Up, Up & Away: Sats up, Fever up!

After a good night of oxygen saturations mostly in the 70's, Bobby woke up today having sweated through his bedsheets and with a fever of 101.5 F, in spite of doses of Tylenol every 4 hours. The doctors decided to run more tests, including RSV, flu and respiratory shell vial cultures. He tested negative for RSV (a huge relief and makes us feel like the monthly Synagis shots have paid off). However, we are now holed up in "isolation" until the results of the respiratory shell cultures, which will take several days to come back. What isolation means here at the PICU is that whenever someone enters Bobby's room, they have to don a bright yellow environmentally unfriendly/single use only isolation gown and mask, before entering, then dispose of it upon leaving the room. Needless to say, this can serve as a bit of a disincentive for our already motivationally challenged weekend nurse to come in and check on the Bubs when the alarms on the equipment go off (which they do about 100 times per day). Sigh.

As for the fever itself, it broke on its own in the afternoon. Bobby's been lethargic since yesterday (we'd thought yesterday it was due to the extubation). The doctors want to give Bobby some time to fight the infection on his own, without more drugs. This approach is fine by us, since he's had all sorts of antibiotics pumped into him since 2/19. He's sleeping now, so hopefully he'll be better able to regroup in the morning.

Mama A returns to work tomorrow, and is finally sleeping at home tonight. She went home at 11am, but started feeling the effects of Bobby withdrawal, so she came back for a few hours visit late afternoon. I'm up to bat for hospital duty tonight. Nanny Beth will be here bright and early tomorrow, and depending on how Bobby does overnight and what happens at morning rounds with the doctors, I may or may not work. We've learned to take things one day at a time in Bubsyville.