What a week!!! Gabriel was admitted to the hospital on Saturday afternoon because he was having several "Acute Life Threatening Episodes" (ALTE'S). Essentially, he would quite breathing and his heart rate and oxygen levels would dip very low. On Sunday he had several severe "episodes" and he was transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and put on oxygen. Many tests were conducted to try and determine the cause of the ALTE's. Corbin and I were terrified.
One of the tests was a 24 hour EEG which ruled out seizures. As you can see from the picture, 21 electrodes were glued to his head and hooked up to a computer in order to monitor his brain function and activity. It made for quite a ponytail!!! We are relieved that the EEG results were normal.
The doctors don't have clear answer as to what was causing his symptoms, but they believe it was most likely due to severe acid reflux. The acid would travel from his belly to his esophagus causing it to spasm and close shut which would then stop his breathing. He was put on Prilosec which seems to be helping.
We are relieved that he hasn't had an episode now for 24 hours, and he has been moved out of the intensive care unit! If we can go another 24 hours without an episode we may be on our way home! We feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who offered up their prayers. My parents were so gracious to take care of Cael and Avery. My mom even got all our laundry done - that was a big task!Corbin's parents are coming tomorrow to watch the Cael and Avery - they are loving all the grandparent attention :)
This experience has been a wake up call to me that I really need to enjoy every moment of every day. Our life on this earth is short, and God has poured out so many blessing that we need remember to take nothing for granted. The PICU was on the same floor as the Pediatric Cancer Unit...please say prayers for all those families. I will keep you posted if things change!
This is the day the Lord has made. Be glad and rejoice in it.
- Missy
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