Spoke too soon

Man, our little family can't get a break. Or at least that is how I feel. 5:30am Wednesday morning we were awaken by a call from the NICU. Around 4am Jack started having some A&B's (Apnea and Bradycardia), and was continuing to have trouble breathing and keeping his heart rate up. They called to let us know that they were starting to run tests and were continuing to assist in his breathing. He wasn't critical, but not stable either. When we got to the hospital they had just finished intubating him and had him stabilized and more comfortable with a morphine/versed combination. And now we wait. It appears that Jack has come down with the same thing as Maggie, though we don't know that for sure.

Going back to when Maggie was sick, which I realize I didn't update a lot about. Maggie presented with the obvious trouble of breathing, in addition to a strange rash, trouble holding her temperature and discomfort when moved. All of the tests the doctors ran came back negative, so we really don't know what made her sick, but the consensus seems to move toward Viral Meningitis. Now Jack's symptoms are pretty much the same. I haven't seen the same rash that Maggie had, but we don't know what stage he is in compared to when Maggie got to the hospital. We're fortunate Jack was still in the hospital, unlike Maggie. Maggie was initially in an isolation room, and we really tried to get them to keep her there until discharge, but the doctors were so confident that Maggie couldn't get anyone else sick and they moved her. Now my little boy is sick. Needless to say, we have a range of emotions here.

Moving to this morning, when we called Jack was still the same. They ran his blood gas at 4am and it was high so they increased his pressure and decreased his 02 level. He hasn't needed any sedation, and has been alert for small periods of time. When we last saw him Wednesday night he was looking around and had focused his eyes on us for a little part of the night. Because he is intubated I can't hold him, but I can touch him and comfort him, which I hope helps. So now we just have to wait and see what the tests show. They are running everything they can, including a lumbar. So far the flu and RSV tests have come back negative, which is good because it rules out airborne.

As for Maggie, she is coming home today. It is crazy to me that Maggie came home, went back to the hospital quite sick and is now coming home again...all before Jack! We've tried to be very positive and we know Jack is going to be OK, he will pull through this just like Maggie and be home before we know it. But it's getting hard. Really hard. It has to get better from this point, right?