ICU Day 1

It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get to Winston from Wilkes. I don't think it took quite that long this time. When we got to Baptist, Buddy was already in his room. They have decided to put him into an isolation room. Also, everyone must wear a mask when going into his room. Ok, that seems kinda silly to me. I have had close, personal contact with this child for the last 10 hours. We even shared a drink! But, the ICU docs have decided to test him for the Swine flu, so every precaution has to be taken. All of the tests that have already been preformed are being done again. Echo, EKG, chest xrays, blood cultures, blood gases, and probably a few that I didnt catch. Definitely has pnuemonia. His left lung is completely full of it. His heart is looking enlarged and not pumping exactly right. His white blood count is 36,000. They are now saying there is infection in his blood. That means *many* bags of antibotics and fluid have been out into this child today. His oxygen levels have remained dangerously low all day. Blood pressure is still really low. Buddy is also severly dehydrated. Of course, pushing the iv fluids some more. Dr. L thinks it is best to put a central line into Buddy's neck. Ok, so he is reading the paperwork to us, telling us the dangers, and we have to sign the consent form. Dr. L hands the form to Buddy to sign! He is only 17! I take the form and let this doc in on the surprising tidbit of info. Oh ok, I guess you should sign it then. An hour and a half later, the nurse comes into the waiting room to get us. She calls our last name out and someone stranger answers. What? It seems there are 2 families up here right now with the last name Love. Wow, how weird is that. So, we head in to see him. He is not a happy camper. Things seem to be getting worse. Blood pressure is dropping more and having a really hard time breathing. His oxygen has been bumped up and now a face mask has replaced the nasal canula. The next step is intubation. We are trying to stay from that.