Friday, October 31

The tube was inserted at 1am and immediately release about a coke cans worth of fluid out of him. All I can say is disgusting!! Only time would tell if this is the solution to the problems. Cooper was put on stronger antibiotics to treat for the possibility of a staff infection. Cultures were taken to determine this but would take up to 5 days to tell. The estimated time was 48 hours before the doctors would make any determinations about his progress. We were moved to a step down unit later in the evening because Cooper's condition was improving.
Staff from the hospital came around in their costumes to deliver some really nice handmade trick or treat bags filled with goodies!
Aunt Ida brought me dinner tonight, my favorite Chik Fil A!

Thursday, October 30

The doctor came to tell us because Coopers condition was not improving he wanted to do a sonogram of his lung to see what was going on. The results came back very quickly that he had an infection buiding around his lung and would probably result in surgery so we were going to be transfered to University of Maryland in Baltimore. I had enough time to shower and get our stuff together before the ambulance was there to transport us. We were admitted into the PICU and started consulting with the surgical team about the infection around his lungs and what type of treatment to proceed with. Later in the evening Cooper had a catscan and it was determined that Cooper had several infected pollops around his right lung that was further preventing the lung from working. They would do a bedside surgery to insert a chest tube to drain the infectious fluid out with hopes this would do the trick.
Chut and Aunt Lissa came to visit and bring me some dinner and a few minutes of quiet time since I had been sitting by his bedside all day and knew it would be a long night.

Wednesday, October 29

Cooper remains stable in the hospital. Today I was able to leave for a few hours to pick up AJ from pre-school and bring him back to the hospital to visit with Cooper. We had lots of visitors today: Chut and Tete, Aunt Lissa and B, and AJ and daddy. This evening for the first time Cooper got out of bed and walked on his own to play with his visitors. Maybe there is an end in sight.

Tuesday, October 28

When Tony got home, we decided enough was enough and this wasn't normal so off to the ER at Baltimore Washington Medical Center Cooper and I went. The ER immediately could tell he was dehydrated so they put him on an IV and stuck him on oxygen to help ease his breathing. They did another chest x-ray and showed me that in less than one day his pnemonia had spread to his entire right lung so he was breathing off of one lung only. Needless to say we were admitted and sent to the Pediatric unit where they started administering stronger antibiotics.

Monday, October 27

Got up with a fever, gave him some Motrin, played a little with AJ, took AJ to school and then went to our appt. After he played in the waiting area, I thought to myself, great he is fine there goes another $20 copayment down the drain! As soon as we were put in the room, I felt him getting warm again and all he wanted to do was cuddle with me. When the doctor walked in she remarked how he must be sick cause normally he is climbing the walls in there! She hadn't even done anything yet but from just looking at his rapid breathing (which he hadn't been doing the day before) she said, "I think he may have a touch of pnemonia." Of course I though she was wrong because I am very familiar with breathing problems from AJ. So she listened to him and sure enough there is a reason I work at a credit union and not a hospital, pnemonia in his lower right lung. So off for a chest x-ray we go and once again it is verified that is what he has. We started antibiotics immediately and the doctor called to give me some more information but she said it wasn't that bad so the antibiotics should be all he needed.
So I opted to have a slumber party in my bed because Tony was working and I wanted to keep my eye on Cooper throughout the night. Slumber is an understatement, the only one who slept was AJ! Cooper and I were all night because he was breathing very fast and grunting all night.

Friday, October 24

I had told my sister, biological mom and my work moms :) what Nightime Peds had said and we all agreed it sounded silly so I called my Pediatrician and got some more answers and made an appt for Monday morning ( the soonest they had.) Cooper continued to have fevers all weekend every 4 hours, had a persistant cough and had no appetite what so ever.

Thursday, October 23

When I got home from work Tony told me that Cooper out of no where had spiked a fever of 103, so he gave him some Tylenol. After an hour and a half, his temperature still was high so I called our Pediatrician but unfortunately they were booked for the day, so relunctly I took him to Nighttime Pediatrics. When we got there he had a fever of 104.3 and had a slight cough. The doctor checked him out and said there was nothing visibly wrong with him so he must have a virus. He said it was probably Hand, Foot and Mouth Virus, so gave me a list of things to be aware of and look for and just keep him comfortable with some Motrin. He said if it continued past 3-5 days call our Pediatrician and sent us on our way.