Health Update

For those who don't know, we ended up going down to CHOP on Monday night around midnight. Drew continued to throw up all day Monday and into the night, and we couldn't get his fever down. He couldn't sleep because his chest was so tight, he just groaned and coughed until I decided it was time to take him down. When we got there, his fever was at 102 and his oxygen level was only at 87 (normal is 99-100). They immediately put him on oxygen and started IV antibiotics to fight whatever was causing the infection. They did a bunch of cultures to see what is causing the problem and it will take a couple of days for that all to come back. In the meantime, he has stopped throwing up and has had a little to eat and drink. He has some toys in his hospital room that he is thrilled to have all to himself. Martin flew in yesterday morning and stayed with him overnight so that I could come home and be with the girls. The doctors said that what most likely happened is that he got a stomach bug and got dehydrated. CF kids are already somewhat dehydrated in their disease, so when you add on dehydration from vomiting, that dehydrates the blood and in turn the mucus in his airways that is already thick and sticky and bacteria laden. He may have had the virus move into his airways where bacteria had a time with it and just started attacking. His inability to breathe is because of an infection in his lungs. This morning his oxygen is still low so he will remain in the hospital until that gets back to a normal level. Hopefully the antibiotics start to kick the problem. He will get a PICC line in the next day or two, and once his oxygen returns to normal we should be able to go "home". Unfortunately the only way for us to get back to Cincinnati would be via ambulance because he needs these IV antibiotics every 8 hours and we can't make that in the car. We will not be taking an ambulance back, but rather staying at my parents for an extra two weeks where we can work with homecare nurses to administer the antibiotics ourselves from here. None of this will happen though until his oxygen levels go back up. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers. We will keep you posted via the blog on what's happening!