The number 77

Well this winter has been great....Rylan was doing great......I guess alittle too great.  Im writing this in my sons ICU room at the hospital listening to the sounds of the air escaping Rylan's Bi-pap mask and the faint ringing of alarms in another childs room somewhere down the hall......But lets go back to the beginning to where this all began......
       Rylan was battling a few viruses......which I thought we were staying on top of. We have taken him to the doctor and stayed on top of his breathing treatments and vest treatments..
       Thursday morning at about 1am Rylan decided he wanted to wake up for the day. So as habit dictates I went in his room and changed him and put on cartoons for him to watch and I went back to bed. 530 comes around and Steven and I get up and start Rylan's morning routine (a vest treatment with albuterol, feeding and the normal getting dressed). When all was complete we loaded him up and took him to school.
         The day came and went and we went on our regular activities...Steven headed to work and I headed to go pick Rylan up from school.
          I got the run down from Rebecca and put Rylan in the car...he seemed happy but tired.....being he got up at 1am I couldnt blame him.
          By the time I got home and turned off the car I could hear Rylan breathing very rapidly in the back seat and he was sleeping.......I wasnt too comfortable with his breathing so I pulled out his pulse ox just to see where his oxygen level was at......When I put it on the reading I instantly got was 77........I found that hard to believe so I put it on myself to check......my read 98. So I put it back on Rylan but I tryed a different finger on the other hand......77 again. I call Steven really quick to let him know we are heading to the hospital by ambulance. I hang up and call 911.
           I never took Rylan out of the car due to the fact he was gasping for air and passed out..So I stood outside by Rylan until the ambulance arrived....
           They pulled in front of the house and jumped out and ran to Rylan. They checked with their pulse ox.....he was at 80% oxygen.  I get pushed aside to answer questions and I watch as they have all 4 doors open on the truck talking to Rylan....Throwing oxygen on him and getting ready to put him on the gurney.
             All the while im alittle shaken...even though I was calm its always alittle nerve wracking to see your child get loaded in an ambulance to get rushed to the hospital. I grab what we need and load in with him and we go....
              While in the ambulance I learn he is on 15 liters of oxygen and barely at 92-94%.....and he is febrile with a 101 degree temp. We arrive at the the hospital and his temp went up and his breathing got worse......yet we had to wait for TMC to get him over to the childrens area.....I wasnt to happy.



waiting to go to the Childrens area

We finally get to the area and we meet up with Steven....they get him in a room and start breathing treatments and his extreme amounts of oxygen, we eventually get xrays and so forth....once his IV was placed bloodwork was taken and the only thing we were waiting on was a room in the ICU. Steven and I ran home to get a bag and shower as my mom stayed with him.


attempting to place IV in the emergency room

 On the way back from home I took the truck because Steven needed to get back to work. I call my mom on the way to see how he is doing and I hear his gasping in the background....I REALLY start to worry. I get to the hospital and I get to his room and they have both of the residents in there, his nurse and the respitory therapist circling around his bed talking about what to do next as he is now on 100%oxygen with continuous albuterol still gasping for air.
   One of the doctors goes on to tell me that he hears no air circulating in his right lung and there is fluid in his left lung.....they are going to try using the bipap machine with the oxygen and albuterol. If there is no results with that then there will be talk of intubating him.  Needless to say that scared the crap  out of me. I just watched as the doctors called a bipap machine up stat.

right after they added the Bi-pap

  They stood by to make sure there was going to be an improvement......thankfully there was. For those of you who dont know what the Bi-paps benefit is to a kid in Rylans condition.....it pressurizes the airway and forces the lungs to open.  after about an hour on it he was finally content enough to try and sleep....

 Now the start of lots of antibiotics and bloodwork....Rylan has been poked to many times and we are barely on day 2. So I try to make sure he is clean (spongebaths are great) and comfortable.....I want to him rest as much as possible

Not to mention his need for a good deep suctioning

Thats all the info we have now.....stay tuned.