It all started Sunday night, January 6. Landon was super fussy that day and having issues eating. Every other feeding he would spit up everything he had just eaten. He was also more sleepy than usual. If he was not fussing he was sleeping and vice versa. He slept for 5 hours Sunday night/early Monday morning which for him was unusual and that is when I became concerned. Rob and I woke up earlier than normal Monday (January 7) morning to try and see if we could figure out Landon's problem. Again he spit up his entire feeding. At this point Landon was not eating any more than 1-2 oz. at a time. We thought his throat was probably hurting him. I was still getting over a bad cold/stomach bug and Rob was getting over the same thing as well and so was Logan. Logan also woke up earlier than usual and at that point I just got a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong that day. Before Rob left for work I threw up. After Rob left for work I got Logan to eat breakfast and I did the dishes while Landon slept. After Logan ate I turned on Elmo and tried to feed Landon again (it was about 9:30 a.m. at this point). Landon ate maybe an ounce and Logan was still a little jealous and he became fussy. I developed a migraine around 10:30 a.m.. I am pretty sure at one point between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. all three of us were on the couch crying. Rob called me around noon saying he was dropping the car off to me to take Landon urgent care. When Rob got home he took one look at Landon and said we were going to the ER. My migraine had caused me to lose vision a little bit so I could not tell how pale Landon was. All I knew was that Landon was having some trouble breathing and not eating.
Rob loaded Landon and Logan up in the car and we called a good friend to see if she could watch Logan and thankfully she was available. Then we took Landon to the ER at our home hospital, King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Kentucky. We arrived about 1 p.m. and was in a room around 1:30 p.m. The nurses and doctor came in and determined he needed an IV to get fluids going and when the nurse started the IV is when everything went completely downhill. Rob was actually gone at this point getting us lunch since neither of us had eaten yet. When the nurse started Landon's IV he began to not breathe and began seizing/having sleep apnea spells. When Rob got back there were 6 nurses and a doctor all around Landon and I was in the corner balling my eyes out. It was about 3 p.m. that the decision was made that Landon needed a hospital with a PICU. There was one 30 minutes from our home hospital at Cabell-Huntington, however it was full. We decided on University of Kentucky Medical Center, Kentucky Children's Hospital in Lexington, KY; an hour and a half away from home.
The medical team also thought it best to intubate and sedate Landon since he was having trouble breathing and they started a round of antibiotics to be on the safe side. Landon was transported by ambulance to University of Kentucky Medical Center. As soon as we knew he was okay and stable for the trip Rob and I left to go get Logan and decompress and figure out who was going to care for Logan while we were in Lexington. Thankfully friends of ours were able to keep Logan until we decided that Rob's parents would come get him and take him to Ohio. By the time we dropped Logan off and went home to pack and finally on the road to Lexington it was 9:15 p.m. We got to Lexington and to the hospital at 11 p.m. We saw Landon and got an update that they began tests and cultures and began more antibiotics and that they were going to let him rest and there was a sleep room (more on those later) available for us to get some rest as well. We crashed about midnight Monday night/early Tuesday morning. due to the stress of not knowing what was going to happen, I did not sleep well. We had to be out of the sleep room by 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. came way too fast. We went to check on Landon for the morning and when we got to his room they were rounding on him and we still did not know much about what his little body was fighting, we had an idea but we were waiting on the cultures to come back which take longer but are more in depth than nose swabs. We went down to the cafeteria and got some breakfast.
As Tuesday, January 8, moved on an outpouring of support came from friends of mine on Facebook and family. We had people pay for us to stay in a hotel that was 3 minutes from the hospital (University Inn) because even though the hospital had sleep rooms we were not guaranteed one because there are only 4 that are split between NICU/PICU parents. And we sort of knew at that point that Landon had RSV and the Ronald McDonald house did not want us staying there since RSV is contagious and they have young children that stay there. We ate lunch at the hospital (lunch is the only meal they provide for the parents). After lunch Rob convinced me to get out and about. It was HARD leaving the hospital. I have Crohns Disease and Rob wanted to make sure I did not get sick because any little stress can cause it to flare up. Let me pause here and say Rob is an amazing and loving husband and did his best to make sure I did not get sick through this.
At about 2:30 p.m. we learned we were okay to go check in to the hotel. So we checked in and took a nap and then we went to get dinner and took it up to Landon's room. We stayed there until about 11 p.m. and then we went to get some shut eye. It was incredibly hard leaving the hospital those first few days but the nurses encouraged us to leave and rest especially while Landon was intubated and still somewhat sedated. All the nurses we met in the PICU were SUPER amazing and sweet so we knew he was in great hands. Plus we believe in a God who is mighty and so we knew Landon was in God's hands.
Here are a few pictures from those first 24-36 hours. I will write more about the first week in another post but this writing about the first has already helped me tremendously.
Landon at our home hospital before all the wires/tubes.
At Kentucky Children's Hospital
The volunteer team gave him a goody from the goody cart.
A piece of my heart!
-Jessica
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