Through the first night Logan slipped in and out of a "sleep-like" state. His oxygen requirement was a bit scary for me. Although he didn't like the way the tubing felt in his nose it did allow him to breathe easier. 100% on 15 litres for his stay in the PICU. Tuesday morning Logan started to feel very warm. His fever had been up and down but this seemed different. He didn't feel well and within a few hours it was easy to see why. A rash started to cover his body, creeping from the trunk out.
Along with it came swelling and stiff joints. When they did morning rounds I started to learn what I could and pick up on all the tips and clues that they gave out. They still felt we were dealing with a very virulent strain of strep. As his symptoms really started to show them self the Drs. were fairly sure about the strep diagnosis. As he became more and more uncomfortable with the rash (swelling, heat, fever) I tried to get some meds but his respiratory system was so depressed that they couldn't let him have anything. WE opted for cool cloths on his forehead,arms and legs for a bit of relief. His worst issues were his tongue and the inside of his mouth. The strep had affected his taste buds and tongue. The only thing he could take by mouth was sips of water. Thankfully he had IV's going to keep him hydrated.
Logan spent the day between this world and another one. We just played along with him, if you didn't he was very upset. The rash really got bad, not an inch of him was left alone. The swelling got so bad that his little eyes became tiny little slits. It was so hard watching him but he did awesome considering all that he was dealing with. Getting in and out of the bathroom was a huge affair, he had to drag is pole and get all the cords up and out of the way. He completely refused any idea of bedpans.... No food again for the day, that made 4 days for Logan without food. He would try to think of something he would like but then when it came he just couldn't eat it. That night was the worst one, a precious little girl in the room next to us died... talk about reality check.... then an hour later the fire alarms started going off. I had no idea what was happening but when I stuck my head out the nurse told me no worries in the PICU drills didn't mean we all had to run out. It was our second night of no sleep but definitely a long night.
They decided that Logan should have a PICC line. His IV lines weren't looking very good and they felt he would be better off if they had a longer term site. Once again I realized that he was much sicker than we ever dreamed and that home was still a ways off. The cultures finally came back and it was strep and it was a horrible strain. They told us the doubling rate was every 53 minutes.... WOW! He started to require a bit less oxygen and we started seeing a bit better vitals. Finally his oxygen saturation was better and his soaring heat rate left the 160's. He was hovering in the 135-140's it felt so much better even though we were still way too high! His output from the tube was still pretty consistent, by now his output was over 3200 cc's. They started talking about the possibility that we were moving on downstairs.... We were pretty excited to think that Logan was getting better. He kept telling us that he was leaving the hospital Friday at the latest so he could go to the premier of Star Wars. After an ultrasound we were cleared to head to the regular floor. About the same time I noticed that Logan just didn't seem right. He was a bit loopy and he started to feel bad. They checked him out and decided that he was okay. Then on the way to the floor he crashed and passed out. By the time we got into a room the rash was even redder and his heart rate was up again. A whole flurry of Drs and nurses were in and out. His new team couldn't figure out why he was sent down and called in the PICU drs to discuss if he got to stay. They decided that moving him might be worse and allowed us to stay but both sets of docs would follow him for awhile.
continued yet again................
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