SickKids Admission

Tyson has been admitted to SickKids with influenza and pneumonia. He got quite sick over the weekend and Sunday night his oxygen levels tanked. We brought him to our local emerg where they took such good care of him, but unfortunately they weren't comfortable with his oxygen requirements so he was transferred to SickKids. It's been about 13 years since he's been admitted here and 10 years since his last hospital stay at Headwaters. 
We got settled into a room on 7C at about 6:30pm Monday night.  Ty's first night went ok. His brothers were able to pop in for a visit while he was still in emerg because they were in the area for the Leafs' game. It brought back a lot of memories for them to be back at this hospital again too.  

It took a bit to get settled in for the night because a lot of different medical people come in and out during the first few hours of a hospital admission. Once settled, Tyson slept fairly well from 12 am to 8am. The nurse came in every hour to check his IV site and do her charting, which she types up on a computer in our room. I heard her come in every hour except the 6am one so that was fun ;) Thankfully Ty seemed to sleep through most of the interruptions, with the exception of both of us being awake for a while between 4 and 5 after they did his vitals.

He is currently on heated high flow oxygen, which is heated and humidified so his nose doesn't dry out. I don't know how many liters or what percent he was on when we arrived yesterday, but by last night he was at 65% on 35 litres and this evening he's at 45% on 35 litres.  They're trying to wean him off the high flow mask and switch to low flow nasal prongs. That'll be much nicer for him to be able to talk, eat and drink, and sleep much more comfortably.

He was on IV antibiotics yesterday to treat the pneumonia but SickKids is fairly confident it's a viral pneumonia from the influenza virus so they took him off both of those and continue with the antiviral medication, which is an oral pill twice a day. He's also on IV fluids to rehydrate because his output isn't great yet, due to not eating or drinking as much as normal. This is coming though, he is drinking well again and he ate a full dinner tonight so they're hoping to take the IV out tomorrow provided nothing unforeseen happens. 

Since he's not able to leave the room, Child Life brought him an Xbox so he's able to do something other than watch tv. It's not Xbox live so he can't play with his friends, but it still put a smile on his face. 

The one tiny glimmer of positivity that comes from this hospital stay is that he is exempt from writing his final exams. Today was supposed to be a study day, with an exam Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Monday. But given the fact that we don't know when we will come home, and he's way too sick right now to even think, the doctor wrote an exemption for all of them. Even if we were to make it home in a couple of days, he is not in a good mental state to study for exams. It was a good time for him to be exempt because he has 4 tough courses this semester.  If you ask him though, he says he would WAY rather be home and healthy and studying for exams than be laying in bed sick for days. He is unable to change positions because his face is attached to tubes attached to machines, and removing the mask for even a couple of minutes to eat overexerts him and leaves him breathless, fighting to regain his breath. It's been a long time since something so simple like eating could overexert him. At this point it feels like home is still so far away because of his oxygen requirements. But I also know that a lot can change in 24 hours. We are praying he can wean off oxygen soon so he can make it home for the weekend. (It's also Addisyn's birthday on Saturday so it would be nice to be home to celebrate with her!) 

And me, I have discovered that the couch bed is harder on my 46 year old body than it was in my early 30s  But other than a stiff neck and back, I am actually doing quite well. It was a bit of a shock to hear he was being transferred to SickKids because it's been so long and he's been doing SO good, but I do know that this is what's best for him. It's different this time too because he's older and aware of everything so I have no choice but to be strong for him. He had a tough day yesterday accepting his life as part of God's plan but he seems to be more at peace today. It's also different because I want to respect his privacy and not air things out here that he wouldn't want others to know. So I will ask for your prayers for him, that he continue to be the courageous warrior he's always been, for him to have peace with God's plan for his life, and of course for healing so we can come home soon.