Doctors, an IV and X-rays...Oh my!!!!

Well...the lack of posts this week is b/c we made our 4th visit to the ER (in the past 7 months) on Thursday evening. This time it was for the newest member of our family! Cardston had been having a hard time breathing on Wednesday and Thursday. He was really retracting...very noticeable in his neck and stomach. His nostrils were even flaring quite a bit too. He hadn't been nursing very well either. His legs had turned completely blue two different times during the week. Weird...yes.

We called the pediatrician and they said to take him to the ER. No messing around with babies! That's for sure. So that's what we did. We went at about 3:30 pm. Ev had to be at the church at 5 pm to take the youth to Youth Conference (no way out of that either). We were trying to figure out how it was all going to work b/c 5 rolled around and we still hadn't heard back from the doctor. We had no idea how the rest of us would get home after Ev left us. Only having one car is a little rough at times! Maybe that's an understatement. Ev called the leaders at the church and told them he was going to be late getting there. The doctor finally came in and said they were going to admit him over night so they could do some tests and really try and figure out what was going on. So with that said...Ev was able to just leave. We called the Granthams and asked if they would watch Brampton for the night (Thanks a ton!!!) and Ev headed to the church at 5:30 pm.

At the hospital they did a urine and blood test. They also took some x-rays of his chest to see what was going on. We were taken to the children's hospital and put in the nursery. Cardston had 2 other little roommates. One baby...a little boy...was named SPARKY. Funny huh? Cardston was put on a monitor so the nurses could watch his heartbeat and oxygen levels. He also had a little IV put in. So sad. Cardston did pretty well with his breathing for the first part of the night. The doctor came in and asked some questions...she then told me what she thought was going on...REFLUX. Well at about 10pm he started having some labored breathing and his oxygen level got to about 84. They prefer 95-100. Anything lower is not too good. They paged the doc and she came and took a look. She was concerned and wanted to do a lumbar puncture (testing spinal fluid) to make sure it wasn't meningitis. They started him on 3 different antibiotics and we were then just awaiting the results of the test (48 hrs). Friday morning rolled around and come to find out they wanted to do more tests. Cardston had an upper GI barium swallow test done (to see if he had any reflux) and the cardiologist came and did an echocardiogram to look at his heart. Boy...my poor little baby was sure put through the ringer. It was all a little frightening just b/c they couldn't figure out exactly what was going on. But...thankfully the Lord answered many prayers. Come to find out the upper GI test showed that he has severe reflux. Cardston doesn't spit up...it just comes up to the top of his esophagus and causes him to gag and choke. He even gasps for air at times. Nothing too serious. They put him on pepcid and told us to keep him elevated to help keep everything down.

After two days of being in the hospital, I was sure excited when they released us on Saturday afternoon. I could hardly wait to sleep in a bed and have my baby free from all the stinkin' cords. Here are some of the pictures I took to remember this crazy event. I do have to say that I am so grateful he's healthy and able to be at home with us. I can't imagine having to do something like that long term. That is just too rough on a family.

Brampton was so excited to have his little brother back to keep him company in the backseat of the car! For some reason he likes to hold on to his little legs.