Caught off-guard

We have had an interesting couple of days. On Tuesday, Maksim started acting cranky, spiked a fever in the evening, and then vomited while eating. It isn't totally unusual for him to throw up every once in a while when he is eating, so I didn't worry too much. The fever concerned me, though, because he didn't really have any other symptoms. We have also kept him extremely isolated, and he has not been around anyone who is sick. Then I remembered he had received his MMR vaccine about 5 days prior, so I blamed that.
The fever and irritability continued into the next day, but again, I just wasn't that worried. He had no respiratory symptoms, except for some tachypnea with the fever, so I definitely wasn't worried about his lungs. I made homemade yogurt, I went visiting teaching, and I was planning to do Kennedy's hair that evening. I had no reason to suspect I would be spending a couple of days with him in the hospital.
While we were eating dinner, he continued to have a high fever. Logan tried to feed him, and he vomited. He started acting like he was in distress, so we grabbed the pulse oximeter to check his oxygen. He usually runs above 97% when he is healthy, but he was running in the low nineties and high eighties. He was also quite tachypneic. I was concerned about his oxygen sats, so I called the pediatric office and spoke with the nurse (I promise, all nursing knowledge goes out the window when it is your own child) to see if this could be a reaction to the vaccine. She said it could be, but if it continued into the next day, he should be seen in the office. We continued on with our evening, and took the monitor off Maks. When I was feeding him before bed, he threw up again and got even more tachypneic and irritable than he was before. We put the monitor on again, and his heart rate was at 205. Normally his heart rate runs around 120. We were concerned, but were hopeful that once he calmed down from vomiting, his heart rate would normalize. I started heading to Hillary's house to do Kennedy's hair, but I told Logan I would call the pediatrician on my way. I finally got a hold of the office, and they said he should be seen in the emergency room right away. I immediately turned around, and when I got home, Maksim was in obvious distress. His heart rate was still at 200 (which is so close to supra ventricular tachycardia, it is ridiculous), and his sats began dropping into the low eighties.
Now, just over a year ago, I had never been to the ER or taken my child there, but ERs and hospitals are definitely not foreign to us since Maksim was born. However, this was such a different and unexpected situation. We usually know what will happen when Maksim has respiratory illnesses, due to his chronic lung disease, but we had no idea why any of this was happening. We were so panicked and concerned. Milyn was already in bed, so poor Logan had to send me and Maks out the door, not knowing what was going to happen.
For the sake of time and my own record-keeping, I am just going to copy and paste my Facebook statuses since we arrived at the ER:

Wednesday at 11:47pm
Maksim update: he has been running a fever the last couple of days. It got worse today, and he developed severe tachypnea and tachycardia. This evening we couldn't get his heart rate much lower than 200 bpm, so we were advised by his pediatrician to get to the ER, where his fever was 104.2. We are still here and trying to avoid another admission. The doctor is worried about his hydration due to the rapid breathing and high heart rate, so they just started an IV. He does not have influenza, RSV, or strep! His tonsils are swollen, but that is the only sign of infection. They are also running blood cultures. We would love to go home tonight! Thanks for the prayers!

Thursday at 1:48am
It's going to be a long night! At least we got a different room this time. :( #hospitalssuck #miraclemaks #prayers

Thursday at 12:30am
Maksim update: he was finally admitted around 2am when his fever spiked to 105, and they still couldn't get his heart rate under 200. They started an IV and gave him fluids and a dose of antibiotics. This morning, his heart rate is down around 170, which is much better but still elevated. His fever is still at 102. He hasn't been able to keep anything down, so the biggest concern now is hydration. If he can start eating and stop throwing up, we may get to go home this afternoon. The pediatrician just ordered another CBC and chemistry panel to see if there are any changes from last night. Right now the doc is hoping it is just a stomach bug that is causing all of this, because if it is something else, they have no idea what it is. #miraclemaks

Thursday at 7:12pm
Maksim update: Maks had a good afternoon. He finally got some rest, his fever broke, and his heart rate went down to its normal range. He ate a little and kept it down while his fever was away. His CBC came back okay with WBCs just slightly elevated. Unfortunately, the chemistry panel showed a very high CRP, which has the pediatrician concerned about an infection in his blood. About two hours ago, his fever spiked again to 103. They gave him Tylenol via suppository to avoid vomiting, but he still ended up throwing up again when the fever came back. Anyway, long story short, we will be here at least another night. They will recheck the labs in the morning in hopes of seeing an improvement. Thanks for the kind words and prayers! #miraclemaks

Today at 12:30pm
Soaking up the beautiful sunshine today OUTSIDE of the hospital! Maksim had a rough night with more high fevers and vomiting, but his CRP has come down a little. We are hoping he is heading in the right direction. The infection is believed to be caused by Mycoplasma, which is the culprit behind walking pneumonia. At any rate, we are super excited to be on our way home where Maks can hopefully continue to get well. Thanks for the many prayers! #miraclemaks

An IV was started in the ER, and he received lots of fluid and two doses of the antibiotic Rocephin throughout his stay. The IV was discontinued when he was discharged.
Last night was pretty rough. The fevers got high again, and he continued vomiting. He also dropped his sats into the low 80s, and it took the nurse about 20 minutes of repositioning him to get them back up. He maintained them pretty well after that, and his heart rate stayed under 160.
The biggest concern behind all of this has been his hydration due to the high fever, and rapid breathing and heart rate (those cause you to lose heat very quickly) and the dramatic rise in the CRP. A normal level is <0.1, and his was 9.1! It did come down a little with his morning labs to around 7. When the doctor came in, we discussed the options of how to proceed. Maks had a rough night, but the labs were improving, and he was able to keep down around 4 oz during the night shift as long as he was fed when his fever was below 101.
Maks was discharged with hopes that he is, in fact, on the downhill of this illness, and that I can keep him hydrated on my own! We were so happy and relieved to come home! I used up a lot of my PTO last time he was hospitalized, so I was having to work in his hospital room, and let's just say, it was stressful!
Maks also couldn't be happier to be home. He hasn't wanted anything to do with behind held or confined. He has wanted to be on the floor crawling around as much as possible. He is pretty grumpy and still has a low-grade fever that is running around 100 degrees, but it has responded to Tylenol. He is also very against eating right now, and he has thrown up three times since being home. We have been giving him syringes full of water every several minutes to try and keep him hydrated, and he is finally sleeping peacefully and comfortable in his own bed! We are praying we wake up to even more improvement.
Thank you to everyone who continues to pray for our miracle baby. We feel you lift us in times like this when we can definitely use the extra strength! Get better, Miracle Maks!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

First Birthday

I honestly can't believe a year has passed since Maksim was born! It has been very hard for me today to not relive all the events and fear surrounding Maksim's birth, but looking at these pictures helps to put everything into perspective. What a miracle this sweet boy is in our lives!

At one year old, Maksim weighs 15 lbs! He wears mostly 3-6 month clothing, but he is starting to fit into some of his 6-9 month stuff! He is a skinny little thing with a long body a short legs. :) He has 4 teeth and 2 more coming in, which is crazy to me, because he got teeth quicker than Milyn! He is still army crawling, but is rocking on his hands and knees a lot. He will get there. He is unable to sit on his own, which the doctors believe is a result of the ototoxic medications he received in the NICU. He has passed his hearing tests, but has vestibular damage, which affects his balance. He also isn't talking/babbling much, but hopefully that will just come with time as well. He has started eating solids much better. He loves yogurt, just like his sister, and he can even feed himself the Gerber puffs. Here is a little list of what he is up to these days.

-mimicks grunting sounds
-turns in circles and climbs over obstacles
-smiles and giggles a lot, and he is SUPER ticklish
-gets mad when we leave the room, but he is still very easy-going about different people holding him. He doesn't really show a preference for familiar people yet.
-he follows us everywhere, especially the bathroom
-he loves to watch Baby Einstein videos on the iPad! He has to get so close to see, but it is adorable
-he likes to push toys all around the house and pound the floor when he is excited
-he likes to follow the vacuum
-he likes having his teeth brushed
-he absolutely LOVES his sister!

He got some cute clothes and a couple fun ball toys for his birthday. We had a small party at our house, but unfortunately some of our family were unable to come because they were ill and can't be around Maks. We were sad that not everyone was there to celebrate with us! Since he started doing better with solids earlier this last week, we decided to give the cake thing a try! He had spoonful and a few bites of ice cream, and he loved it.

Maksim, we love you so much, and we definitely can't imagine our family without your special spirit. Happy birthday, Miracle Maks!


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad