Not only do we remain in the hospital, but we were moved to a very familiar place in the Children’s Hospital. We are back in 7C, the pediatric cardiology unit. It was about mid-night last night when the charge nurse over on 8D came and asked me if I would be willing to move to 7C. We were in a room that see needed for a sick kid that I think was in the ER at the time. I really did not want to move in the middle of the night, but Caden was doing great and I remembered what it was like to sit in the ER for 10 hours waiting for a room to become available. I agreed to move. I only asked that we not have to put Caden on telemetry just because we were moving to a cardiac ward. They agreed and we moved to 7C at about 2AM Friday morning. I carried Caden while the nurse rolled his bed. Caden barely woke up during the whole ordeal. He was back to sleep within minutes.
At about 4AM Caden woke up crying. I jumped up to check on him and noticed his heart rate was pretty high. It was about 170 bpm. He runs about 115 when he is sleeping and about 130 when awake. When I reached in to comfort him I could tell he was hot as a firecracker. The nurse assistant checked his temperature under the arm and it was only reading about 102. I ahve a pretty good feel for his temperature and told them I thought he was hotter than that. The went ahead and took it again but did it rectal this time. It was 104.3 rectal. It had been four hours since his last dose of Tylenol with Codeine so they administered another dose. They ordered some blood work to see if there was an infection having to do with the surgery. It took about an hour for the fever to drop back down below the 100.5 threshold that tends to make the doctors nervous. Caden didn’t sleep much more throughout the morning. The residents that came in about 6AM ordered some more blood tests. This required a new poke for Caden since they could not get anymore out of the IV port that was still in from the surgery and had been used a few hours earlier to draw blood.
It was about noon when we were informed that we would need to move back to 8D. The 7C unit was full and they ahd a kid ready to move up from the PCICU. Caden had shown no signs of fever prior to the move to 7C so the cardiologist were not exactly happy with having a kid up here with a fever that was not related to a cardiac issue. We were waiting to hear from Caden’s doctor to see if there was any chance we would get to go home after all. We asked the nurse to hold off the move until we heard from Caden’s ENT doctor. She agreed to do her best to hold off the move as long as possible.
It was early afternoon by the time Caden’s ENT got free to come talk to us. He told us he wanted to keep Caden until we saw a 24 hour period with Caden’s temperature below 100.5. Sherry and I were really ready to get out of the hospital and felt that we could manage a fever at home. While Caden’s ENT understood our frustration and trusted our ability to care for Caden at home, he could not be certain that the fever was unrelated to the surgery that happened less than 48 hours earlier. He reminded us of how dangerous some blood infections could be for cardiac patients and told us he would rather keep Caden here until that was ruled out. While I was not thrilled at staying in the hospital, I agreed not to press the discharge any further. Sherry was more resistant than me about staying, but agreed as well.
The good news is that the cardiologists decided to discharge a different kid on 7C and that freed up a bed for the kiddo who was going to be moving up from the PCICU. That meant we got to stay put in out current location and avoided being moved to our third room in a 24 hour period.
I went home and took about a four hour nap. Sherry’s mom and dad decided to come in from Atlanta after hearing how things went over night. They arrived at about 3pm and took Riley to the park and then went to visit Caden and take Sherry some dinner. I came back to relieve Sherry for the night at about 8PM.
Caden did pretty well throughout the day. He played, laughed, and took the tube feeds just like he normally would at home. His temperature has remained below 100.5. He has had a few spells of cold sweats and there has been an increase in secretions today. We are suctioning Caden completely different as a result of the surgery and we are requiring him to work a little harder to clear the stuff from his throat.
Caden did not go to sleep until almost midnight tonight. I let him join me in watching a little bit of Facing the Giants after Sherry left since he was so wide awake. He lost interest and I finally just paused the movie and turned off all the lights to try and force him to get settled. It took a could of hours, but it finally worked. I finished the movie later using a headset to keep from waking up Caden.
The movie helped to remind me to stop looking at the circumstances. Sherry and I had a talk before she left. We discussed whether this surgery was the right thing to do. We agreed it was the right thing to do and that the questions were more than likely tricks of the devil trying to distract us from seeing what God is doing. Caden has had almost nothing come out of his nose since Wednesday afternoon. That is after two years of seeing almost everything come out his nose. I am not exaggerating either. This kid has poured out nearly 100% of his saliva through his nose in the past 2 1/2 years, even when teething. This tells us that there was a significant change in Caden’s anatomy between the back of his throat and his nasal passage.
Even though we are not excited about being in the hospital, I am sure this situation is not a surprise to God. I think Pastor Greg said something to that affect during his recent sermon on why we must suffer as Christians. I shared a little of this with Caden’s nurse last night before we got moved to 7C. Â She shared with me about the loss of her husband to cancer. I told her that I believed that Christians see so much suffering simply because they are a threat to selfish and cruel ways of this world.
Please continue to lift our little boy up in your prayers. We thank you all for your support.