Fever

Dallin got really sick right before his birthday.  Super big bummer.  He was running a fever and just felt really crappy.  That started last Saturday.   Sunday to Monday I slept with Zoey on top of me since she was so congested.  She also came down with pink eye on Sunday and I took her to the doctor on Monday for it even though I was starting to feel like I was coming down with something.  He said it was viral and super contagious but gave her some antibiotic drops to help.  She HATED them!  I was so worried Dal and I would get pink eye but luckily were spared!

Dallin's fevers continued through the weekend but were intermittent.  Mine started Monday night and Zoey was doing alright except for the pink eye.  Dallin seemed to be getting a bit better except for the random fevers and occassionally feeling pretty crappy.  I kept getting worse and worse and by Wednesday night I was waving the white flag at this cold telling it that it had won and to move on because I couldn't do another day like Wednesday.  Thursday I felt marginally better so I ran some errands which in turn made me feel horrible again so I went to Instacare for relief.  They diagnosed me with pneumonia and started me on antibiotics.  Since Dal and I had the exact same symtoms, I told him he should probably go to Instacare and get some meds too so we could all get feeling better.

He decided to mow both lawns then have my mom listen to his lungs to see if he really needed to go.  My mom couldn't even hear breath sounds in his lungs!  Instacare was closing in 10 min so we raced over there and were seen.  When he sat down his oxygen saturation level was 65%!  They about fell on the floor and told him they needed to get his oxygen up.  They put him in a bed and had no sooner started the oxygen on him when the doc swooped in (very dramatically, by the way) and said he needed to go to the ER via ambulance immediately and that his oxygen levels were at life-threatening levels!  What?  We just need some antibiotics.  We signed our lives away that we would drive there against medical advice and I took him up to Lakeview. 

They took him right back and his saturation was still in the 60s.  Your heart needs oxygen and those levels just were not cutting it.  So glad we caught this before things got a whole lot more serious or dire.  They were bad enough as it was!  They did chest x-rays, breathing treatments, a CT scan (checking for blood clots since his levels were so low), etc.  Everything came back as his lung full of pneumonia.  They were kind of busy that night so Dal had to share an ER room with some guy who kept yelling for the doctor to get him a Sprite.  To make the mood light, every time the guy would moan, "Oh God," Dallin would respond, "Yes?"

Since I wasn't feeling well, Dallin's parents came and sat with him at the ER after a while so I could go home and sleep.  They decided to keep him since his lungs were so bad and started him on heavy IV antibiotics.  So here were are, Monday, and still in the hospital.

His lungs and pneumonia have improved but they felt like his horrible heartburn is contributing to the pneumonia because of aspiration so they've had him NPO since Thursday - which is nothing by mouth.  No food, no water, just some ice chips.  Since Thursday!  He's had his ups and downs but has handled it like a champ.  I'd be BEYOND crazy by now.  They are transferring him down to a specialist at St. Mark's today and they are doing surgery to hopefully rectify the reflux problem once and for all and get him home.

He/We haven't had the greatest experience at Lakeview and had to bust some heads yesterday and finally got a new doctor who isn't a psychopath and it's been much more pleasant.  I'm sure Dallin will be happy to be out of here once and for all!