Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Back in the hospital



Well here we are again almost one year later...back in the hospital. It began on Christmas eve when Dylan began feeling sick and had a fever. The following day he still was not acting like himself and had a fever again, wouldn't stop crying, throwing up and breathing really fast and hard. We decided he needed to go to the er on Christmas evening. They took him in for an xray of his chest and did a catscan of his head to make sure his shunt was working properly. A shunt malfunction could cause all those symptoms also. They started an iv because he was really dehydrated and told us his shunt looked great and that he had pneumonia and needed to be admitted. We stayed in the hospital until monday dec 27th. That evening the dr felt like he was holding down enough food and was stable enough to be discharged. I was very concerned because he was very unhappy and fussy not to mention had a 102.6 temperature. I had been telling the drs that he seemed to be in a lot of pain and wouldn't even let me lay him on his side which he usually loves. He said since it was a viral pneumonia the fever would last a few more days and the pain was from the pneumonia too and sent us home.

The next two days gradually got worse and worse and he wasn't even holding down pedialite and the fever and fussiness continued. He wasn't sleeping, constantly gagging himself and I've never seen him like that. He was suffering a whole lot so we took him back to the ER. It was now dec 30th 2010 at 9am I told them he was in a lot of pain in his stomach and they needed to check it. We went through the whole thing again...chest and stomach xray. The drs said he probably had ruptured his appendix and they also wanted to check how his pneumonia was looking. When the results came back the chest xray was completely normal and come to find out the drs looked back at his chest xray from the other night and said he never had pneumonia in the first place. Wow...right? We trust these people with our lives and they make a mistake like that. The stomach xray showed his stomach extended and nothing was getting in to his intestines. They sent us for an ultrasound to get a better idea of what was going on...it went on for an hour and a half because the tech couldn't figure out what the deal was so then the radiologist came in and was pretty confused himself. They just noticed a lot of fluid with debris floating around in
his stomach. Pretty inconclusive so they sent us for a catscan of his head and stomach. The reason for the head cat-scan again was to double check his shunt and the cat-scan would give more detailed info on his stomach. Pediatric surgery came by and said it looked like an infection of some type in his tummy but nothing needed to be done on there part that would correct it. Then the news from the neurosurgeon...his ventricles in his head were growing and they were much larger compared to the last catscan only days before which could mean a shunt infection or malfuction was going on. They advised us he needed emergency surgery that night. We tried to see if there was any way around it and they said he will prob be dead in a day or two without he surgery. His dr was out of town and the other pediatric surgeon was also. The on call doctor was a adult neurosurgeon and was called In at midnight. So it took them from 9am to midnight for them to figure this all out. What needed to be done was the shunt needed to be removed and they needed to put a temporary one in that is externalized which means instead of the excess fluid dumping in his belly it drains outside of his body in a bag. They do this until the infection goes away because if they put it right back in then the same thing will continue to happen. The surgery went well and we were able to see him after a few hours. Poor thing looked miserable and his iv had fallen out before surgery and they needed to replace it and then that one fell out after surgery and they tried to get a new one in for an hour but could not find a vein. A few hours later the dr came in and found one in his foot and by morning pediatric surgery came to put a pic line in which is a more temporary one but it required another small surgery. He also began to have a horrible cough due to the intubation so they were suctioning him every few hours trying to clear all that. He stayed in the ICU for a few days. Then was transferred to the pediatric floor because he was considered stable. He is still having problem holding down food but seems to be much more comfortable.

During surgery they were able to drain some of the fluid in his belly to test it. It came back with two very bad bacterias and they still dont know how he got that. It's possible it came from the shunt but the neurosurgeons are skeptical about that because this type of bacteria infection usually occurs right after surgery and since he was a year out of surgery the likelihood of this to happen is 1percent. They are contemolating having the shunt drain in his heart instead of stomach becuase this could easlily happen again within the next couple weeks to months. At this point they are giving him two very strong antibiotics to help w the infection and hoping by next week they will put the new shunt in. We have now been here for 9 days and its been rough. Sal and I switch sleeping here and Brady has been having a hard time
without his brother around and both of us w him. We are so lucky though because we have been blessed with the most amazing family and friends. Everyone is offering support and prayers and that is how we are able to continue with positive attitudes and I know God is listening and watching over Dylan.

Thank you everyone and God Bless!!! I will keep u posted.