Breathing Treatments and Cardiology

Yesterday (Friday, September 18) ended up being a very stressful day for me. I will get to that, but first, let me start with his cardiology appointment. We got some good news there! We saw Dr. Van Gundy at 12:30 to follow up on Caden's echo from a couple weeks ago. He said the pulmonary pressures were very close to normal (YAY!) and his aortic arch (where they repaired the coarctation) looked perfect. He said from a heart standpoint, Caden is completely repaired and doing incredible. What amazing news!!!

In addition, we talked about whether or not Caden could fly. Of course, that is assuming we have some place to go. :) I told him we had gone to Tahoe for a couple days and it seemed like Caden's respiration rate increased for a few hours but then came back down to normal (his normal, that is). Dr. Van Gundy said based on that, he said Caden is cleared to fly. He just said we can't take him on a 24-hour flight. Ha ha! I really don't think we're going to be taking Caden on a trip around the world right now. So I think we're set. And, we don't need to go back to see him for three months! And, that is for an office visit, not an echo. :) So awesome! That is the good news.

Then, the doctor went to examine him and listen to him. When he got close, he said, he's wheezing. I had noticed it for a couple days, but he has done a little bit of wheezing in the past and it has gone away pretty quickly so I hadn't gotten really worried about it. But as he listened and watched him, he said he was concerned. He wanted us to call the pulmonologist's office and tell them the cardiologist wanted him to be seen that afternoon because Caden was wheezing and retracting. I honestly didn't know if I could get him in same day or not because I'd never tried. But I told Dr. Van Gundy I would call their office the minute I left his.

So, I got to the car and put the boys in and called our pulmonologist's office. I got ahold of the advice nurse and told him that we were just leaving the cardiologist's office and he wanted Caden to be seen that afternoon. It was 1:20 when I called and he put him on hold. He came back a couple minutes later and said Dr. Chipps could see Caden at 2:30. So we rushed home to get more milk for Caden since I hadn't planned on being out during his next feeding. And I started calling friends to see if anyone could watch Kyler while I took Caden in. I normally take Kyler to all Caden's appointments, but for this one, I knew that I couldn't have him there distracting me and causing trouble. He had woken up very early that morning and the appointment was right during his quiet time. So he woulc have had a hard time behaving. Luckily I was able to get ahold of a friend who could watch him for me.

When I got to Dr. Chipps office, they took me back pretty quickly and he came in to do his exam and ask me questions. When he listened to Caden, he also was very concerned. He said the wheezing didn't sound good at all and he wanted to start him on breathing treatments immediately. The nurse set him up for a treatment in the office and we did one right there. Then, they gave us our own nebulizer to take home to continue the treatments at home. He has to have them every four hours while he's awake. In addition to this, the doctor is concerned there is something viral going on in his lungs and he wants to treat it aggressively so it doesn't get any worse. So he started him on steroids as well. He also said we needed to keep a very close eye on him because if it gets any worse or his color changes, we will need to take him to the ER immediately. It's a little scary to be told that by the doctor, especially because Caden has done so well since he's been home.

I went to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions and had a little trouble there. The doctor had failed to put the dosage on the Rx and so the people at the pharmacy had to call the answering service (it was now after 5 pm) to get the answer on how much to give him. When the nurse practitioner who was on call gave them the dosing information, it was very different than what Dr. Chipps had told me. So then I spent the next hour and a half trying to get that resolved. I finally got the nurse practitioner to call me back and discussed it with her. I told her what the doctor had told me and after our conversation, we worked out the dosing details.

It just ended up being a very stressful day as I went from one thing to another. And, when the doctors tell you how concerned they are, it really makes you worry about your child. And, since yesterday it does seem like Caden's breathing has gotten worse. He had a really hard night last night. So I am glad we are doing the treatments but it is just a little stressful when we don't know how severe it's going to get. We so badly want him to be healthy and get stronger. But he has an uphill battle with his small right lung. :( He is normally a very happy, easy-going baby, and it's hard to see him feeling yucky. Please pray for his lung to grow and for his wheezing/retracting to get better and for him to start to feel better soon.