In case you are wondering where we are – Frank and I are camped out with Caleb in a hospital room this weekend. Caleb has Respiratory Syncytial Virus, RSV for short since I haven’t even figured out how to pronounce it yet. For most of us this would be just a common cold but for the little guys like Caleb who are under six months of age, it can be quite serious.
Caleb had been sick with a runny nose and a cough since Wednesday. Many thanks to his day care provider who on Friday called us at work and said she thought we ought to take him to the doctor. With a temperature of 99.6, a runny nose and a cough, we would have dismissed it as a cold until much later on Friday when it got much worse.
After a very long wait in the urgent care waiting room (over 90 minutes during which our six year old was very, very good), we finally got in to see a doctor. They immediately determined that his oxygen saturation was not sufficient (85% instead of at the 92+% they would have liked to have seen), his temperature was 101.6 and he was starting to have problems breathing. You could hear him struggling to breath. His heart rate was also over 200bmp – part of the trying to get enough oxygen to his body. They immediately did chest xrays to eliminate pneumonia. (The xrays were very cute – his whole torso fits on one xray. You could also see his teeth even though none of come out yet!) They sent us over to hospital and by 9pm we were checked into this room where we’ve spent the last few days. They’ve been treating him with oxygen and nose suctioning. (Not his favorite but he must realize it’s helping because he’s gotten better about them.) The earliest we can hope to take him home is Monday morning.