Timmy has been congested again, and, with the weekend coming, Thursday is a good day to make an appointment to see the doctor. Timmy's normal doctor wasn't available, so the appointment was made with another doctor in the practice at the Westfield office. A little longer to travel, but at least the doctor met Timmy 2 weeks ago, so he was already acclimated to the weird things about Timmy. O2 sats, heart beat, etc.
The doctor heard gunk in the lungs, and was concerned that his color wasn't as good as 2 weeks ago, so he wanted x-rays of the chest, and a few blood tests done to determine if Timmy's heart failure level had gone up, or if it was just a viral infection in the lungs. Since he needed a nebulizer treatment, and Jen needed to eat, they came home from the doctor, gave Timmy a breathing treatment, and ate before heading to the hospital for the tests.
X-rays went fine, but the blood work had a few hiccups. First, Timmy twitched toward the end, which pulled out the needle. They thought they had enough blood for the tests, so they sent it up. Hospital policy requires for rush tests on little guys like Timmy, that they wait to make sure they have enough of a sample before sending the patient home, so Jen sat with Timmy until the nurse heard back from the technician that they had enough blood. The nurse sent them home. 10-15 minutes later, the technician calls me to let me know that they didn't have enough blood, and Timmy needed to return (once he got back home, had another breathing treatment and got some food) to have the heart failure test done.
With both of us low on rest, and Jen spending several hours on the road today between home, Westfield and Jamestown, another trip to town for her and Timmy didn't sound like very much fun. When I talked to a supervisor at the lab, though, they wouldn't agree to send a nurse out to get the blood sample they needed. ;) Meanwhile, we were burning through oxygen tanks left and right, the feeding schedule was thrown off, so Timmy wasn't getting all the nutrition he needs, and time, gas, energy and patience were all being burned at rates too high to continue at for long. But, Jen thought she could make the 3rd trip to have the blood work done again.
We were just getting used to the new reality (Jen on the road again - almost non stop from 10 in the morning until 6 or 7 tonight, in time to grab dinner before I needed to head back to town to pick up a child from work), when the doctor called. Due to the mess up at the lab, he thought he could do without knowing the level of heart failure and just call in an antibiotic for Timmy. The blood work can be completed tomorrow, if desired.
Since that call, we have called the oxygen supply company, and they will replace Timmy's empty tanks tomorrow (instead of the usual Wednesday). The pharmacy will have the medication available tonight so we can get Timmy started on it tonight and hopefully see some improvement tomorrow. Timmy doesn't have to head back into town tonight, so he is resting. And Jen is able to 'relax' by not driving back to town. (I could do the driving, but Jen feels better being with Timmy, so other kids would have to come with us, and a couple of the young ones have coughs, so she preferred driving Timmy to appointments over the alternatives)
And we are hoping and praying he gets better rest tonight, and the antibiotics kick in to help him start feeling better. While he is a medically fragile child, in some respects, he is built like a tank. The doctor today was surprised that after a 2 month hospital stay 2 years ago, Timmy has not been readmitted to the hospital since, not for surgeries, not for treatment. Even in the little storm squalls, we are thankful for so many of those little, and not so little, things.
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