Our first and hopefully last setback

Last time I updated things were going in the right direction.  Reagan was getting tubes and wires out, getting close to getting the breathing tube out, etc.  Well, Saturday morning things changed.  Last Thurs. or Fri. night Reagan spiked a temp and they sent blood, urine and respiratory cultures at that time.  Sat. morning her respiratory culture came back positive for H flu (haemophilus influenzae), a type of pneumonia.  Steroids and a new antibiotic was started to treat the H flu bug.  All day Sat. as the day went on her breathing became more labored and by nightime she was super wheezy.  Rod and I ended up staying at the hospital Sat. night until around 1:00am because she was worrying us with her difficulty breathing.  Finally, the head attending, Dr. Roth, came in, accessed Reagan, made his recommendations for course of action and reassured Rod and I that she's not the worst she could be and that we should get some sleep.  He said she was having really bad asthma probably due to the H flu.  She's always had asthma that flares up here and there but with this new bug on board it was just worse.  They started her on round the clock albuterol to help open up her airways in addition to her breathing treatments every 8 hours.  They added a new diuretic because she was more puffy and retaining more fluids and upped her ventilator settings significantly.  Her breaths in were fine but in trying to exhale she simply could not release all the CO2 because of her airways being so tight from the asthma. By this morning, her breathing looks so much better. She is still on the high vent settings and has pretty much just hung there all day to give her lungs a break.  Hopefully, tomorrow we can start coming back down on her vent settings and moving more in the right direction again.  This, of course, put a damper on our weekend as Rod and Nolan leave Monday morning to go home. Rod was not able to hold her as we had hoped but we are just so thankful the measures they took last night have helped her breathing to become more comfortable. The new antibiotic started for the H flu bug is a 14 day course per i.v. so I know we will be here at least another 2 weeks. Hopefully, this will be our last stepping stone and we can get home after dealing with this. 

As a distraction from all the drama at the hospital, Rod, Nolan, Lonny and Kyle (Lisa Shirley's son- our friends that live here in the Bay Area) drove up to Mt. Tam for a day of hiking on Friday.  They enjoyed driving across the Golden Gate Bridge on their way and seeing all the beautiful scenery at Mt. Tam. Here are some pics from their big day of hiking:

Nolan with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (quite a foggy morning)

Kyle, Lonny & Nolan

Nolan & Rod

Nolan & Kyle climbing a ladder on the trail

They took the 4-5 mile trail so needless to say, they all slept well that night.

Then, on Sat. morning Kyle had a t-ball game and invited Nolan to join him so Nolan played in his first t-ball game.  Afterwards, he went back to Kyle's house for lunch and a playdate for the afternoon.  I was able to  go to the game that morning and watch.  It was a nice distraction for all of Reagan's issues going on. 

Kyle & Nolan outfielding

The boys waiting to bat

Thanks Kyle for a fun weekend together!

Also, we want to thank the Ceniceros family for the gifts you sent out with Rod.  Dylan & Alexis's pictures they colored for Reagan have been hanging on her wall ever since surgery. 

Also, a huge thanks to the Domiccio & Paino family for the California Pizza Kitchen gift cards.  We have already used one and will definitely be using the other very soon.