Update

Kyle had another x-ray this morning and they say it looks like he's developing pneumonia. They've started him on steroids for his lungs, Lasix (the diuretic medication - not the vision correction surgery) and also milrinone (a heart medication) to help with the extra workload his heart is dealing with right now. His heart rate is hanging in the 190's. His respiratory rate is hangingg around the 90's but his O2 sats are only at 92%. He's still retracting pretty bad and the continuous Albuterol treatment doesn't seem to be helping so they're putting him on a C-PAP mask for oxygen. They've been taking all kinds of bloodwork and such. He's not a happy camper.

Kyle in the hospital again

Kyle's in All Children's Hospital again. Last night he started having coughing fits so this morning I set up an appointment with the pediatrician. He was seeming okay until about the time I got to my parents' house to drop off the girls. He was breathing really hard and fast and was lethargic. I went from there to the pediatrician's office and his breathing was getting worse as I walked in with him. The pediatrician ordered a breathing treatment for him and before the breathing treatment was hardly started, she noticed that he was getting worse very quickly. She called for an ambulance to come get him and by the time the paramedics got there, his skin was pale and bluish and he was retracting with his breathing (see video below). They thought for a moment that he might code! But they got him on oxygen and he started to get his color back. In the ER, they started an IV (5th time was a charm... until he popped it out... then 8th or 9th stuck), took a chest x-ray, did a couple of breathing treatments and then came the echo... As many of you know, I was scheduled for an interview for a position as a pediatric echo tech (my dream job) with Kyle's cardiology group last Tuesday but they had to reschedule. At this interview, I was to meet the group's director Dr Martinez and give a demonstration of my skills scanning. Guess which doctor came down to watch Kyle's echo! I wasn't sure what to say so I hung back. When the doctor mentioned something about the new machines, I piped up and said "Yeah. Last time Kyle had an echo here, they were using the Philips machine". Dr Martinez turned to me and said, "What do you do for a living?" since most people don't notice the type of machine used for the echo. So I told him, "Actually, I'm waiting to hear back from Stacy about rescheduling an interview with you!" He laughed and said, "That was you?!" He said that everything was crazy last week but he would see if they could arrange to interview me around Kyle's discharge so that I could just go across the street! Anyway, the x-ray and echo both came back normal (for Kyle, anyway) so they think it's just something viral but they're having to do continuous albuterol. Right now, he's doing okay except for being irritable and uncomfortable. Meanwhile, I'm a little irritable and uncomfortable myself. I have a sunburn (in patches because I tried to do spray sunscreen by myself) and a toothache (wisdom is sooo overrated in teeth!). General opinion seems to be that he'll need to stay a couple of days. Who wants to start a pool for when he'll be discharged - knowing that my favorite All Children's cafeteria food (Chicken Tampico) is on the menu for Wednesday? Last time, chicken tampico was set for Wednesday and Kyle went home Tuesday. Another time, it was set for Saturday and Kyle was discharged Friday.... Don't laugh! That chicken tampico is awesome!

This is what I mean by "retracting". This was taken when he was on continuous Albuterol.

Surgery #6

Kyle had his sixth surgery on Wednesday, February 25th (last week). He had a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and ear tubes put in, all in one surgery.

His previous surgeries include:
Bilateral Laser Photocoagulation (laser eye surgery)- 10/24/06
Gastronomy Tube Placement - 1/3/07
Bilateral Inguinal Hernia Repair - 1/11/07
Valvuloplasty - 3/2/07
Nissen Fundoplication - 6/13/07

(Notice all of those surgeries were before he was a year old!)

Normally, this surgery is done outpatient but because of his cardiac history, they had him scheduled for 24-hour observation (his ninth admittance to All Children's Hospital). Because of his lung history, 24-hour observation became a week. The normal post-op swelling from the surgery made it harder for his already-damaged lungs to get the oxygen needed. His oxygen saturation levels kept dropping below 90% (which is bad). After the first few days, the levels only dropped while he was asleep (which is normal, to a lesser degree) and finally Monday night he went through the entire night without requiring oxygen and they discharged us early Tuesday morning.

He's doing well now and we hope that when the soreness from the surgery goes away, he'll be more receptive to eating. When we met with the otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist) at the end of January, she remarked that Kyle's tonsils were very large and may have contributed to his aversion to eating since they would increase his gag reflex. As if to confirm those suspicions, the next day at PPEC (the medical daycare he's been attending), they had to perform the heimlich maneuver on him for a cherio.