Cullen's First Hospital Stay

Some of you have probably heard by now that Cullen and I have been in the hospital this past week. He and Jack both came down with pneumonia this week, but Cullen's was affecting his breathing and oxygen levels in his blood, so he had to be admitted to the hospital for 4 days and 3 nights. Thankfully, both boys are recovering now and are feeling much better! This post is very long, but for those of you who want to know exactly what happened and how we ended up in the hospital, here's the story:

It all started last weekend, right before the big blizzard started. On Friday morning, I noticed that Cullen had a fever of 103. I wasn't too alarmed since the boys often get high temperatures for a day or two when they're teething. He also had had a small cough for a couple of weeks that he couldn't seem to shake but he'd been to the doctor at the end of January and it wasn't anything serious. I noticed that it had gotten slightly worse and that he also had a runny nose so I thought he was probably coming down with a cold. But kids seem to constantly have runny noses during the winter so I wasn't sure about any of this. I called the doctor and checked to see if any of the symptoms sounded bad enough that he should come in but they said to just give him some Tylenol for the fever, keep an eye on him and call back if anything got worse.

Well, Saturday came and brought the blizzard with it. On Saturday morning, we took the boys out into the snow for about 10 minutes but, like I mentioned in my last post, they didn't seem like themselves. By Saturday afternoon, I noticed that some of Cullen's symptoms were getting worse, especially his cough and he had started making small moans throughout the night. Jack seemed to be getting sick as well. But there was 2 1/2 feet of snow outside and it was a Saturday so there was nothing we could do.

On Sunday morning, both boys took a turn for the worse. Cullen was now wheezing while breathing, he seemed miserable, he was ultra clingy and cried if I put him down for even a second, his fever was back, and he was coughing constantly. My pediatrician followed up with me that afternoon and when I told her about the wheezing and the grunts/groans he was constantly making, she told me that we should go to the ER and have him looked at. We decided to bring Jack too and have him looked at just in case. So, Brandon went downstairs to dig the car out of the snow. 4 hours later (I'm not exaggerating one bit, it literally took him 4 hours to get the car out to the street), he came back up with numb hands and feet, changed his clothes and we left for the ER. I have never, ever driven in snow like that and I hope to never do it again. Even after being plowed, there was still over a foot of snow on all the major roads and freeways. It was so bad that we actually considered walking the 3 miles to the hospital but decided that wasn't a good idea with two sick kids. While he had been digging the car out, an ambulance had gotten stuck in our parking lot so even that wasn't really an option!

We got to the ER around 6:30 at night, they took us right back, we hardly had to wait at all. They put the boys into the cutest little baby hospital gown and then did all sorts of tests on the boys but they both tested negative for RSV, the flu and H1N1. They also took some chest x-rays and that's where they discovered that Cullen had pneumonia. They diagnosed Jack with bronchiolitis which is a viral infection but not quite as serious as pneumonia. They gave both the boys a nebulizer breathing treatment and some antibiotics for Cullen and 3 hours later, we went home.

We followed up with our pediatrician on Monday morning. At first she told us to come in in 2 days, but once she heard Jack coughing in the background she said come in as soon as possible. Brandon went downstairs and spent another hour digging and pushing the car out of another icy parking spot. At one point, I had to leave the boys in their cribs and go help him. It was so bad that I was on hold with the doctor's office telling them there was no way we could get there because our car was stuck when Brandon somehow miraculously got it moving again. So we went upstairs, grabbed both boys and braved the roads again to get to the pediatrician's office.

Once we got there, they listened to their labored breathing and checked their heart rates and oxygen saturation levels in their blood. Cullen's was quite low, in the high 70's. A normal and safe oxygen level would be around 95-100%. They gave him another nebulizer treatment but his levels still didn't improve. At that point, both of our doctors left the room for a few minutes. I thought they were going to send us home with a nebulizer or something, I guess I didn't realize how serious pneumonia is in children. I was a little confused and shocked when they came back and said they'd like us to check Cullen in to the hospital. I didn't really understand at first and I didn't know what questions to ask. Our pediatrician also said she thought Jack had a slight case of pneumonia as well but that his oxygen saturation levels weren't alarming so he just needed some antibiotics. They gave us a prescription and sent us next door to the pediatrics ward of the hospital (this was a different hospital than we had been at the night before, this one was the Virginia Hospital Center, where the boys were born at).

They got us straight into a room and went to work right away checking all of his vital signs. They hooked him up to a few monitors stuck onto his chest and one onto his toe that measured his heart rate and oxygen saturation level. It was still hovering around 80% so they told me he needed to be hooked up to oxygen. By this time, it was around 2 pm and the boys hadn't had a nap or lunch yet. Both of them were cranky and tired so Brandon took Jack home and I told him I'd call him later with a list of things to bring for Cullen and I from home. I was still under the impression that we'd only be there one night or maybe even get to leave that evening. Later that afternoon, though, I spoke with the resident pediatrician and she told me that we'd probably be there for a couple of days, so I had Brandon bring some toiletries and clothes for me.

They inserted a nasal cannula into Cullen's nose so they could get oxygen to him. I'm sure you can imagine how well a 13 month old tolerated a tube around his face and up his nose. I had to physically restrain him for the first 12 hours of our hospital stay and even then he still managed to rip it (and the rest of his monitors) off numerous times. The poor baby was so tired and miserable though that he eventually just gave in and spent the next day or so laying on me and sleeping. He completely refused all food and even most liquids for a couple of days too. I had to coax him into drinking anything at all but I kept trying because I didn't want him to have to be hooked up to an IV too. Some friends of ours from church watched Jack so Brandon could bring our things to the hospital (they have a policy of no visitors under the age of 18) and I don't know what we would have done without them! We are so thankful for good friends!


On Monday and Tuesday, Cullen didn't improve much. He had to stay on the oxygen 24 hours a day because as soon as he took it off, his oxygen saturation levels plummeted. A respiratory therapist came every two hours to give him a nebulizer treatment and they also used this little rubber disk to tap him on the back and chest to loosen whatever was in his lungs and help him to breathe better. On Tuesday night, another blizzard came and lasted throughout Wednesday. I watched it from the hospital room and I guess it wouldn't have mattered if they had released Cullen that day because there was no way Brandon could drive in that to come get us. The hospital staff told me they were all staying at the hospital and that they had to use volunteers with 4-wheel drive to even get there.

Cullen slept soooo much, the poor thing was exhausted from trying to fight off his pneumonia for so long. By Wednesday afternoon, he was finally starting to improve. I had hoped we'd get out then, but he still needed the oxygen when he was sleeping. When he was awake, they were able to turn down his oxygen to .5 liter (I know I'm right about the decimals, but I'm not entirely sure about the measurement, I think it was liters?). But when he was sleeping, his oxygen saturation levels dropped and they had to turn it up to 1 liter. On Wednesday afternoon, the resident extended his breathing treatments to every 3 hours which was a good sign and then late Wednesday evening, they extended them to every 4 hours. Cullen drank a full bottle that night and his oxygen saturation level was at nearly 100% all night, with oxygen of course.

On Thursday morning, the nurse came in and said he had done so well throughout the night that she wanted to see if he could keep his levels up without oxygen for a while. So she turned his oxygen off completely. It had to remain above 92% (even while sleeping or resting) in order for us to be discharged. He had gotten alot of his energy back and spent the morning crawling around the hospital bed and playing (this was a HUGE challenge for me to keep him from getting tangled up in his wires and contained in a 3 foot radius). While he was awake, his oxygen saturation levels hovered around 95-96%. Then he took a nap on my chest and I was so worried that they'd drop. I kept listening for the telltale beeps to let me know he had dropped into the danger zone, but they were really infrequent. He stayed right at 92% most of the time. After his nap, I called the nurse and had her page the resident. Our pediatrician also visited us and said that he had improved enough to go home that day. So a couple of hours later, they unhooked him from all the monitors and oxygen lines and Brandon came to pick us up. We were both sooo excited to be going home!

I had developed a terrible sinus infection while in the hospital (ironically, although I was in a hospital I wasn't able to get treated or get any medication for it since I wasn't a patient) so as soon as we got home, Brandon stayed with the boys while they napped so I could go straight to the nearest urgent care clinic to get some antibiotics. And that night, Brandon's parents ordered some pizzas for us so I didn't even have to cook dinner. You never would have guessed that Jack and Cullen were still sick judging by how quickly they devoured an entire piece of pizza each! Thanks Gary and Sari!

Thankfully, both boys have improved immensely over the past few days. Brandon took good care of Jack while I was in the hospital, I was very impressed since it was the first time Brandon had taken care of one of them for more than a few hours. I knew he could do it, of course, but I was surprised that I didn't get any phone calls asking what to feed him or where the extra diaper wipes were. And some friends of ours from church were so kind to watch Jack a couple of times so that Brandon could visit us at the hospital, what a blessing! And the blizzard turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Brandon's classes were canceled Monday-Thursday and he was able to work from home all week and take care of Jack.

On Saturday, my sister flew out and has been helping me get caught up around the house and has been taking care of the boys while I run errands and go grocery shopping. She has been a tremendous help because my house looked like a tornado had blown through it when I got home from the hospital on Thursday and I was too sick and tired to tackle it. But within hours of her arrival, she had the place looking great! And it was a relief to be able to go shopping and run errands without leaving Brandon to watch the boys. He has a ton of stuff to get caught up on between work and school and he's been able to get a lot done this weekend. Plus I love just getting to bake cookies and talk for hours with her :-)

She leaves tonight, but my house is clean and my pantry is restocked and we are all back on our feet, so we should be fine. But we are so grateful to our parents and my sisters for taking such good care of us this past week- even from across the country! It has been a huge help! God watched over us, healed our boys, and he used friends and family to bless us during this difficult time. Praise the Lord for the way he protects and provides!