This will be lengthy I know, but none the less I want this to be documented for me and for her to read someday.
September 3, 2010 we were spending a long weekend in the White Mountains with family to celebrate my parents’ 45th wedding anniversary. In the early morning hours I heard my baby Calissa moaning in her sleep as I get up to check on her everything seemed fine. I thought maybe she was cold since it was a bit chilly at night (even with the heat on in the trailer). I covered her up and crawled back in bed. It wasn’t more than a half hour later that I heard her again so I got her up and put her in bed with us. I could hear a little bit of a wheeze when she was breathing, and could feel a slight fever. When morning came she was still the same, a slight fever and could hear the wheeze. After breakfast a group of the family wanted to go on a ride and of course I wanted to go, but I just wasn’t sure I wanted to leave my baby girl, so I stayed behind. I was sitting right beside her in the trailer and she was getting worse and I didn’t know what to do. Jeff had been gone at least an hour and of course I was scared. I took Calissa over by my parents and wanted my dad to give her a blessing but he said to wait for Jeff. As the minutes ticked by it felt like hours and I was ready to take her to the ER by myself. My sister had offered to drive me as well. Then another sister suggested I try Jace’s nebulizer to help her breathe better. They had their little boy in the ER with similar problems and they treated him with breathing treatments and sent him home. I decided it couldn’t hurt. It didn’t help her at all and as the minutes ticked by her breathing was more and more labored. When Jeff got back all I said is we have to go NOW! My dad and Jeff gave her a blessing and we left for the 45 minute drive to the nearest ER at the same hospital where I was born, White Mountain Regional Medical Center. We made it in about 30 minutes and never saw a cop on the road. We walked in the door and before Jeff had the paperwork filled out there were two nurses there and rushed us back; it was 3:00 p.m. They gave her a shot of steroids and started her on a breathing treatment. She had severe retraction going on in her little body. She was slowly improving and after a couple of hours the Dr. came in and said that we could probably leave in the next couple of hours. Then he found out we were camping and thought it might be a good idea to just keep her overnight and observe her. Within the next hour her breathing began to get worse and we could hear the wheeze. They checked us in the hospital and I sent Jeff back to camp to take care of the other three kids, (in my mind thinking this will all be over in the morning). She had two fabulous nurses and I wish I could remember their names. She wasn’t eating well and they were worried about dehydration so they tried to get an IV in her. They failed time and time again. They tried in her arms, hands and feet, but no luck. They finally gave up. They gave her another treatment and she got settled in her bed and was finally resting. In the middle of the night she woke up and as I was changing her I noticed her breathing getting bad again so I called the nurses and they came in and gave another treatment. I settled her back down and within an hour she was due for another treatment. They treated her and did some tests to see what it may be causing her so much trouble. It was about 5:30 in the morning when the Dr. came in and told me that they couldn’t treat her there anymore and we needed to get her to Phoenix Children’s hospital. Of course I said well we live in Tucson can we take her there and of course he said yes I will call the Dr.’s at University Medical Center and let them know what is happening. It was just after 6:00 a.m. on September 4, 2010 (Calissa’s 9 month birthday), Jeff had said he would call about 8:00 a.m. and check in since where he was at there was no cell phone service. I started to panic because I thought we could be gone by 8:00 and he wouldn’t know what was happening. One of the nurses in the ER the night before lived in the little town of Luna where we were camped and one of the other nurses offered to call her to see if she could go and let Jeff know he needed to call. He remembers that knock on the trailer door that scared him, he thought she had taken a turn for the worse and hadn’t made it through the night, and when he got the news it was a mad dash to get the trailer loaded and get on the road back home. When we left White Mountain Regional Medical Center they had diagnosed her with having RSV, Influenza A and B. Any one of those for a baby can be bad, but all three was terrifying. The Dr. there told me that the Dr.’s at UMC did not believe that she had all three, but the test there showed that she did. When the flight crew showed up to transport us they tried to get an IV in her as well. They tried what is known as an IO IV (a drill is used to go directly to the bone and get the vein there); they tried both legs and still failed. That I could not watch. I was by her side day in and day out through the ordeal but I couldn’t watch that. They flew Calissa and I (some of the staff there was surprised that I was being flown with her, not a usual occurrence) in a helicopter operated by Native Air from Springerville Airport to University Medical Center in Tucson. When we got there she was admitted into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit a bit of a shock to me. We were all checked in by 10:00 a.m. and I sent Jeff a text to let him know. At approximately 2 p.m. (only four hours after arriving) my baby girl coded in my arms. The nurse (Whitney) was just outside watching and saw the look on Calissa’s face as she struggled for air, and was at my side in seconds. She tried to move her neck just right to get air through but Calissa had nothing left. She was blue and stiff and I really thought she was gone and I spoke to her not to leave me. Within seconds I am sure (felt like an hour to me) her bed was surrounded by nurses and as I listened to what was happening, “there’s no pulse, she is still not breathing”, I sank in the chair in corner and cried and then prayed that my baby would be ok, but at the same time I knew that if the Lord was ready for her to come home to him it wouldn’t matter how hard I prayed. They had her stable and breathing on her own within a couple of minutes (once again it felt like forever). Then Whitney told me to come be by her she needed to know I was there. Another great example of the nursing staff at UMC. Whitney told me later that if she had an IV they would have intabated her and if she had coded again they would have taken drastic measures to get an IV, like putting in a central line. They called a couple of nurses from the NICU to come and try to get an IV in her and after 3 failed attempts on the fourth try they got a very temporary one, but they all knew it wouldn’t last long. When Whitney went off her shift at 7:00 p.m. I was sad to see her go to say the least after all she had saved my baby in a calm collected way. The night nurse was Suz and she was great also. She is the one that finally got an IV in her that would hold. Calissa was poked at least 20 times trying to get an IV in, twice in each arm (four) twice in each hand (four more) 4 in each foot (eight more) 2 in her lower legs, the IO version (plus 2) one in her jugular, and the final one in her foot that finally held up, I believe that makes twenty. She was black and blue in all those areas and it was heart breaking to watch them try time and time again and get nothing. Suz used the temporary IV and pushed as much fluid as possible through it and covered her in warm blankets and finally after over 24 hours of being in the hospital Suz got an IV in her that would stay.
Calissa would be doing great and the Dr.’s and nurses would decide to try and space out her breathing treatments and it never failed she would take a turn for the worse and they would be giving her treatments every hour or two. It wasn’t until she was almost ready to be released from the ICU that she was able to go the four hours without the breathing treatments.
Whitney had told me that she couldn’t figure out why she was admitted to the PICU. They say they will take babies anywhere but for her to be in the PICU was not something that was normal at all. However after she had coded they were in no rush to let her out of the PICU. In fact one of the Dr.’s (Heather, I think her name was) told me that she didn’t trust Calissa because every time they thought she was on the mend and doing well she would take a turn for the worse. We had good nurses through the whole ordeal but none quite measured up to Whitney and Suz (that may be obvious since theirs are the only names I can remember). And Dr. Heather was so good about keeping us informed on what they were doing and was planned for Calissa. She also kept tabs on her labs that took days to get back because of the holiday weekend.
September 5th and 6th ; were both days of ups and downs with Calissa and my days started to all run together and on the 7th was the first time she had big improvement and continually got better.
September 7 an update I sent to the family; “Just want you all to know Calissa made good progress today. Decreased meds and is breathing better. She still has a ways to go but is improving.”
September 8 update; “So I know everyone is waiting on results but all we know so far is she was positive for paraflu (a common cause of croup). However the results on RSV and Influenza are still pending. We are officially out of the ICU and may get to go home as early as tomorrow but we aren’t holding our breath on that one but it should be soon.”
September 9 update; “Her only diagnosis was paraflu (croup), she has to go see an Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr and they will use a scope to check things out (like abnormalities) in 2 – 3 weeks. The RSV and Influenza all came back negative. She is doing well and breathing on her own without treatments for over 24 hours. The Dr. wants her to stay one more night for observation just because of the severity of her ordeal.
September 10, 11:35 a.m. “On our way home 3 ½ hours shy of one very long week”.
We are home and have not had any problems since. We are a bit concerned and cautious as I would guess anyone would be. It is frightening to know that a croup virus could do so much damage to our baby girl. “Paraflu….Who Knew”!!
