A trip to the ER

On Tuesday morning, Colby woke up crying and very agitated. We could not get him comfortable. I have not seen him like this since he was recovering from his Fontan, and to be honest, it was really scary! Brody had swim practice, so Jason and I thought Colby would calm down in the car on the way to the pool (he has always enjoyed car rides). He did stop crying, but he just didn't look like he felt well at all and his color was horrible. He has been very pink since his Fontan, so seeing him blue/gray again was very unsettling. His breathing was also very labored.

Without even thinking, I took him straight to the pediatrician's office. I wanted someone to check his sats and listen to his lungs and heart. I was concerned that he either had a respiratory illness or something was wrong with his heart. As soon as I told the receptionist that he was a heart patient and was having trouble breathing, a nurse came and took us straight back. His regular pediatrician was out, so she got one of his partners to come in and check Colby out. His sats were in the low 80s. That used to be an acceptable number for him, but since he has had his final repair, his sats really shouldn't be below 90. They started him on some oxygen and his sats only rose to about the upper 80s. He sounded fine, had no signs of illness (fever, runny nose, etc), and was no longer crying. There was absolutely no explanation for his sats to be so low.

So, the pediatrician did the only thing he knew to do and that was to send us to Vanderbilt Children's ER. Unfortunately, he required us to go by ambulance. He wanted to be sure Colby could stay on some oxygen and be monitored for the 30 minute drive.

In the ambulance heading to the hospital...


When we arrived, the nurses and doctors immediately started assessing him. They decided to keep him on some oxygen, draw some blood for labs, take a chest x-ray, and do an EKG...all of the normal tests. Colby was not very enthusiastic about the blood being drawn. He was stuck in a few different places before they finally found a vein that would work. Our poor boy is just so scarred up from all of the blood draws, IVs, etc.

Colby was also not enthusiastic about the oxygen. He has never liked having to wear oxygen, especially the nasal cannula. It was a battle trying to keep it on him!!

After about an hour or two on oxygen, they decided to take it off and see what happened. He was more than happy to get rid of that nasal cannula, and we were more than happy to see his sats hang in the low 90s with no oxygen!! Once that nasal cannula came out, he was a whole new person! He was back to being crazy Colby...singing, making jokes, laughing, and being LOUD!

All of the test results came back about 4 hours later, and we still knew nothing! Everything looked great, which was good news, but also frustrating. We have no idea what caused his sats to drop like that! The attending cardiologist mentioned that several things can cause sats to drop, one of which was dehydration. He didn't think Colby was dehydrated, but we did spend the entire day before outside...the morning at the pool and the afternoon playing outside and watching neighbors shoot fireworks. Another thought was maybe he had some heart rhythm issues, so after leaving the ER, we went up to the cardiology clinic to get a halter monitor. He had to wear the monitor for 24 hours. I have mailed that back to them, so they will review the recorder and see if he experienced any rhythm issues during that 24 hour period. I guess we will wait and see.

Thankfully, Colby has been absolutely fine since then. I am praying that this episode was just a fluke and will not happen again. These scares really take a toll on all of us!!

Brody was a trooper as always!! Jason picked him up from swim practice, and they met us at the ER. Colby was pretty happy to see his big brother! It was a long day, but Brody hung in there and didn't complain. I think he was too excited about getting to skip his nap!!