Pneumonia again

Sometimes I wish I had some medical training under my belt. I never aspired to a career in a medical field; education is definitely my niche (if I had to pick something else maybe I'd pick travel agent). Sometimes when I've been caring for my mom (like when she had a 102 degree fever on Sunday) or my kids, I've wished I was a nurse or a doctor. I certainly have more medical knowledge now than I did 15 years ago after going through various infertility treatments (giving myself hundreds of shots for one thing), having three babies spend time in the NICU, Ian's eosinophilic esophagitis, both boys' urological surgeries, etc. Anyhow Oliver came down sick on Monday with my in-laws (bless their hearts I was not intending to give them three sick children to care for in my absence!), but today he really took a turn for the worse. He was sleeping almost the whole day (as seen in these pics), not eating anything, throwing up, high fever, etc. He registered a fever of 103.6 at the doctor's office, and the pediatrician said he has pneumonia. His respiration rate was very high, and his saturation level fluxuated between 92-93 (earlier at home it had been at 95%). He gave me a Rx for an antibiotic and told me to push fluids (or foods like jello and applesauce that contain a lot of water) and keep checking him with the pulse oximeter at home (we have certainly gotten our money out of that thing!).

The doctor said he is on call this evening and can see Oliver at the hospital tonight if he's admitted. He said if his saturation level drops below 92 (when awake) we are to call him. It did register lower than that shortly after we got home, but we gave it some time and it came back up. I was thankful that Paul was able to come home in time to take Nadia and Ian to ice skating lessons while I took Oliver to the doctor and CVS. After they got home, I went to the grocery store and bought jello, apple juice, applesauce, etc. in the hopes of enticing Oliver to consume more fluids.

Oliver had pneumonia last May (over Memorial Day weekend), and he was border line that time over needing to be hospitalized and put on oxygen, but he did avoid a hospitalization that time, and I am hoping the same will be true this time, although I will certainly take him there if it's needed. Please pray he responds quickly to the antibiotics and that it will be very clear to me whether or not I need to take him to the ER. I have asked Paul to take Nadia and Ian to homeschool gym class tomorrow morning, and I will pick them up at the end; this way Oliver can stay home during most of the class, although usually he loves playing in the play land during their class. The doctor was assuming it's a bacterial infection, but just in case it's viral, I don't want to spread any of his germs with the other kids in the play land! In other medical news, I am very happy to report that my mom (after a 2 week delay) was able to have her second chemo treatment today (yay!) and it went very smoothly (PTL!). Please be praying that she will have as few side effects as possible in the coming days and can also stay out of the hospital.

The realtor called today for the first time in almost 2 months to set up a showing for tomorrow. When the people said they were ONLY able to come at 2:00 tomorrow, I said we'd have to pass because that's Oliver's nap time. I figured they can't really be that interested in the house if they are being that inflexible. I said he naps from 1-3, and they could come any other time during the day aside from 1-3. I told the realtor he was sick, and I really wasn't going to have him skip his nap when he was sick. She was fine with my turning it down. I've never turned a showing down before. After I found out Oliver had pneumonia, I knew I made the right call. We aren't in a rush to sell the house anyhow.

Although the kids were sick, Nadia and Ian did enjoy sledding at Grandma and Pop Pop's house on Monday. Since they live on a mountain, they have a MUCH bigger hill in their back yard than we do. Here is a video of Ian sledding down their hill.