Back in the hospital!

Loki was admitted to the hospital today for a serious cough. We still do not know what the cause is. He is spending at least one night there.

He always coughs quite a bit from his reflux, but during the weekend his cough became more severe and different, wetter and more "hacky." On Monday, Mom took him to the pediatrician, who told her that Loki likely contracted something that has been circulating among kids, whose coughs are lasting for weeks.

The situation became generally worse. Mom has been awake half of each night comforting Loki. This morning (Wednesday) she again took him to the pediatrician, who advised that he go directly to the emergency room. So they go and spend nine or ten hours in a private room within the emergency department at Children's Hospital Oakland. He was later officially admitted into an isolation room in the intensive care nursery. This hospital is the place of Loki's second of three NICUs and where he spent Halloween.We don't like it much, but it is conveniently close to our house.

Loki did not respond much to an initial one-hour treatment of albuterol delivered as a gas. But a second one, combined with suctioning out a significant amount of mucous from his nose, significantly reduced his coughing. (Albuterol is a form of adrenaline, and so Loki became very energetic after each session.)

An initial suspicion was whooping cough (or pertussis), which has been very bad here lately. Although Loki recently received a vaccine for this, kids have been known to get it nevertheless. So a blood sample will be cultured for this, and we'll know in a few days.

Loki also had a chest x-ray done, and his basic blood work came back "nearly perfect," making a problem with his kidney unlikely. He will likely have a test for a number of viruses.

Simultaneous with this, on the advice of a doctor, we recently tried reducing Loki's dosage of zantac, one of his two medicines for reflux, This experiment gave negative results: his reflux became more severe. Also, the site of his feeding tube became infected, and Loki was put on antibiotics. To top it off, the doctors today discovered an ear infection. All this things make each other more likely, and more severe.

Because Loki may have something contagious, he got his own room, both in the emergency room and in the intensive care nursery. That's a nice side benefit.

Mom is spending tonight with him. I'll go and relieve her of duty in the morning.