Twice Blessed

One of the goals we had while we were at the IMCU is for Noah to be well enough for him to be transferred to a regular room. It seems that a trip home was not in our cards yet and so with Jo, one of our IMCU nurses we planned for two goals:

1) For Noah’s oxygen stats to go up to 98
2) For Noah to be transferred to a regular room in time for his birthday

Nakakatatakot talaga. Noah’s breathing was really labored and he was miserable. He was always crying and pulling off his cannula. He also pulled off his Nasogastric Tube which is a looong tube that was put in his nose down to his tummy. He wasn’t up for oral feeds yet – his respiratory rate was so high that he was at the risk of aspirating if he drinks milk. It all turned around when a new set of 2nd generation medicines were given to him. His mouth and nose were also suctioned at regular intervals to ensure that his airways were not blocked. His CPAP machine pumped precious oxygen into his lungs so that he could breathe again. Jo, the IMCU nurse on duty made sure that Noah’s oxystats were increasing. She even requested for a new machine just to be sure of the accuracy.

His 2D echo also showed he had Myocarditis, a slight infection of the heart. He had fluid buildup in the walls of his heart which was caused by the infection in his lungs. The pedia cardiologist however was not worried too much. Noah’s heart was still strong and did not show any other problems. She prescribed Noah with a low dose diuretic to flush out the excess fluid.

Friday night up to Saturday showed that Noah’s oxygen levels have stabilized. His oximiter has registered 97-98 with a low of 93. This was such a huge turnaround from the last few days when the oximeter would reflect his levels to be at the 70s. Noah has also started waking and sitting up, although he was still dazed. He had glassy eyes and he wasn’t responding nor smiling. Noah wasn’t fully back yet and just seeing him with an empty stare made our hearts hurt more. We wanted our baby back 🙁

And he did come back, slowly but surely he fought through again.

Slowly but surely, Noah’s stats showed that he was ready to be moved to a regular room.  “Regular Room” – those two words meant so much to us for it meant that Noah was finally on the mend. His health is the best birthday gift ever and we celebrated it in room 302.

I ordered a simple cake from TazzyCakes again and bought balloons at the hospital gift shop. My mom, dad, my youngest brother, David, his yaya and our parents driver all came and celebrated Noah’s 2nd birthday. David came with a mask. He wanted to play with Noah but we told him he couldn’t yet.

We heard a knock on the door and in came the Pediatric Unit, in full force. They sang the birthday song to Noah, gave him a balloon, a box of fruits and a thoughtful poster.

Cat of TazzyCakes made another yummy cake. The filling this time was banana chocolate chip 🙂

We got discharged last Wednesday. Noah was diagnosed with Brochopneumonia, Myocarditis and Acute Respiratory Failure.  He was given Tergecef for his oral antibiotics. Noah lost a lot of weight but what matters most is that we got him home. We got him back and most importantly he was smiling again.

Noah’s 2nd birthday is such a strong reminder of how such a brave fighter this little boy is. It was also a reminder of how blessed he truly is. He received so many prayers, good wishes and of course lots of loving and expert care from the kind nurses and doctors at the hospital. We had lots of angels on our side who guided him back to health.

And I THANK YOU! Saying thank you to so many kind souls is an opportunity for me, on behalf of my family to count so many as part of our blessing. We are battle-weary but certainly not bowed and we are humbled by the outpouring of love for our little boy.

As for me, I’ve had enough “excitement” for the rest of the year. It certainly is good to be back here at the office, typing away this post in between breaks. Boring is so underrated, don’t you think?