13 Days ago, I had no idea that my baby would be admitted to ICU for four days, be intubated, and spend 9 more days in the hospital. I had no idea that I would leave my house and not return for 12 days. I had no idea that I would fear for my son's life. And I had no idea that a surgeon would look me straight in the eyes and tell me it was a real possibility that Roen might not make it through...
on Sunday, September 30th....
We were at church and Roen had eaten all his fruit snacks. He was still hungry and I had a pack of almonds in my bag. I don't make it a habit of giving my 17 month old nuts, but I figured a couple wouldn't hurt. Roen often stores chewed up food in his cheeks like a squirrel. This was the case with this chewed up almond. Micah ended up taking Roen to the nursery and the next thing I knew, I could hear him coughing and what sounded like choking out in the hall. Apparently, when Micah sat him down, he got upset and sucked in some of the almond.
He coughed pretty bad for several hours after this. We laid him down for his nap after church and when he woke up, he was wheezing pretty bad. We were worried because Roen had never had any breathing problems.
Later that evening we ended up taking him to the ER as advised by his pediatrician's on-call nurse. The ER did a chest x-ray and determined that this was probably a virus in his bronchials or some irritation could have occurred due to his airways being irritated from the 'possible' aspiration. We went home with orders to do breathing treatments and take steroids.
I took him to his pediatrician the next morning to follow-up with him. He too, came to the same conclusion.
We went home and did breathing treatments and started steroids. By Thursday, he was no better and neither the steroids or breathing treatments seemed to helping. I called his doctor and we went to see him again. He did an RSV test (came back negative) and sent us to the hospital to do another chest x-ray. He would call with the x-ray results.
The doctor called me later that afternoon and said it looked like he had a bronchial virus. He said finish the steroids but that if the breathing treatments weren't helping, we could back off those. He said, that really we just had to wait this out and to call if he got any worse.
By Monday, I was getting worried because he was not any better and if anything, he seemed worse. At this point, his coughing had become consistent and he was wheezing and struggling to breathe at all times.
On Tuesday morning, October 9, Roen was not Roen. By 9:00am he could hardly stay awake, was laying around on the floor and let me rock him to sleep. I called his pediatrician because not only did he seem a lot worse, but his nose was running and he was just a limp rag doll- the nurse was supposed to get back to me. As I was rocking him, I noticed that he was running fever (101ish). I called the Doctor's office again because they still had not returned my initial call and told them that now he was running fever. Thankfully, I did! They got us in for a 1:50 appointment. His doctor was out for the day so he saw another pediatrician in the office. Immediately after listening to Roen, the Dr said he would do a breathing treatment to see if he improved at all but most likely they would be sending an ambulance to come get us to take us to Cooks in Ft.Worth.
He was running fever so they gave him Tylenol. The breathing treatment did not work. This doctor felt pretty strongly that he did in fact aspirate the almonds and that was what was causing his breathing difficulties. He was worried about an infection developing if there were food particles in his lungs.
The ambulance came to get us. I rode up front in the ambulance and Micah, Remi and his dad followed us to Cooks in Ft. Worth.
The doctors here were amazing. They did an xray, confirmed that he had aspirated the almond and scheduled an emergency surgery to remove it. Once they got in there, the were able to find a pretty good size chunk of almond that was blocking his left airway. His airway was so irritated that it had swollen shut around the almond. He was essentially moving no air out of this lung and his right lung was doing all the work. He made it through surgery like a champ. However, when they tried to remove his breathing tube, they realized he was not going to be able to breathe without it. They put it back in and sent us to the ICU. His left lung was struggling to breathe at all. They kept him sedated the while he was intubated. After three days, they were able to remove his breathing tube, catheter, feeding tube and artery line. Later that afternoon, we were sent to a normal hospital room.
Unfortunately, we were not out of the woods.
Roen ended up developing a secondary infection (pneumonia) and began running high fevers (103.4 was his highest) that we were not able to keep down. After several days of alternating Motrin and Tylenol, we were able to get his fever under control. In order to go home, we had to be fever free and off oxygen overnight. Getting Roen off his oxygen was quite a feat. It took almost a week to get his left lung working and functioning correctly again. We were finally able to go home on Saturday, October 20.
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Please don't feed your children nuts. I learned the hard way. I realize that children can aspirate anything. Nuts are so dangerous because the oils in them cause severe inflammatory reactions. In fact, Roen's pulmnologist said that most children that aspirate foreign bodies are out of the hospital the next day. Because this was a nut and because it was in his airway for 10 days, Roen's airway connecting to his left lung was inflamed severely causing his left lung to literally shut down. Thus, putting us in the hospital for 12 days.
As Roen was prepped by the anesthesiologist, surgeon and nurses, we had a consultation with the doctor. He explained what the procedure would entail. Though technically, this was not a surgery, it was an emergency situation. As he was going through the risks, he said that there was a very 'real possibility' that as he was removing the almond pieces from his left airway, some of them could flip over to his right airway...if this happened all air would be cut off to his lungs and he wouldn't make it. I asked him him again just to clarify and as he confirmed that there was a chance Roen wouldn't make it, my world fell in. Tears fell down my face and right then and there, I wanted to be in Roen's place. Words cannot possibly explain how a mother feels knowing that this might be her last chance to kiss her baby, that her child's fate is in the hands of another human. I felt sick. I went numb. I went to my Lord in prayer. And honestly, it didn't feel like enough. Nothing was enough. I felt so helpless and so completely out of control. This was the worst moment of my entire life!
I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support you have shown our family through this ordeal. Home has never felt so good. Normal has never been appreciated as it is now and my babies health will never be taken for granted. I know that it is a gift that can quickly be taken away. The Lord answered the many prayers that were sent up for Roen and a simple 'Thank You' will never be enough. But just know that it was the prayers and love of you all that made it possible for me to hold my baby again.
