Surgery Postponed - Again



Jereth on CPAP

 Since the pre-surgery screening procedures on Tuesday Jereth has been uncomfortable and fussy. Last night he woke with a high fever (no, we didn't bring a thermometer to Utah, so I don't know how high it was) and he was really struggling to breathe. His oxygen monitor kept alarming so after several phone calls trying to figure out how to get him cared for without hanging out in an emergency waiting room full of sick people, we brought him to Primary Children's Emergency. We were assured that their waiting room was empty before we chose to come here.

Once we got here they took one look at him and we had nurses, respiratory therapists, and a doctor swarming like ants around him. They put him back on high flow air (he's been off for about a week), took his temperature (40 C or 104 F), put in an IV (it only took 3 tries), and took samples of blood and mucus for testing. The high flow air brought his oxygen levels back to normal, but his breathing rate was still very high, over 90 breaths per minute. So they put him on CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) which delivers an even higher rate of air flow. That brought his breathing rate down to the 60's.

They also had a chest x-ray made. It shows he has something in his lungs but they won't know what until all the other tests come back. The preliminary bloodwork came back negative for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus - the biggest fear for his safety) but his white blood cell count is elevated. The larger viral panel takes up to two days to come back, so there is still a possibility he has RSV but it is more likely something else, either bacterial or viral.

Once Jereth was stabilized he was moved from emergency to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Someone either spoke or heard wrong and he was put in a room between two babies with RSV. Once I explained that he has had two doses of the vaccine for RSV and is due for the third, the PICU doctor made arrangements to get him moved to a private room - it only took another hour in the same room as the two RSV patients to get that accomplished.

So here we are again in the PICU at Primary Children's. It seems quite ironic that we came all the way to Utah so he could have surgery but instead he picked up a bug while here on Tuesday for the pre-surgery screening and now his surgery is delayed (anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks) and we get to pay to have Primary Children's heal the illness he got here.