One step forward, half step back

Atty has officially moved to an open crib, which is a big step in the right direction. But now he's having a hard time maintaining his oxygen saturation, which means he's not breathing as well as he has before.

It's not lung problems, more that he's forgetting to breathe or just breathing shallowly. He's supposed to stay at a saturation between 85 and 95 percent. If he drops into the 70s or lower it's a desaturation, and if his heart rate drops it's an "A & B," meaning apnea and brachycardia. (For more info on these terms/conditions, click here.) They rate As &Bs by how long they last and quickly he rebounds. If he corrects it himself, it's a 0. If he needs some help (change of position, stimulation, etc.) and it doesn't last very long, it's a 1. And so forth.

Yesterday he was desaturating all over the place. He'd be up at 97, then drop down into the 50s, then bounce right back up into the 80s. His heart rate never dropped, so it wasn't too much of a concern, but certainly something to watch.

Then last night he wasn't as alert as he had been the previous couple nights, and he didn't take his bottle as well. He'd suck suck suck, then spit most of it out the sides of his mouth. I'm sure he swallowed some of it, but a lot ended up on the burp cloth. We tried several things to help him out, but he just wasn't as interested. So we gave up and fed him the rest through the tube. Funny note: he burped through the tube and blew bubbles in his formula. It scared me at first because I couldn't figure out what that noise was, but then I saw the bubbles and had to laugh.

Then he kept desaturating and had a level 1 A&B. And that was about all I could take. I knew it wasn't an uncommon thing, and I knew they'd warned us that moving him to an open crib might throw him for a while, so I tried not to be too concerned. But a higher occurrence of As & Bs was one of the signs he was getting sick last time, so I couldn't help but worry.

I just talked to his nurse this morning (the really experienced nurse who knows Atty well), and she said that he hasn't had any other signs of getting sick, but she's going to watch his saturation like a hawk. He'd just had another small A&B right before I called. She thought it might be because he was pooping, and that the previous ones were because his nose was congested (they suctioned a lot of gunk out last night and this morning).

So it could be nothing, but it could also be something. I was going to lament my fate, but then I realized that even when he comes home and is just like every other child, it's always going to be the same. Children get sick, and parents worry about them. Most of the time it's nothing too serious. That's just how life goes.