Viral Pneumonia

This picture sums up our week. This is the only position that keeps Ben from coughing. Poor Benny has been sick for the last 7 days. He's been fighting the cold that everyone else has had in this home. We spent last Sunday night in the ER because he was running a really high fever and was coughing constantly. Because his chest x-ray came back okay, I decided to take him home. Yesterday he started to get worse again. His oxygen saturation was running low. He's normally 98-100%. He's been running 88-92% and his left lung was not moving much air. I took him in again today and both lungs show 'infiltration'. It looks more viral than bacterial so we are not treating him with antibiotics. I had an interesting experience while I was there. Sometimes as a mother of a sick child, it's nice to be heard. Sometimes it's nice when the doctor's just make the decision for you, because it's their job afterall. Today I had both the ER doctor and the PICU doctor coming to ME to make the decision on what to do for Ben. "Do we treat him with meds, or do we not treat him. Should we admit him for some c-pap to keep his lungs open, or do we send him home hoping he'll pull through?" These are some of the questions I was asking THEM! They bounced them back to me. In the end I decided that I would take him home hoping that he would fight through it. (I had Kaleb's basketball game to coach later that day and I really wanted to be there.) The nice thing, is that the PICU doctor told me that I can always head up there if things get worse. It's nice to be trusted, but I also left the ER feeling like I should be the one holding the MD after my name since I was the one that made the decision. :) (let's hope it was the right one)