My Poor Baby - Zak Hospitalized

Last Friday 3/14, I was feeding Zak baby food (Gerber's organic oatmeal/applesauce) and he started to gag, then choke. His face and head started turning red so I immediately flipped him over my leg and started swatting. After what seemed like eternity, he started to gasp, breathe, and finally, cry. I started to hug and console him when he started to choke again. We called 911 and rode in the ambulance to ER (you can never be too safe!) Through x-ray, we found out he aspirated some food into his lungs and could get serious if he got an infection.

Sure enough, on Monday 3/17, Zak was admitted into the hospital after major trauma in the ER unit. Because he was dehydrated, they needed to put an IV in asap. So, me being the wuss, I anxiously sat in the waiting room watching sick kids come in and out while poor Carlos was with Zak getting his IV, spinal tap, bloodwork, x-rays, etc. After an hour and a half passed, Jon (the doctor and an old high school friend of mine) came out quickly to tell me, "Summer, we can't get the IV in. We have to go in the jugular..the neck." I ran in the room and Carlos had tears in his eyes and I nearly broke. Carlos was holding Zak and he was so limp that I nearly passed out from stress. For the last two hours, they could not find a decent vein in baby..he was too chubby and dehydrated. It wasn't their fault; the hospital literally had the whole IV unit (best) trying to get the IV in. Carlos lost count...but they poked him over 30 times! Carlos told me that he told Jon (Dr Marr) to do whatever it takes to get baby better--so he approved the throat IV. Of course, I agreed. My poor baby was so dehydrated that he was crying and had no more tears. Hours later, they had the IV in the neck and finished the spinal tap and other tests. We were being admitted immediately to the hospital.That night, we were lucky to have a friend, Trenton, come and bless Zak. We thought the worse was over and that baby would get fluids and antibiotics. (We found out later that night that Zak had Pneumonia and a bad case of dehydration.) At midnight, the doctor came in to hear Zak having trouble breathing. We were very scared (alarmed!) He looked in Zak's throat and had to suction out tons of thick mucas (from the infection) and was alarmed that his tonsils were so swollen that his throat was barely leaving any passage for air. He immediately called the ICU team from downstairs and they were literally waiting outside our door in case they had to put a tube in Zak's throat. Luckily, Zak responded well to the treatments of the nebulizer. His IV was also doing double duty with steriods and two antibiotic treatments. By 3am, Zak was better and oxygen levels were stabilized. Over the course of the next few days, Zak was getting better physically with two different steroids and two different antibiotics, but still refusing to eat. (By Tuesday night he started to let me nurse him, but he wasn't eating any solids.) On Wednesday, the doctors took more x-rays of his throat, but wanted to get a cat scan. You see, the pneumonia and aspiration of the lungs were being treated, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong with his thoat. It was obvious that something was bothering him and that was why he wasn't eating. However, we were trying to avoid the high radiation of the catscan. Luckily, we heard that the only pediatric ENT specialist on the island (Dr. Tran) was going to squeeze us in her schedule on Thursday. So they postponed the cat scan and she put a scope down baby's nose. We found out that he has laringo malaysia (like Madison did!) and that he had a bad case of laringitis (from his screaming on Monday) and Pharingitis (spelling?? from his pneumonia). Either way, he had enlarged and swollen tonsils and a little abrasion past the voice box -- but nothing more serious! Thank God! After more steroid and antibiotic treatments, we got to go home on Friday with one condition...Zak has to eat baby food. If not, we couldn't go home (he had been refusing food every chance we tried.) So, Friday morning, we explained to Zak that he had to eat! We heated up his favorite..."Chicken Vegetable." Zak ate 3/4 the bottle and we went home at 1pm. I have to say that through the stress of it all, Zak was such a trooper. He is such a cutie pie and would wave and smile at the nurses. One of the nurses called him the superstar of the floor because I would take him on walks (IV and all) and each time we'd pass the nurses, he'd wave. We love him sooo much!!!! Thank you to my family (esp Mom) for all the support and for watching Maddie and Bella! (Aunty Amber, thank you for extending your trip to be with them! Madison wanted to live at Nana's house forever. I'd think something was wrong if Bella thought the same..>!) This week was so incredibly stressful and exhausting. But the only thing that mattered was Zak getting better. He is doing much better and by today (Saturday) he was so happy to be home. He was crawling all over the place!