Friday, January 9, 2009

Update on Kyle

On Wednesday Kyle was admitted to the hospital. Last week Tuesday Benjamin came down with the flu. Then on Friday Kyle came down with it. On Monday we went to the doctor to get both of them checked out and the doctor seemed more worried about Benjamin since he had the flu for so long and now had an ear infection. But both of us were quite worried about Kyle since I thought he was dehydrated. He had only had one wet diaper a day both Sunday & Monday. The doctor informed us that yes Kyle was a bit dehydrated but that as long as he had a wet mouth, it was fine.

Wednesday morning I was quite worried since all Kyle wanted to do was sleep and even when he wasn’t sleeping seemed really dazed. He also had absolutely no strength and could barely hold up his head. Alice came over in the afternoon and when she arrived, she told me to bring him to the clinic because she thought that he should be seen again. So she took care of Benjamin while I went to the clinic, as I didn’t want to expose Benjamin to anything. While driving to the clinic Kyle threw up all over himself so when I got there I asked if there was a place to change him. After changing him I asked the receptionist for a bucket or something just in case he threw up again. She saw how limp he was and took me to a back room and said that she’d get the doctor to see him right away since she thought I might have to go to the ER. The doctor looked at Kyle and said I had better go straight to the ER or he’d call an ambulance as the state of his dehydration was “life-threatening”. Although it was very serious, we found out later that the doctor went overboard in scaring me to go straight to the ER, making me think he was dying.

When we got to Chilliwack hospital, the triage nurse already knew about Kyle & had a bed waiting for him. They immediately inserted an IV, took blood out of the arm and gave him a few boluses by syringe. As his bloodwork was abnormal they thought it might be something other than the flu. They took and x-ray and it showed that he was very plugged up as he hadn’t had a normal bowel movement in a while. But he was not able to have a laxative because they did not know exactly what was wrong. At one point appendicitis was mentioned but fortunately it was not that.

We were told that we might be able to go home for the night and then come back in the morning and reassess but then he had an unexplained fever so we were not allowed to go home. As there were no beds at ARH the closest place that had beds was RCH and the doctor asked if we wanted to be sent there. Since it was 12am already and the doctor didn’t think we’d get there until 3am he decided to keep us in Chilliwack until morning and then do some more tests and see if there was room in ARH.

After almost 24 hours in the Chilliwack ER, we were finally transferred to ARH. We found out that it is a bad stomach bug that affected him quite severely and made him dehydrated and quite constipated. It is unclear how long Kyle will have to stay in the hospital but for sure until he’s drinking and eating. He is still on IV and has had a bit of food but has been unable to keep it down. Kyle still refuses to drink but hopefully that will change. They turned the rate of the IV down hoping that this will motivate him to drink. His bloodwork today came back better than yesterday and his x-ray showed that he is no longer plugged up.

Last night he was standing up in his crib getting his IV machine to beep and getting the nurses to come and then laughing when they did come. But then today he was back to being lethargic. And then tonight he was standing up again. Both times he stood up, he had Tylenol so I think it might be something to do with that. So hopefully they give him Tylenol more often so he’ll have some energy to also eat.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. Please continue to pray that Kyle will start drinking and may come home soon. Also pray for Benjamin as he has a cold now and needs more oxygen as well as ventolin every 4 hours. I am hoping he will not need to go to the hospital and that he can get over the cold on his own.

2 comments:

Martin and Wieska said...

We're praying and thinking of you guys often. Thank you for the update.

Anonymous said...

Hi Greta & Gary, I'm Karen Dykstra's sister (live just down the road from you!). I've been reading your blog, and am praying for you and your boys. I hope that Kyle is feeling much better soon, so you can take him home.