Well this has been a long week, lots of ups and downs.
On Sat night TJ's asthma started to flare.
Monday he started running a fever (he was having leg tremors from the way the temp was rising and falling). Our asthma specialist wouldn't touch him because she hadn't received any report from his visit with the pulmonologist from Children's Hospital (he saw them Feb 16th).
Tuesday morning we called the clinic they got him in at 10am, he had a fever of 100, dr said it was a viral infection and if he wasn't better in a few days to start prednisolone. He offered to do a chest xray, but was okay with waiting. When I got home TJ's temp spiked to 104 (his reg temp is 96.5) the pulmonologist called and said to start pred anyway and if he wasn't better by tomorrow to have chest xray. His fever kept going up and down and his respiration's were over 50 (anything over 40 yellow, 50 red zone).
Wed I took him into the ER. Temp was 101, pulse ox only 95, resp 54. They did a chest xray, and then called my reg dr (kind of wierd) and then told me to go in and see reg dr tomorrow (even wierder). They said he had an ear infection and bronchitis. Put him on Zithromax for 5 days.
Thursday morning, we go into see dr. He said the chest xray was abnormal. I already knew that, it was bronchitis. They said the radiologist saw an inflamed lymph node in his lung (I didn't even know they were in there). He said worse case scenario it was lymphoma, best case pneumonia. They wanted to do a chest ct scan right away.
Friday, TJ had chest ct scan this morning. They didn't sedate him. He had to lay on the table, Jesse held his wrist very gently, I held his other hand and sang to him. The rad tech inserted the needle for the iv contrast into his arm (inside of his elbow). He cried, but didn't fight it. He just laid there and cried. The table went into the machine, I held onto his hand, Jesse had to be in another room. I sang Twinkle, Twinkle to him over and over again. He did so well, just laid there and softly cried.
The dr finally called us at around 3 pm. It isn't lymphoma, it is a lung infection. It is unfortunately causing more atelectasis (collapsing of the bronchial tube restricting air flow). But, it's not cancer!!!! Thank you GOD! TJ already has some atelectasis in his right lobe, the lower part. The pulmonologist said it was something he commonly sees with asthma patients and people fighting infections. He now has more in his middle left lobe. I am hoping once the infection clears the atelectasis will improve. I am not sure what the next step is. The pulmonologist gave Thomas one month for his asthma to improve. If it did not he would start him on Advair (he is currently on Flovent). We are hoping to see some improvements, he has been on the meds for a few days now. It has been a really scary couple of days. I didn't want to scare anyone else with all this, because we were unsure what the end result would be. The news is not great, but like the dr said it's not cancer, and that in and of itself is great news.Say some prayers for TJ. He has been through so much in such a little time.
