RSV {is the devil}

Pin It The day that Levi turned three months old, we found out he had RSV.  At that point, his symptoms weren't bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital.  But two days later, he became lethargic and pale as a ghost so I decided to phone my pediatrician at 4:30 pm to see if they could see him for an oxygen check.  I felt something was definitely off with him.  They said they could fit him in if I came right then.  My older girls were at activities, so I quickly grabbed Kempton and Kinlee and drove straight there.

They tested his oxygen levels right away.  I could tell that they were panicking but they didn't tell me his levels.  All the nurse said was that I needed to go straight to the hospital with him attached to the oxygen tank.  That was scary enough for me to get teary-eyed, not to mention I had found out earlier in the day that my dear Granny had passed away.  Looking back, I feel bad that I let out my emotions in front of my other kids.  I looked at their faces and saw they were scared too, and I made it worse by showing fear.  So I quickly pulled myself together and headed straight to the ER.

Once at the ER, we were surrounded by attentive doctors and nurses, who all showed signs of concern.  I felt helpless.  Levi wouldn't nurse at this point, I had to figure out a way to get my older girls from their activities, Kempton and Kinlee home, and I couldn't get in touch with Cale.  This is the point where my heaven-sent friends stepped in.  I had been texting them earlier (we share our scripture reading each day) and it came up that I was going to the doctor with Levi again.  My friend met me at the hospital and took Kempton and Kinlee with her.  Then my other friend picked up the girls from their activities and took Kempton to scouts, then stayed with all of our kids so that Cale could come to the hospital later on.  She is the one who ended up telling Cale that Levi had been admitted, because he came home to an empty house from work, then went to both churches in search of his family where he saw my friend who informed him.  That was crazy!  His phone had died.

This was a picture I took from home before I took him in to get his oxygen checked:

Here he is before he was admitted, in the ER.

We ended up staying four nights in the hospital, I had no idea it would take him so long to get better.  There is nothing as scary as seeing your child sick.  With RSV it is very common that baby's stop eating, which definitely happened with Levi.  He refused to eat which made him dehydrated, so they had to give him an IV.  Here he is fascinated by this thing in his arm.  

I can see that he lost a lot of weight in this picture.

Sweet sweet sick baby

The silver lining to this health crisis is that it made us stop to appreciate what we have--good friends who step in and serve when we needed help, normally healthy kids, each other (Cale and I), and that comfort can come through prayer and blessings.   

We were all so happy to leave this place!  Even though we were well taken care of.  

I took a picture of all the milk Levi should have been eating.  haha