Sunday, June 16, 2013

Life Flight

Addi woke me up at 9:30 today and needed her pacifier put back in.  I peeked in at Jordyn and my heart sunk.  She was very pale and lethargic.  I immediately picked her up to make sure she was breathing.  She barely opened her eyes and I could hear very shallow breaths.  I called my mom downstairs and then called Bert home from church.  He turned up Jordyn's oxygen from an 1/8 of a liter to a 1/2 which improved her coloring quite a bit.  We decided she needed to go to the hospital so we packed her up and I called Keri, one of our NICU nurses, to ask if we should take her to Pediatrics or go straight to the ER.  She sent us to the ER and offered to come down and help put in an IV if the ER nurse had a hard time with it.  We got checked in and she got hooked up to a monitor that said what her saturation level was and it seemed fine.  The nurse couldn't find a vein so I called Keri and she came down to try.  She had a hard time drawing blood and only got a small sample out that they sent to the lab to check the CO2 in her blood.  A normal level for an infant is between 30 and 50.  Jordyn's level was 90.  That means she isn't releasing enough CO2 with each breath and is retaining too much of it.  The ER doctor wanted her admitted right away but the Pediatric doctor didn't feel comfortable admitting a baby that needed a vent.  There is only one doctor who would and it was Dr. Cheatum and he was out of town.  So they decided we needed to be life-flighted up to Primary Children's.  Keri tried to contact the doctors in the NICU to see if she could be admitted to the Pediatric unit at Utah Valley and just be seen by them, but everyone felt like the best place for her was Primary Children's.  They intubated her and then loaded her on the helicopter.  I rode in the helicopter with her and Bert drove the car up. 


After she was all settled in they determined that she has a virus called Parainfluenza.  They said it can cause croup in toddlers so we know it is definitely what Rylee had and we have been passing around the family.  The doctor made sure to tell us how impossible it would have been to keep it from Jordyn and to not beat ourselves up about it.   We don't know how long she will be here and are hoping and praying its not too long.  We just got her home from the NICU 2 weeks ago and I miss having her home so much.  Every time I pass her oxygen tank or crib I start to cry and I had a really hard time tonight when I realized I only had one baby to put to sleep.

All settled in at the PICU.

3 comments:

Rosalynn said...

Oh wow, how scary! Hope she gets well and can go home soon!!

Emily said...

I've been thinking about you so much and have wondered how things are going. I'm so sorry things are so hard right now. We'll definitely keep Jordyn and the rest of you in our prayers. You're such a great mom!

Chad said...

Hey Holly, It's Sara Grant from the nicu. I hope you don't mind that I've been reading your blog, Shalene gave us the link months ago when Marley and Brody were put into the nicu.

Anyways... my heart just sank reading this post. I'm am so sorry to hear about Jordyn and was just hit with a wave of emotion reading this. You guys have been through so much and I can't even imagine being faced with one more trial like that. How is she doing now? Is she still in the hospital?

We finally were able to bring our babes home last Friday. I'm so glad to be home but I have to admit, I kind of miss the nurses and monitors keeping track of how they are doing. I'm nervous every time I put them down for a nap and leave the room.

Take care of yourself.