Yesterday morning, Braylen wasn’t feeling well and was having trouble breathing so we were advised by the after hours nurse to bring her to Children’s so that they could check her. Allen and I seriously thought we wouldn’t get past the triage nurse before she told us that nothing was wrong and sent us back home. Just overly anxious, very cautious first time parents.
When they hooked Braylen up to the heart monitor and oxygen the doctor noticed that she was having “spells” where her heart rate would drop which would in turn cause her oxygen to drop.It was crazy how things changed after she had these “spells” At first, the nurse informed us we would just be admitted for observations and given a nasal swab test in the morning, she would be in the Special Care Unit for the night. Which meant there would be 3 periods of 2 1/2 hours each that we couldn’t be with her. I think this is when I officially lost it! I felt so bad for getting so upset, and just kept apologizing to Allen for crying so much. Then, after the doctor talked to another doctor (who would become Braylen’s doctor once we got to the Special Care Unit) he decided that further testing should be done in the ER. So after a battery of tests (which I am sure hurt Allen and I a lot worse than her), she was admitted to the Special Care Unit.
After a blood test, urine test, and lumbar puncture that all came back negative for any bacterial infection, they decided to run a CT scan last night. We were able to stay with her through all of this, it was so hard to see her have all of those things done to her. I mean, this is a person who already lost it when they told me I couldn’t see her for two hours. Then, it continued to get worse because apparently there was a shadow on the CT scan which caused them to order an MRI. When we left the hospital that night we knew that she had tested negative for bacterial infections, but something was off on the CT. The doctor basically said “Something showed up on the CT, it could be related to the spells or just coincidental that we found it, it could be a small bleed or some type of mass, or a cluster of blood vessels. They wouldn’t do the MRI until the next morning. When we got there the next morning they were ready to take her down for the MRI. I was able to stay in the room with her and it was so loud. They put little ear muffs over her ears and I had to wear ear plugs while I was in there. She did great throughout the whole 30 minute process. We got the results back quickly and THANKFULLY everything looked great on the MRI. The doctor said that what they saw on the CT scan was just a shadow, and then she added “it’s very common to see shadows on CT scans especially with her being so young and not laying completely still”. I might have slept better knowing this last night, but oh well, we are happy and thankful she is okay. Finally, this morning they decided to do a nasal swab to check for any viral infections. This afternoon the results came back and sweet girl tested positive for parainfluenza 3, which is an infection sort of like RSV. I just wish we could have done the nasal swab first and saved her a lot of sticks with the needle.
She has been doing SO much better today. She still has the IV in her hand and is getting antibiotics. The cultures from the tests yesterday are still negative but it was to be 36 hours before they know for sure.
The virus is responsible for the “spells” or drops in her heart rate and today she hasn’t had one since 8:15!!! I am not sure when we will get to come home, but I will try to update once we talk to the doctor this evening.
As far as treatment, she has to fight it off on her own. Therefore, we will be here until she is able to maintain her heart rate and oxygen levels (and it looks like she is already doing that). Please just say a prayer that she gets better quickly and gets to come home as soon as possible (and completely well).
Here is a picture of our sweet girl with her daddy yesterday morning when we were waiting to see the doctor in the ER. Yes, that might be the most precious thing ever.
Praying Jennifer!!