Yesterday this face described Ethan's attitude;
And today;
Ethan was quite creative in figuring out just how to get those fingers in his mouth around his IV, board, tape and cotton and he was quite pleased with himself!
Long story short as to how we ended up at The Mercy after such a good run.....
Ethan's allergies have been acting up with this lovely Missouri spring weather-70's one day, then 30's the next- so we weren't surprised he has had a little runny nose and congestion. But Sunday night he was coughing so much and so hard he threw up a few times. We let his tummy rest overnight and opted not to feed him. By Monday morning he looked and sounded terrible, had thrown up at some point in his bed overnight and was purple around his lips.
After a very short deliberation period of ER time, and sats in the 80's requiring 2 liters of oxygen, and a fever of 100.5, the big decision was not whether he was being admitted, it was under whose service??
So, Cardiology came down, gave him the once over and punted him to General Peds with the promise they would be close by if needed.
As the results started coming back; chest x-Ray no different from last one, blood cultures negative, white count normal, blah, blah, blah, the real culprit showed itself; Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 3. Or HPIV3. This virus is not associated with the flu at all, but rather a common virus. It just doesn't put most kids in the hospital. But Ethan's had it before and needed admitted, so no surprise. The Type 3 though, is a new one for him, and can cause bronchitis and pneumonia so he needs to be monitored pretty closely.
And I will admit the Purple Team resident we have is pretty sharp and happy to defer to me for all things Medical/Ethan related.
By Tuesday morning when he had spiked a 103.5 temp and had a gushing bloody nose with a drop in white and red blood count, they decided to make sure it was not his heart and ordered an echo.
I have to admit, I was prepared to hear the worst-that 8 months later his miracle valve was leaking and he was back in congestive heart failure. But the good Lord must have figured I'd had enough, because the news was good. No, not good, amazing. The pretty little miracle valve that has saved our boy's life is still working as perfectly as the day it was put in! Woo-hoo and hallelujah.
His heart rate is consistently dropping, hanging in the 50's most times, and even got down to the 30's last night. That still freaks everyone out, and I would be lying if I said it didn't freak me out too. Not sure what to make of the old/new bradycardia after we had heart rates in the 80's for so long.
But since Cardiology seems less than concerned about it, nobody else is either.
And we all know they are never wrong....if you inferred some tone of sarcasm here, you are completely correct.
I know that as we age, our heart rates slow down, but come on, he's only 10!
How low does it have to get before we get worried he may just brady down so low one night he doesn't wake up?
We don't monitor him at home, so I don't have an alarm to alert me to stimulate him to bring his heart rate back up. And we know it's not his digoxin, they did a dig level to make sure and his EKG appears normal for him.
But, since it appears fruitless to try and convince anyone else that something's just not right, I'm going to just go with it and enjoy having this little bald guy on my lap, trying to chew on his fingers while we rock out to the Taylor Swift CD. For the 50th time today.
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