Jan 29, 2008: Kyler comes down with RSV

Well i thought i would give you all an update on Kyler. We are still up at Primary Children's in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit), and for those of you who don't know Kyler was life flighted here sunday with RSV. I wouldn't say he is getting better yet, but as of right now he isn't getting worse and that is good. Yesterday he had kind of an active day, He was throwing a lot of fits and would hold his breath and they wouldn't be able to get any air to him, so they would have to manually pump air in, they did this probably 20 times throughout the day and he was breathing really fast to. really scary to watch his vitals dropping but we were getting used to him doing it, at first they thought he had mucus plugs blocking his airways but it might have just been him. anyways, I had to leave last night cuz they didn't have a sleep room for me. so at 4 in the morning they called and said they were changing him to a different ventilater, but not to worry. then at 8:00 they called and said they were putting an IV into the large vein that directly enters into the heart called a PICC line that is used on patients that will have an IV in for 6 days or more. So I was a little worked up by time i got to the hospital and it was really hard to see him this morning, and i was scared to death. the doctor explained more to me and it calmed me a little. His blood pressure went up last night and he wasn't doing well on the normal ventilater so they switched him to this one that essentially keeps his lungs open the whole time instead of going up and down and it pumps in 600 breaths per minute,and does 100% of his breathing for him. They tried quite a few times to get his feeding tube in and couldn't get it all the way to his large intestine where they wanted it so he still wasn't getting any nutrients. But he has done better the rest of today. Justin and his dad gave him a father's blessing today and his vitals have been good and they put the feeding tube in his stomache and are just feeding him small amounts so he can tolerate it without throwing up. So hopefully now he can regain some strength and in a few days they will put him back on the other ventilater that allows him to do a portion of the breathing on his own. So i am feeling a little better tonight than this morning, but we have a long way to go. If you do want to visit that is ok, just no kids and no sick people. I think we may be here for a while longer though. Thanks for your prayers and phone calls, we appreciate the support and we love you all.

love, julianne