Ebb & Flow

Once again our ship has run aground. After three days at home, Nick was readmitted to the hospital on Saturday night. To make a long story short the air in Nick's chest, which is called a pneumomediastinum, came back and started causing some symptoms. Nick was breathing a little faster, needing a little more oxygen. and then he started having a lot of pain in his chest, neck and back. In addition, Nick discovered that he had little air bubbles under his skin. This is called "crepitus." When you feel your chest or neck with your fingers, you can feel little bubbles or crackling under the skin, like rice krispies. This crepitus should not be there and is not normal. On Saturday afternoon, when Nick discovered this, I called the doctor who told us Nick would have to come in and be admitted and he wanted Nick to get a chest CT scan. Nick, Kate, and I spent a LONG night at Weinberg waiting for the scan to be done. The moonlighting doctor was very NICE and he assured us he would do everything in his power to get Nick discharged early in the morning. Kate & I stayed with Nick until about 3AM! I felt so bad that Nick had to be in the hospital again and I know Kate did too. It was such an emotional let down for all of us, but, of course, it hit Nick really hard! The most frustrating part was the WAITING for the stupid test! If it was such an urgent situation why did Nick have to wait until 1AM in the morning to get to the CT scan? Then to add insult to injury, we found out that the moonlighting doctor is not allowed to discharge anyone! Nick was told he would have to be seen by the "team" in the morning, then maybe he could go home. OH MY GOD!! I am thinking to myself, uh...that would be the same team that sent him home with this problem in the first place??? ARGH!! We even considered signing out AMA or putting a bunch of pillows in Nick's bed to make it look like he was sleeping and SNEAK OUT the front door.

On Sunday morning, I called Nick and he said they were going to send him home. As I drove to the hospital that morning, I was so happy that I was going to get my boy and bring him home again. Then I got the call from Nick..."Mom, they won't let me come home!" My heart just sank and my Mother's Day balloon of happiness just popped! The attending doctor, Dr. Lugnut, did not feel that Nick was ready to be sent home, so he is now back on 5B hoping the doctors can figure out why this air thing keeps happening. Now that Nick has had a little time to process all this his spirits are better and he has bounced back with his usual positive energy and the easy going Nick is back. I am not sure how long Nick will have to stay in the hospital. I hope he will only have to be there for a few days. I will keep everyone posted. On a positive note, Nick is feeling pretty good despite all the air in all the wrong places and his uncooperative lungs. His appetite has been great, although he has not gained any weight yet! He's working on it though.
Nick remains without fever or obvious signs of infection. He is still the best son in the whole wide world! Being his Mom is a great thing to be! And I will close with a quote that Sara put in Nick's book of inspirational messages...I am not sure where she got the quote, but, here goes:

"Maybe being grateful means recognising what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be human. At the end of the day the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate!