In the hospital

I missed the last 3 days of the 31 for 21 Down syndrome Awareness.......

.....but, I have a good excuse.  Poor little Madi is in the hospital.

Starting on Thursday last week, Madi started acting very fussy and had a low grade fever.  She was chomping on stuff pretty hard so we thought she was probably teething.  You can feel a couple of tooth buds that are just waiting to sprout up out of those gums.

Saturday, the fussiness started to become a little more severe......not like she was teething.  But, she didn't have any other symptoms.  Until that night.....

Saturday was a very restless night.  She was congested, coughing and just moaning.

Sunday morning, her fever was a little more than low grade.....101.4.  After her morning nap, she woke up with a 104.4 fever.  For Madi, this is pretty severe.  She generally runs a little on the cooler side, around 97, so 104 is HOT!  We called her pediatrician and he suggested that we head to the ER, thinking that she might have pneumonia.  Well, sure enough, after a chest xray, she has pneumonia.  They gave us some antibiotics and sent us on our way.

Well, when they say, "Trust your mama instinct"........they mean it!  Trust your mama instinct!  I just felt like we shouldn't have left the hospital but I felt like we were kind of rushed out of there.  Madi is normally on oxygen at night but it is a very low amount.........1/32 of a liter.  They had us increase her oxygen at the hospital to 1/8 and told us to have it on her full time.  When we got home that afternoon, Madi was exhausted and she took a 3 1/2 hr nap.  When she woke up, she was on "fire" and very gray.  We have a pulse oximeter at home.....it said she was at 82%.  82%?!?!  And that was with oxygen on! I tried to give her Tylenol for her fever but she just vomited it all up and then continued to gag. 

We again called her pediatrician and he said to go back to the hospital.  So, we went and were admitted for the night.  This was on Sunday night.........and, unforutnatley, we are still here.  And we will be for at least another night. 

She is having difficulty getting her oxygen saturation levels steady.  She seems to do pretty good at night but then the daytime is worse.  Which is kind of surprising, because usually when you are sick, it is worse at night.

Before they discharge her, they would like her to be off oxygen during her awake times.  We know that she will probably need to have an increased level during sleep but she needs to be off while she is awake.  She had such a great night last night.  We were able to wean her oxygen through the night down to a level of 1/8 of a liter.  And then this morning, she seemed really good!  She was smiling and seemed more herself.  That was until we tried to take off her oxygen.  Her o2 levels pretty quickly deteriorated and then just hung around 85%.  They want it to be at least 90%. 

So, she is back on oxygen full time.  I think we might try again later tonight to see what happens.  I am not sure. 

Thank god I have my mom and dad close by.  They have been a HUGE help with Taylor! 

So, I hope this explains my lack of posting over the last several days.  Please say some prayers for Madi.....I hope we don't have to spend too many more days here!