Coop Update

I suppose I should write an update since we are going on Day 3 in the hospital.

Wednesday morning, Cooper started coughing in his classroom uncontrollably. Our nurse brought him straight to me and through a blur of tears and coughing, we decided he needed to go to the hospital. My friends from work gathered our things and organized my friend Lauren to leave her classroom to drive us to St. Mary's. I called our pediatrician and asked them to let the ER know we were en route so we could skip the line. She told us to pull over and call an ambulance. When the ambulance got there he was still coughing (this is going on 30 minutes straight). His pulsox was 87 so they started some oxygen and a neb on the way.

In the ER, his chest xray looked slightly worse than the one a week prior. They decided his stats were too low and his breathing too labored to release him and admitted him to the picu, although he is considered a step down from needing to be in intensive care.

Wednesday Night, Coop did great. He slept and played and was happy. Thursday, the coughing fits started again. Some were definitely worse than others. They had us all ready to be discharged and then he started a fit like the one that got us here and it was a collective decision we shouldn't go home. Shortly after that, the amazing St. Mary's nurses brought Coop a mini toddler sized cake, complete with a candle as well as a card and present to unwrap. Coop and Rick and one of the Pastors from our church were playing and talking and all of a sudden Cooper stopped breathing. After about 5 seconds he was able to cough but it was the scariest thing I have ever seen.

The fits continued. They did another chest xray and results showed much improvement from the last 2. Dr. Elliott, our lung guy, came to visit. He talked about a bunch of different theories but ultimately decided to do albuterol 3x daily with chest phisotherapy to try and break up the mucus.

Last night at about 1pm, another fit started. Coop's stats dropped to the point they thought his pulsox was bad. They switched it out but his stats were the same. That was when Coop's case switched from the house pediatrician with some communication to Dr. Elliott to the intensivist, Dr. Dylan and Dr. Elliott calling all the shots.

They ordered another Xray, another round of breathing treatment and oxygen via nose. The xray showed no change from the last but his phyiscal exam they heard wheezing in his right lung and is still coarse in both.

He has been able to sleep some since all of that and we are praying the worst is over. We appreciate all the support we are getting from everyone.