Home Sweet Home

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj]geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllliiiiiiyoiiiiiii.ullJ GTYG`KJtjujjkkiokokinh6gyg6yg/.

Elliot and James wanted to help write today and the above line is the result. We didn't even have too much fighting!

James came home over a week ago. He came home on Thursday February 24. He improved so fast and started eating as soon as they would let him. He is back to himself-happy and laughing at everything. The only bad thing is that we weren't able to get his surgery in before he was discharged and he came home on lots of medications. Last summer we were able to wean James off of most of his asthma medications. Before summer he was on Pulmicort 2x a day, Singulair at bedtime, and he was also on Prevacid once a day for his reflux. We had weaned off of all of these over the summer. Once winter time and the cold season started we put him back on Pulmicort, but only once a day. After this hospital stay he back to 2x a day Pulmicort, Singulair once a day, Allbuterol 3x a day and a new nebulizer called Ipatropium. That was 3x a day for 2 weeks. He also had an oral steroid for a week. All in all when he came home he was on 9 medications, now that we've finished those 2 we're back down to 7 medications.

Like I said James is back to his old self. The week after he came home was Spring Break from school which is probably a good thing for James. He went back to school today and he was the happiest I have seen him in a couple of weeks. I got a great report that he had a fabulous day at school. Next on the agenda is to take James to the pediatrician tomorrow for his follow up visit. Then it's to decide on when he can have surgery.

Just In Time

This past weekend I was able to get away for some fun and scrapbooking in WI with some friends. We had an amazing time and I "caught up" on James' scrapbook. Sunday evening I got home at 6 and James was breathing a little harder than normal. When an allbuterol nebulizer didn't seem to do much to help him I took him to the ER. I was a little apprehensive because we haven't been to the ER or Children's Hospital here in Fargo yet. The staff was amazing. Even though the ER was jam packed with people we were in a room in 5 mins, saw a doctor 5 mins later and had a Respiratory therapist giving a nebulizer 5 mins later. Within an hour James was in his room in PICU with his I'VE in place and put on BiPap. BiPap is similar to CPap and is used to help keep his airway open and move air a little better. We think it was an asthma attack but they're still giving antibiotics as a precaution. He's on a continuous nebulizer of allbuterol and getting steroids through his IV. For now the plan is to slowly wean off the allbuterol and see how he does with that. They tried being off the BiPap around 2 am and he didn't do well.
Surgery for tubes and adenoids was planned for tomorrow but now the plan is to hopefully do it right before he's discharged.
It seems I got home just in time and James to the ER just in time to avoid the ventilator.

It's that time of year

The cold season is going full force at our house. James got his first cold this week and it started off pretty bad. After school on Friday he was breathing pretty hard and was much worse after his nap. Luckily we've been able to get it under control with frequent nebulizers and nose-sucking and snuggling. I'm nervous for this winter for James. He's been quite well since last January when he had his fundoplication surgery to help with his reflux. However, at the same time we switched the boys to a small in home daycare and since we moved to Fargo we've had a nanny coming into our home. Now with James being in school I'm sure he'll be exposed to more illnesses and such. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid any major instances of respiratory distress. We'll definately be be staying on top of things with hime by giving him frequent nebulizer treatments, along with 2 other asthma medications but in addition we'll be sure to be washing our hands often, avoiding people who are smoking, and possibly trying to keep the kids out of stores with lots of people.