go while he was there, too. One of them was a little baby boy and Kyle had fun talking across the room to him. When the baby was replaced with a 16 year old boy, Kyle kept asking where the baby went.

I was able to share some of my knowledge from being an All Children's veteran with the other parents. Little tricks like where the silence buttons are on each monitor and pump (making sure they knew to inform the nurse whenever the alarms go off, though), or which channel is the All Children's movie channel (44), or where to park, or how to avoid parking fees in the Bayfront garage (leave after 9pm - no charge), etc.

But Kyle's home now and has been almost a week. He's feeling much better and back to his old self. He's a little more talkative and independent.