COOPER'S SICK AND BACK TO WORK

So there we were late Wednesday night early Thursday morning and Cooper had a 102 to 103 temperature and would not eat. Knowing that this was not a good sign I call his pediatrician first thing Thursday morning and set an appointment for 11am. When we arrived I almost expected them to say "no big deal, he is fine and you are over-reacting". Unfortunately they did not. The first thing they did was check his oxygen saturation level. Remember this is the level that is currently in the 80's and when drops to the 70's it will be time for his next surgery. Well it was 72. I cried. They ran tests from every fluid they could pull from his body. Three hours later it was determined he had a cold. I was very relieved only to find out that yes it is good it is only a cold, but for Cooper, a cold is a big deal. We were given a list of things to watch for and most importantly we had to get him eating again. They wanted to see him again Friday morning.....yes Friday......my first day back at work and I had to take an hour or so off to go to the doctor. Of course I didn't questions this because Cooper has to come first, but boy did I feel bad. As my pediatrician has told me on several occasions, "until Cooper's next surgery this is how things are going to be, everything will be a big deal." So Thursday as long as his fever stayed down he would eat. Friday morning we went back and the saturation level was in the 60's. After consulting with our cardiologist they assured me this was acceptable b/c of the cold. He still had a fever but he was not getting worse. My pediatrician, who by the way is fabulous, gave me exact steps to follow should something change over the weekend. The biggiest thing is that if we have to take Cooper to the hospital, we have to take him to Children's Mercy instead of our local hospital. Therefore, I was to contact the cardiologist on call at Children's Mercy. Things seemed to be going well. He was eating really well and the fever was staying down as long as I gave him Tylenol ever 6 to 8 hours. Then at 11pm on Saturday I changed a diaper that had blood in it! Hear we go again. I got on the phone to Children's Mercy and the doctor on call felt that it was nothing to worry about due to the amount and color. He felt that he probably just had a small tear or irritation in his rectum. Unless it gets worse, I will be calling our local pediatrition in the morning to find out what they think. So other than that, Cooper is great! Heart wise he is doing fine. He is smiling and getting cuter every day. The really crazy thing is Raelynn is starting to have identical symptoms as Cooper. Friday morning she woke up and said she that she had a fever and maybe even her heart hurts. Of course I am very sympathetic and check out her symptoms as well but draw the line at giving her Cooper's meds :)

Now back to my first day back at work....it felt great! Because I know Tom and Jill both read the blog I won't say much about the chaos I found. Only kidding!!! Everything was great and they were sweet enough to welcome me back with cupcakes and a card. It felt really good to be back. I was even to work on time! The kids did well at Lisa's also. Raelynn loves it there and never wants to leave but did tell me she missed me :). At the end of the day I realized I had been up for 19 hours but really wasn't as tired as I thought I would be. Now we'll see what a whole week of that schedule feels like this week :)