************************Warning. Long post ahead*******************************
So as most of you know we just got out of the hospital (again) with Jaxon. Here's what happened with that...
It was 8 days after his surgery and I thought everything was great. Really. Things had been great since day 3, no pain meds...nothing. Just a happy smiling baby with a loud breathing and an occasional deep cough (which is pretty normal for after that surgery). I got a voicemail on my cell from a nurse saying she needed to contact me about his lab results. I called them back, the first nurse was really "beat around the bush" and didn't tell me what was wrong. I updated her on how Jaxon was doing and she let me know they found some bacterica on his culture. That was pretty much it.
10 min later another nurse called back and was pretty much like, "ok i will just tell you whats going on, they found E-coli in your sons lungs. It is really serious, we are trying to figure out what to do because since it is RSV season, it is really dangerous for you son to go to the hospital, but we aren't sure we can get the treatments he needs at home, so we are contacting an infectious disease specialist to see whats best."
What? Not what a mother wants to hear.
But they got ahold of the disease specialist and they decided he needed to go to the hospital ASAP for anywhere from 3-5 days to get rid of it. So off we headed to the hospital and the pediatric floor was full so we were put in the pediatric ICU, (also in an attempt to not put us around the RSV babies)
It was kind of funny cause we get there, and here we are in the Intensive Care Unit, and my son is cooing and giving flirty smiles to all the nurses and dr.'s that came to see him. The head intesivist saw him and said, "THIS is my E-coli baby????" They were all amazed that he wasn't more sick for having that in his body for over 10 days. In fact, none of the dr.s there-from both shifts had ever seen E-coli in a baby his age. They dont usually see it till 18 months. They had no idea how a baby his age got it.
So then came all the IV treatments, antibiotics, a chest x-ray, and breathing treatments. It wasn't fun for him, but it was definitely needed. So he had the E-coli, bronchitis, and his throat was not healing the way it should. (mostly due from the E-coli they believe)
We stayed one night there and then went to the pediatric floor, but they put us with the oncology to keep him from getting RSV. I think that almost scared me more than anything. Knowing that if my son were to get sick with RSV (which is VERY contagious) that it would have been a REALLY bad thing. When the whole ICU floor is debating where it is most safe to put your son in the hospital, you know things could be serious.
They gave him a lot of nebulizer treatments that purposefully made him cough up all the stuff that was lining his throat. He got so much up though that he was choking and they had to suction him out. They dont like to do it cause it scares parents, but after I saw what a huge difference it made in his breathing, i started requesting it whenever that medecine was given to him. ( the nurses thought I was crazy, but they think its best too) So I would just help hold him down while they put tubes up through his nose and down his throat to get everything out. Jaxon hated it and it would stress him out so much that he would fall asleep almost as soon as the respiratory therapist would leave.
As a result of his surgery I have had to pretty much stop nursing and switch him to formula, his opening was so small before that he trained himself to eat by sucking really hard, so post-surgery, when they opening was the normal size- it floods him and he would aspirate it into his lungs. Formula is naturally thicker, but we also have to add thickeners to it. So it like a milk sludge now, and he has to eat it slow and that way he doesn't throw it all back up. (once again, his throat knew how to keep milk down before, but was having a hard time with it after and we were getting thrown up on a ton.) So Jaxon gets his "milkshakes" as I call them and he is doing a lot better. He is gaining weight and growing really well. We hope and pray this is the last problem we have with all this.
Can I just say how grateful I am to have our family close by. In all the instances where we have had to rush off and leave maya, my mom has been so willing to watch her, no matter how long it will be. Allowing both me and ryan to be at the hospital. We recieve so much love and support from my family as well as Ryans. What a blessing family is.
We are so grateful for the promptings from the Holy Ghost, I cant tell you how many times I have had promptings for the spirit from this and that, and its amazing the way things worked out. Who knew that breathing problems from birth and surgery could be a blessing in disguise. We would have never known otherwise that there was E-coli in his body until it had gotten to a severe stage and had done serious permananent damage. Even the nurses and our Dr. were telling me what a blessing it was he got that surgery done so they could take that sample from his lungs and that God was watching over us. Its amazing when you see the trial IS the blessing.
I could write a whole post just about the different ways the spirit has guided us since Jaxon was born concerning his health, but I will just leave with my testimony that I know that God watches over us, and that there is always a bigger plan than we realize. Sometimes, when we think something is a bad thing or a trial, it just ends up being one BIG blessing in diguise. I get scared occasionally, but it doesn't take much time down memory lane to realize that Heavenly Father has had his hand in Jaxons life from the time he was born and that I need to just keep my trust in him. I love my children with all my heart and am so grateful for this knowledge.
