another 3D2N stay in hospital

Sitting high up (well...high for her) with her favourite chew toy, a syringe. #kaelynaday, a photo by ka1w3n on Flickr.

This is Kaelyn, sitting up in the hospital bed. Yes she was in KKH for another stay over the last week (26th to 28th Feb 2013) :(

We noticed she had fever going on and off for a few days. We thought maybe it was her teeth cutting out. We just gave her dosage of paracetamol. But it didn't really clear her fever. 5th day, we decided to go to her PD. She noticed that her airway sound uneven. This signals a high chance of collapsed lung probably in her weaker right lung.

This kind of case, we don't have much choice but to go to KKH. Hospital stays kind of which freaks me and my wife out because of the ICU episode of her this admission



We went through the A&E registration and straight into the triage. She had her x-ray done, which confirmed the collapsed right lung. Immediately, oxygen was pumped in for Kaelyn. Her Bipap settings were pushed up slightly to open up her lungs. Once ready, she was pushed up to the High Dependency (HD) ward.

Up in the ward, they determined she needed IV antibiotics, so an IV plug was set for her. Her veins were kind of difficult to find because of her low muscle tone. But thankfully, the doctor managed to get it in 1 try although he sounded not very confident. Kaelyn didn't have to suffer additional pokes.

Anyway 24 hours later, her fever cleared. Oxygen was weaned off. Her respiratory doctor determine she looked really fine to cut down her bipap setting back to home settings. In fact she looked much better than at home, where she was cranky due to the fever.

My helper even dared to sit Kaelyn up that high in the picture, which she has not done for quite a while since Kaelyn has issues managing her secretions. My helper cited unlimited oxygen and available nurse and doctors around, so she dared to sit Kaelyn up.

We left on the late afternoon of the 3rd day.

This episode made me feel bad. It may or may not be, but I feel that we slacked off at home. We could have squeeze in additional chest physio once more each day. It could prevent such episode of her right lung collapse. But thankfully it wasn't serious this time. We can go home well and work harder to manage her better in our daily routine.