Sunday, February 3, started like any other day Devin had in the hospital. He was sleeping, getting medicine, getting poked. I took this picture around 4 am or so. He woke up around 4:45 with a coughing fit. I went and sat with him on his bed while he coughed. It seemed worse than his usual coughs. Suddenly, he stopped breathing. It probably only lasted like a second and he caught his breath again pretty quick, but still, it was scary, as he was flailing his arms around. I pushed the nurse call button and and when the nurse came in, I told her what happened. Devin started coughing again and again, stopped breathing. The nurse was right there to give him a little bit of oxygen and called a respiratory therapist. See, they were nervous about sucking anything out because of his swollen neck so she wanted to ask him what he thought. He agreed to try sucking a little out his nose. Before they did it though, the doctor showed up, just to check on things. While she was there, Devin coughed and again, stopped breathing (each time he was able to quickly regain his breath on his own). They all agreed trying to suck some of whatever was obstructing his airways was the best choice. They got quite a bit out through his nose, but could then see it pooling a little in the back of his throat. So they planned to do a quick little suction in his throat. At one point it kind of gagged him and he started coughing again, but it was a really weak cough, and then he stopped breathing again. I helped him lean forward and waited for him to catch his breath. He was flailing his arms but the breath he needed wasn't coming. I saw how scared he was as he lost the energy to move his arms. He paled quickly, his eyes rolled back, and his body fell back to the bed. I was crying and telling him to breathe. I will be forever grateful that the nurse, doctor, and respiratory therapist were all in there with us! They had an oxygen mask all ready for him. You could tell though, that at first, nothing much was getting through, as he was arching his back and still trying to breath. They had to call a Code Blue and that is something you never want to hear, especially relating to your child.
A million doctors and nurses filed into the room, some I had seen before, others I had not. They determined that the best course of action would be to put a breathing tube down his throat. So of course they had to give him medicines to basically paralyze him while they did that. (They put IV #3 into his right foot for that.) But first they stuck a tube down his nose to suction out some stomach acids. They had a hard time getting that tube down, but it finally went. Then it also took them a couple tried to get the breathing tube in. I had finally calmed down as I watched them work. They assured me that he was fine and his heart never stopped beating so that was good news. I finally thought to call Morian (my brain wasn't working right, so sue me!) and let him know what was going on. As soon as I tried to tell him that Devi had stopped breathing and they put in a breathing tube, I started crying again. I could barely get the words out and all Morian heard was that Devin stopped breathing and he didn't know what that meant! I finally got it all out and then called Maren to have her go be with Kenzie so Morian could come up and be with me. So of course, as soon as I tried to tell Maren what was going on, I started crying again!
Once Devin was stable with the breathing tube in right, they wheeled him back down to the PICU. I had a social worker walk with me and helped me stay calm. It was hard to have to sit back and watch. Then I got kicked out a 7 am for shift change and they let me know I could come back in at 8. I sat out in the Parents' Waiting Room and waited for Morian. Morian had called his mom to let her know, and so she and her husband, Jair, also came. I had called my dad to come and give Devin a blessing with Morian and so he and my mom came too. Of course, we all had to wait when they first got there but it gave me time to tell them what happened.
Walking in and seeing Devin like this was the hardest thing I've ever done.
They took Devin down to get a CT scan to see if there were any problems in his brain or anything. All they found was swelling in his throat, so that was good news. When we got back to the PICU, he was given his own room (thank goodness!). He had an echo done on his heart, and while it showed a little bit of fluid around his heart, there wasn't anything too concerning and looked alright. He was also given a catheter because he had some urinary retention going on (can be caused from the morphine). They wanted to give him a feeding tube as well, but because he seemed to be bleeding a little easily (aspirin), they wanted to wait until they could give him some plasma first. And that took a while! I left the hospital around 2 pm to go home and take a nap.
The tube in his nose in this picture is that one I mentioned earlier that is sucking out stomach acid and stuff.
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