An Acute Change

After waking up to red alarms and being worried for your babies life, it is hard to get back to sleep. We have had our eye on his stats and he continues to be all over the place. His oxygen is still in the high 90's but his respiration is also near 90, and his heart rate is all over the charts, going from the 80's to 160.  We kept trying to comfort him because he was a bit whiny, he sounded like he was in pain. Bryttney was rocking him and cuddling him and singing to him. He just kept making this moaning noise, he usually koos, but not like this. I went over to check on him and he didn't quite look right. He was starting to get pretty dark, it started with a darker red all over his body and quickly he started turning purple- a dark purple. It was unmistakably a bad sign, he started to break out in a sweat. Our nurse was trying to take care of another baby, who also happened to be having some red alarms.

I just grabbed the closest nurse I could find, she had been kind of helping out through the night because I kept going out and grabbing people. I told her he didn't look or sound normal and she came to see him. She turned on the lights and within minutes the room was full of nurses and doctors again. 

This time it was way more serious, it was obvious that he was not doing good. He was purple and could not breathe, he was moaning in pain, and he was sweating all over. Bryttney started to lose it. We had to leave the room and go take a breather. We hid in the lacation room and said a prayer asking for comfort. She was having a really hard time. I had to know what was happening to him so I went back to check on him while Bryt waited in the lactation room. He had three guys around him with a pump and oxygen, I couldn't handle being in there so I grabbed our stuff and told the nurse we would be out in the hall. 

When I got back to Bryttney, she asked if I had ever felt like we were only supposed to have him a short time. I am at a loss for words. I don't know how to respond to such a question. I want to say everything will be ok of course, but the last two days have been so scary and unpredictable I don't feel confident in any answer.  We came into this ready to deal with anything. This is much harder than anything we were prepared for, he does not look good. It was not a conversation either of us really wanted to have, and neither of us really wanted to say the words. We both agreed that we would be patient and calm and try to deal with whatever was going to happen. We both felt calm, but I also started feeling physically sick. I can't begin to describe the thoughts in your head when starting a conversation with your wife about whether you think your child will make it or not. I don't know if we are over thinking or over reacting but I think we are both worried about even putting the thought into the universe. But I also think we both had to confirm with each other that we were aware and ready for the worst. 

I had to go check on him again, I only saw him for a brief second before I turned and walked back to Bryt. His color was starting to come back, but he was looking pretty pale. He wasn't dark purple anymore so I think that was a good sign. He had 4 nurses around him putting stuff all over him, getting him more medication, pumping him with oxygen, taking blood samples, and doing an emergency X-Ray. I couldn't handle being there and I knew Bryt needed me. This would be hard for anyone to take in but I am trying to be strong for her. The doctor stopped me as I was leaving and told me that the slow heart rate in combination with the deformed mitral valve had backed up a lot of fluid into the lungs and he was not able to compensate. She said they were going to give him more lasix to help get the fluid out and also some dopamine to help counteract the sotalol. Sotalol is what they gave him yesterday to help slow down his heart rate and get rid of the flutter. Dopamine will speed up the heart rate.

We waited out in the lobby for about half an hour, when we came back into his room he was hooked up to two more medications and oxygen. There were only two nurses left and they were just leaving as we got in the room. I think he is somewhat stable now. He is still breathing a little fast but he has good color and a good heart rate.  There is a new team of doctors here now. I will update after we talk to them. I am guessing we will be in the ICU for another couple days.