A trip to the ER

We returned to LPCH a little sooner than expected. Max was discharged from the NICU yesterday around 2:30PM. He seemed a little tired and congested but those things were somewhat expected after being intubated and sedated for his heart cath 24 hours prior. We brought him back to the hotel where he progressively got fussier. Brad and I thought he was just constipated because he seemed uncomfortable and after 5PM refused to take a bottle. I went to CVS around 8PM to grab some tylenol and prune juice. By the time I got back to the hotel Max just didn't seem to be himself. He was very fussy and we couldn't calm him. I noticed he was breathing really heavy but I initially thought it was just from crying so hard. Then Max started having serious chest retractions, began bobbing his head, and every couple of breaths was gasping for air. We knew this was not normal and made the decision to take him to the ER.

Stanford ER is a very crazy place. There are metal detectors, security, and police everywhere. I barely gave the front desk Max's name when a nurse took one look at Max and alerted the pediatric staff that there was a baby not breathing well. I'm sure their sense of alarm was heightened because Max was already on a constant flow of oxygen and was still having trouble breathing. Within minutes a whole team of doctors and nurses were in his room. They turned up his oxygen to 4 L/min (he is normally at 0.5L/min) and started talking about reintubating him. The Respiratory therapist started suctioning his mouth and nose but didn't clear much. He then took a closer look way up his nasal passageway and saw impacted boogers. He began suctioning very aggressively for several minutes with lots of saline. The amount of stuff that came out of Max's nose was very impressive. As soon as the RT was done suctioning, Max opened his eyes and looked at us an smiled. His breathing quickly returned to normal and within minutes he was back to our normal baby. After an x-ray, some blood work, and a few attempts at an IV, Max was transferred back up to the NICU for observation.

Max was discharged again today and is finally back to our normal baby. He is eating normally, breathing normally, and sleeping normally. The doctors think because Max had been on the portable oxygen machine without humidification for so long (because we have been traveling) that it dried everything up. The dried boogers literally occluded his nasal airway which quickly became a big problem because babies breathe through their nose. We still can't believe that the whole scary experience was from boogers but he was in serious respiratory distress. Now we just need to love on Max and keep him healthy until the big day on Thursday!