Update Since Wednesday

So I shot the following video last Monday when Ethan was feeling okay and thought I would share it.  He had just gotten in trouble for playing with his cables a couple times - trying to put them in his mouth.  (Just the "No, thank you Ethan!" kind of trouble.) And then I caught him red handed.

On Wednesday night (I guess really Thursday morning...that's what 2 a.m. would be, right?! ;)), Ethan took a turn for the worse.  They were giving him about 4 litres of oxygen by nasal prongs (I've been told 3 feels like gale force winds), trying high amounts of blow-by and then tried a mask and his oxygen saturation remained in the 70's.  So they decided to send him to the Paediatric Critical Care Unit (PCCU).  They gave up on all other measures and put a mask on him so they would know just how much oxygen he was getting.  He was very lethargic and moaned during waking periods.  I only found out later that morning when Clayton called the house.  He was in the PCCU until about two hours ago.  They had thought he might be okay to come back to the ward yesterday but wanted to be sure they wouldn't have to take him back into the PCCU so kept him another night.  His oxygen requirements are down again.  He is doing well on 2 litres of oxygen by nasal prongs, is having more waking periods and is in a better mood overall.  He's quite chatty too.  I love that he keeps saying, "Mmmmommm".  :)

Increased Requirements

Okay, so Ethan has gone from 3 litres of oxygen by nasal prongs and blow by air in the ER on Sunday down to 2 litres of oxygen and humidity during rest periods.  Then Monday night they had to increase his oxygen to 3 litres and reintroduced the blow-by with humidity this time.  Last night they increased his oxygen to 3.5 litres and a whole lot of blow-by with humidity.  Today we're up to 4 litres of oxygen with the blow-by.  They are looking at different ways to get the oxygen in him and this is a mask they had on him for a bit but he didn't tolerate it very well.  Especially when he turned onto his back.

To visit my boy this is what visitors, doctors, residents, nurses and pretty much everyone has to put on the following to enter our room.

Ethan has been causing a bit of a concern today to the point that they have advised the Paediatric Critical Care Unit that he may end up under their care.  I have been asked what measures we would like them to take (just so they know)  and warned they may try to intubate him or if all else fails trach him if he continues to go downhill.  They did another x-ray this morning and his lungs look even worst than they did yesterday.  They also did an ultrasound of his lungs and have found fluid in them.  We're waiting to hear if it is small enough for him to deal with or if more invasive interventions are required.  Meanwhile he has been very lethargic today as well.  He was pretty much asleep since 9 PM yesterday and has only had brief waking periods.  He only wakes long enough to yell at anyone touching him.  Mind you most people are either trying to get blood from him, giving him his puffers, giving him chest physio or moving him.  He is still pretty feisty though.  When he had his x-ray done, it took 3 people to hold him and one to take the x-ray...but at one point he was so mad he stood up from sitting.  If you overlook the fact that he is pretty sick, it was kind of neat to see him weight bear like that.

Guess Where We Are Again?!?

Ethan was admitted to hospital yesterday.  To our surprise, we're back in the room as the last time.  He started getting a cold on Monday and it just progressed to the point he was having difficulty breathing.  While in the ER they had him on 3 litres of oxygen with extra blow by, but were able to get him down to 2 litres in his sleep last night.  This afternoon he went into a deep sleep and they had to bring up his oxygen again, but since he is awake they've been able to lower it.

Clayton is doing the night shifts here.  When I came in this morning it was so cute because Ethan held my finger/hand for a bit and wouldn't let go.  He did that a couple times.  Melts your heart how sweet they are!

He did What?! :)

Happy New Year!  It has been a bit since I've posted...but I'll get into that in a moment.  I need to start this with a ta-da moment.

Ethan was in therapy this week.  The first time back really except for the one day in December (the 31st) that he was able to go.  Yesterday the doctor who cares for the kids at therapy came to share something about Ethan with me.  She was so excited, she just had to tell me herself.  :)  She said while checking him over she was leaning over him with her stethoscope hanging down from her neck.  Ethan reached up to grab it and put the flat piece onto his chest.  He was showing her he knows what it is used for.  She was so proud of him.  I must say, I am too and impressed as well.  It is so neat to see his intelligence shine through.

Now for the not so great stuff...Ethan was sick again.  He caught another stomach bug and was sick from about December 31st to January 7th with diarrhea.  Although we did visit the paediatrician a couple times, we were able to keep him hydrated enough to avoid an IV.  Unfortunately, to do so we restricted his calories for a bit and he lost weight.  Thankfully, only two other people in the house (of 5 at the time) caught it as well.

Our dentist squeezed us in on his first day back from the holidays and he does not seem overly concerned by Ethan's lost teeth.  As soon as he saw them he said they were normal baby teeth that have gone through the resorption phase.  But he did not have any answers as to why Ethan's teeth would be doing this so soon.  He took some x-rays and we do know that he has all of his adult teeth (we just do not know what condition they are in), and we could see where the upper right tooth root is starting to spontaneously reabsorb.  He kept the two teeth we had to send them off to a colleague for analysis.  So again we wait.  People who have seen Ethan recently but don't really know him have been saying to me that he must be teething and you can kind of see why in the following photo...

Speaking of waiting...we find out the results of his MRI on February 17th, so it should be interesting to see what that brings.