Sunday night Lane started coughing. not your normal cough but an inhuman barking. This was followed by choking spells in which he would turn blood red and almost raise himself off the bed. Do we go tonight or wait til tomorrow? We decided to wait and see what the night would bring. Monday morning came, the cough had subsided but I kept him home from school anyway. He slept till 9:30 or so. I checked his temp, 91.4, checked his sats, they were like low 90's. I checked again, 88. not good. One more time, 77. Ok let's go. I called my friend Suzi, to see if she could watch Morgan until Will's mom could get there. She came immediately. I know who I can count on. Ambulance arrives. Sats are 79, give breathing treatment, and go. I got to ride in the back again. We had an awesome paramedic. 4 breathing treatments later his sats were better. Stable throughout the whole trip. Hang out in ER awhile, get admitted to PICU. Let the ride begin.
So to make a long story short, he has an airway obstruction, but a clear chest x-ray. They try CPAP, no good. BI-PAP, no good, different masks, still not helping. John, my RT, called in the doc to tell him something else is going on with Lane, Dr. Bondi orders another chest x-ray, "what's that gonna show" ? I ask. "yall have said all day he's moving air beautifully". He tells me some stuff that it might show that could be underlying reasons that nothing was working. Well what it showed was pneumonia. Bi-lateral and completely whited out as they say. On x-rays air shows up black, fluid white. There was only one small area that was allowing air to pass through. God Bless John for knowing something else was going on and Steve Bondi for ordering that x-ray. End result: we wind up on a vent, but not just a regular vent, the oscillator. Let the prayers begin.
