Scary Night

I woke up to Alondra wheezing last night. I picked her up and immediately began patting her back. Last time we were in the doctors had told us that sometimes junk can get stuck in her lungs and the patting will help loosen it. As soon as Deanna turned on the light I thought something more serious was up. Alondra's face showed how hard she was working to catch her breath. There were tears in her eyes, but no cries. She couldn't cry because she was working so hard to breath. Immediately Deanna called 911 and within minutes the police arrived closely followed by the ambulance. I was still patting her back and she was struggling a bit less as the paramedics walked in. Deanna and I were getting worried that we had cried wolf.

The first thing the medic did was attach one of those oxygen level monitors to Alondra's finger. A second later, just as the machine registered a number, the medic took Alondra from my arms and said who's coming, let's go. Deanna rushed out the front door and into the ambulance.

At Mercy Hospital they did everything right we were told by the staff at Children's. They quickly intubated her and when her heart rate dropped below 40 beats per minute applied chest compressions. That only lasted about 30 seconds as Alondra rebounded quickly. The staff at Mercy was already consulting with the staff at Childrens and the decision was made to transfer her right away.

Since Alondra arrived at Childrens things have been pretty uneventful. She's resting peacefully on a ventilator and stable. We've learned that children with Down Syndrome are more likely to have small or obstructed wind pipes. This afternoon Alondra is scheduled for some tests to help identify the problem and figure out next steps. We're told that these sorts of problems are most often correctable with surgery. And our many friends in the PICU (the ones we got to know when Luke was there) have assured us this is far less serious than Luke's heart problem.

Michelle was there to greet Deanna when she and Alondra arrived. And Jocelyn is taking care of Alondra this morning. We spoke with the ENT specialist this morning and after going through the more serious issues, I asked about the aborted ear tube procedure. He asked some more questions and checked Alondra's ears. Then he indicated that as long as he was going to have her in the operating room for this afternoon's test, he would see what he could do about that. So Jocelyn's joke of the day is that this is all a ploy by Alondra to get those tubes. She's tired of not being able to hear and didn't want to wait for next week's appointment.