Riley

As you all should be aware (thanks to Sharon sending updates to all of you on my mailing list) the boys are back in the hospital.

• Zachary is doing better... still on a respirator, but they are talking about the possibility of him being taken off of it as early as tomorrow! Yeah Zach!
  
• Alex is right in the thick of it... I tear up when I look at him, cause he looks the most sedated and lifeless out of the three of them. He is at the hardest part of his fight against the virus. Hopefully he doesn't get pneumonia like Zach did.

• Riley has had 3 rapid RSV tests done on him... all three of which came back negative so they moved him to the "floor" (meaning the pediatric floor). Where babies go when they are not seriously sick. I had a bad feeling about this, because Riley was showing all the tell tale signs that his brothers showed at the beginning of their sicknesses. Earlier this week they told me that they were going to send Riley home on Wednesday. I told them that they weren't sending him any where unless they tested him again, and this time do the longer test. All along they have been doing the rapid version which has a larger margin for error. It can have a false negative! Well, yesterday I talked to Riley's doctor on the floor and she said that she thinks he doesn't have RSV. She thinks he "just has another virus that can be treated at home," she obviously wasn't very good at listening, so I had to be frank with her. I said, "I will not take him home only to have to turn around in a day and do the whole ER, intibation and Ambulance Transport back to Legacy! I know he has RSV... he is Lethargic, he has spells (oxygen saturation dropping, and heart rate going up too high) His lips turned blue and his face grey when I was feeding him today, and he has a cough and mucus in his nasal passages. You guys have just got to trust my instinct as a mom, I don't care what the test says, he has what his brothers have." She finally took me seriously I guess, cause she ordered the test that is more accurate, and also ran more blood work on him. This morning Rex went over to the hospital for "Rounds" (all the staff that works with the boys meet at their room every morning to discuss the game plan for that day~ they did the same thing at the NICU in Salem). After rounds for Alex and Zach in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) Rex went over to the Pediatric floor to get the over night update on Riley. The test results were back and Riley is POSITIVE for RSV! Here we are saying "I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

I asked Rex to go over to the PICU and talk to doctor Buchottz (one of Alex and Zach's doctors) and tell him that Riley is positive. Rex explained to him that his wife is frustrated because they haven't made a decision on whether or not to send him back to the PICU. Doctor Buhottz said, "Don't worry... now that we know, we will make sure to get him over here asap!" So when Rex and Seth and Madison and I went to the grocery store this afternoon we got a call from the peds floor letting us know that Riley has been moved back to the PICU and is now in room 12. Alex and Zach are in room 7. They can't fit all three in one room.

So I am greatly relieved that all three boys will be treated well.