WHERE TO BEGIN?!?!

Were you thinking, after hearing Colby's left lung collapsed, wow I sure hope Colby's stay in the hospital is gets better from this point. Well, think again! I mean it's better now, but was awful overnight. I'm pretty sure the last 12 hours in this hospital have taken 10 years off my life. Here's why.

First of all, I didn't like our respiratory therapist last night. But let's be honest, right now I don't like anybody. Except Colby and my mama. I'm so over this hospital stay. First of all, this respiratory therapist hasn't had Colby as a patient before. Not good. Someone who knows Colby and knows if his treatment is going well should be doing his treatments overnight. And that someone would be me. I gave her a chance. His treatment was due at 8PM. At 8:05 she wasn't in Colby's room, so I started his treatment. I let her step in, and she fucked up a couple of things that I feel are very important so I was like, that's it. You gots to go. I did Colby's 12AM and 4AM treatments. I was nice about it. I just said I felt helpless and wanted to do something to help Colby, so I would prefer to do the treatments. That's a true statement also. Actually I can't complain, she's the only person assigned to Colby I haven't cared for this hospital stay. Seriously though, she could have fallen from Heaven, assigned by God himself to give Colby his treatment, and I still wasn't going to like the way she did it. Can't help it, I'm in Mama Bear mode!

As the night progressed, weird things started to happen with Colby. I noticed his heart rate was low. Very low. As in, hey kid, what's up with you low. Colby slept through both treatments, which he never does, and his heart rate dropped into the 50's. If we are home and Colby is in a deep sleep, his HR should be low 70's/high 60's. I thought that was very odd. Then his body temperature started to drop. Low. Very low. Normal temperature is 37.0 Celsius. Colby's was 35.4. Also very odd. And scary. We turned the heat up in our room and wrapped Colby in warm blankets trying to get his temperature back up. Then his blood pressure was low. Very low. This is the exact opposite as normal. Usually when Colby is in the hospital, his BP is high, due to what I assume is agitation/anxiety, along with being sick. Colby's blood pressure dropped to 87/51. They even took it manually to double check. Colby's respiratory treatments were odd, too. He wasn't coughing up anything. Nothing. There were no secretions out his nose, mouth or trach. And if you read this blog at all, you know Colby is a "slobber box" and we are constantly suctioning him, especially when he's sick. I'm just going to lay it on the line here folks, I thought Colby was going to die. As a parent, what would you start to think if your child's vital signs were slowing down? The good thing was he was maintaining his oxygen. That part was perfect. Mom and I discussed some things with the nurse. After the 87/51 BP reading, we got the docs on the phone. And then chaos ensued from there.

Around 6AM this morning, I noticed some commotion in the hallway. People were walking around at a faster pace, and it seemed more people were in the hall for that time of the morning. I was thinking oh wow, what's all the scuttlebutt? We were the scuttlebutt! The whole Medical Response Team and several people from the TCC came in and we started discussing options. Do we do the bronchoscopy on Colby? Do we transfer him to the PICU? What is causing all this mess? The doctors weren't in much of a panic, I guess because Colby's oxygen was so steady. On the insides I was shaking uncontrollably. I was terrified of what was going on with Colby. I don't wish the thoughts and feelings I was having on anybody, ever. On the outside I was keeping it together, trying to sort out all the information the doctors were throwing at me. It was agreed that Colby would stay in the TCC for now. We ordered a chest x-ray, which showed much improvement over yesterday's. They ordered every lab known to man to check for further infection. How in the world can this kid still have infection?! He's been on 5 different antibiotics in the last 2 weeks, geez!

And just like that, in typical Colby fashion, no rhyme or reason, he started to improve. His 8AM treatment was more typical. His last blood pressure reading was 117/79. His heart rate is in the 80's to 90's. Last time they took his temperature, 37.1 Celsius. Urinalysis, normal. Blood gas, normal. Blood count, normal. The bronchoscopy has been put on hold and we can feed him as usual. Unreal. Unbelievable. But I swear this is exactly what happened. The child who had me terrified for his life is now jabbering away watching Frozen like, hey Mom, what's up? I don't know whether to cry, laugh or scream.

Colby's doctors have been very patient and have spent a great deal of time talking to Mom and me about the events that occurred overnight. And the answer is...we really have no answer. They said sometimes when you bump vent pressures up as much as we did yesterday to open up Colby's lung, it sort of sends a message to the brain saying, hey, we don't have to work as hard to keep up with this body. Which might explain the slowing in some of Colby's systems. His attending said look, if Colby continues to improve, his labs come back ok, and if we never find out the answer as to why this happened, then so be it. As long as he gets better. We may never have a definite answer. My explanation is you know Colby, he does things Colby's way.   

I know this is a very long blog update, and I apologize. Just wanted to let everyone know what was going on. Plus blogging/writing seems to calm me down a bit, helps me collect the 1,742,865 thoughts running marathons through my brain. Colby is currently doing great! If you walked in his room right now, you'd never know all the shit that went on overnight. Colby, Colby, COLBY!! You big stinker! I'm going to try and get in a nap today and will blog later tonight. Hopefully reporting Colby has continued improvement. Thank you everyone who continues to stay in touch and pray for us. Right now it's much needed and much appreciated.