We made it home from the hospital and Ryker is feeling good. He is on oral antibiotics 3 times a day for the next week and needs to be monitored for certain things like his breathing, see his regular doctor in a week and go back to Children's Hospital in about a month to see the pulmonary doctor and the Ear, Nose, and Throat team. They will do another chest xray at that time and most likely a broncoscopy where they take a look in his airway and lung, and possibly pull some stuff out of his lung.
Basically this whole ordeal started the end of January. He had been coughing like crazy and we thought it was the tail end of a cold he had. We took him to the doctor and they agreed. About a month ago, he came down with a fever. I assumed it was a virus and would run its course. On the fourth day, I took him to the doctor where they confirmed it was probably just a virus and would run it's course. That afternoon, I tried to take him back to the doctor because he was much worse, but they closed early due to the snow so I took him to the emergency room. They drew his blood and determined it was caused by bacteria so they put him on an antibiotic for 5 days. This did nothing to make him feel better. I called the doctor's office a couple times and talked to the nurse who said that it might take a while for the antibiotic to kick in. On day 4 of the antibiotic I took him back to the doctor. A chest xray revealed what they thought was pneumonia so they extended his antibiotic another 3 days. I took him back to the doctor 2 days later and they did another Xray and sent us to Children's because the xray showed a large circular mass and he thought it might be something much worse than pneumonia. By the time we went to the Children's emergency room, he had been having constant fevers for about 10 days and not eating. They gave him an IV antibiotic and sent us home with a 10 day supply of a different antibiotic. This one seemed to work and he was feeling much better within days. He didn't start eating for about a week, but with all the Tylenol, Ibuprophin, and antibiotics we had pumped into him over that last few weeks, I don't think I would have had much of an appetite either. The day after his last dose of his antibiotic, his fever was back. I took him to his regular doctor and he again sent us to Children's Emergency room. Now his xray looked like a big circle with fluid in the bottom half. They admitted us to the hospital. I will spare you all the scary details that I was first confronted with because they turned out to not be the case with him. He recieved IV antibiotics for 6 days as they worked to determine what was going on. Most likely, he aspirated something into his lungs back in January and it caused this big abscess in his lungs and also developed into pneumonia. The pneumonia was cured with the second dose of antibiotics, but then he got RSV, a resiratory virus that is going around. That was more than likely the reason he got a fever the second time, because his fever broke after 4 days and they confirmed the RSV with a nasal swab. It was horrible timing because he had just finished his antibiotic so everyone was alarmed and thought the pneumonia was causing the fever. Now that they had all the pieces in place, they just needed to work on a plan for the abscess. They wanted to do a broncoscopy and look around in his lung for the peanut pieces, but he wasn't healthy enougth because of the RSV. They have to put him under and they would be working in is airway, which was already swollen and irritated, plus he about coughs up is lung when he coughs. They did a bunch of pulmonary therapy with him hoping to break some of the crud up in the abscess so he could cough it up, but the xray we had on the day we were released showed that it hasn't budged from the day we were admitted. They are hopeful that the oral antibiotics he is on now will get rid of the remaining bacteria and hopefully he can make some progress getting some of the crud out of the abscess on his own so when they go in they will only be looking for the initial cause (foreign body, probably peanut) and not clearing a bunch of other stuff out of his lung. If all goes well and they think his lung is clear at that time, the abscess should start to shink on it's own and we will have an Xray in 3 months and again in 6 months to be sure that it is gone. Athough tissue in the lung has most likely been damaged, it should only leave a little scar tissue if anything after the abscess shrinks and we are told there shouldn't be any lasting damage. Let's hope they are right.
Apparently Seth's claim of having oversized lung capacity is acutally true and has been passed on to his son, because they were amazed that he is breathing as well as he is with that thing in there. It is big and numerous med students came to check him out because it is not something they see very often. All the doctors were wonderful and very knowledgeable. I'm very thankful that they were/are willing to sacrifice so much of themselves to get through medical school and become the best of the best. I can't imagine dedicating so much of myself to my career and I have nothing but respect for them. I knew he was in good hands and the only thing that worried me was how they kept using words like "impressive" and "amazing" to describe his Xray. The context was that it was rare and he should not be doing as well as he was and it gave me no comfort.
The other thing that I learned is that the fact that Ryker hung out in the womb for an extra 2 weeks, helped him immensely. His lungs were fully developed and then some. I'm so glad I wasn't induced early due to my own discomfort and that I had a doctor that hung in there with me and didn't urge me to induce. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. You just don't always find out what that reason was. With this one, now we know.
Ryker, you have been the biggest trooper throughout this whole ordeal. You've told me when you are scared, sad, and mad, but you've continuted to trust me through the process, something I will never understand. Believe me, you're not nearly as mad at me as I am at myself. You've stayed still while searching for veins, you've never spit out your medicine even after your dad gave you the bad kind that made you puke. (I'm glad that was Seth and not me, because you still talk about it. That and the bad milk he gave you because he had snuck medicine into it.) How a two year old is supposed to understand why we would confine him to a hospital room for a week, stick needles in his arm a foot repeatedly, stick tubes up your nose, and put disgusting medicine in his mouth for over a month is beyond me. I kept wondering when you would finally wonder why I kept taking you in for these horrible experiences and when you would stop believing that it was all to make you feel better, since you normally came out feeling worse with a few more holes in you. It wasn't until the very last IV that you had had enough and finally screamed, "Mama why you let these ladies hurt me." Believe me buddy, I would rather have cut off my own arm. I knew you were a tough little cookie, but after seeing how you handled everything you've had to tolorate, I am amazed by your strength and it was noted by many doctors and nurses along the way as well.
I wanted to get this up so everyone knew where we were at this point, but I will have FUN posts to come, including some sweet hospital pics compliments of the Ryker cam!
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