Draykes Home...Again

Ohh, how much one little guy can scare his parents is amazing! Drayke got to take his first Helicopter ride on Sunday, March 29th. We went to put him to bed and had noticed that he seemed a little chilly. We checked his temperature andit was a cool 96.5. We callthe the ER and they instructed us to wrap him up in two blankets with a complete outfit on (socks, onsie, hat, outfit) and leave him alone for 30 min then take his temp again. Well we did this and his temp 45 minutes later was 95.9. We knew something was not right. I took him to the ER around midnight on the 29th. When we got there his temp had fallen again. They put him under teh warmer adn started runing tests. By 1am, I got the devistating news that he was going to be flown to St Josephs Childrens Hospital in Marshfield. My heart sank and I called Twig (he had to stay home with Brock) When Twig arrived, we found out that he was Hypothermic and there was not much time to spare, they did not know what was causing this body temp to fall but he would have to undergo numerous tests to find out. They did a spinal tap, x-rays, bloodwork and god only knows what else. When the helicopter arrived, that is when it all sank in and I really got scaredand went off the deep end. It was the worst feeling in the entire world to see your baby being hooked up to monitors and tubes in orfices and being handles by others. He had to have a tube down hisnose to help with the pressure of flying and earmuffs on for noise and vital monitors. He was whisked off into the helicopter and we were left wondering what was happening to our little boy for the long 2 hour drive to Marshfield. Once we arrived, Drayke was already in his isolette and the neonatologist was checking him out. She asked us a million questions but was very knowledgable and very comforting. I did get to hold him to feed when we arrived, that was much needed to calm my nerves. He spent 4 days in the NICU. All the tests slowly came back all with negative results. It was deemed a viral infection which caused all of this and his immune system was immature. He was treated with the most aggressive bacterial and viral antibiotics that he could be. They do this becuase most of the bacterial cultures take 72 hours to grow and if there was a bad bacterial infection, he would not have 72 hours to wait without risking death or brain damage. He was poked so many times and had numerous IV's in his head (he kept pulling them out!!!) But when he pulled the 2nd IV line out of his head, they had to surgically put an IV line into his ambilical cord so that he could receive his Anti's and his meds. He is sucha strong little guy! It is wonderful to be home with BOTH of our boys to start our normal lives again, We thank all of you for yout thoughts and prayers, they are greatly appreciated!!

All the pictures are from the NICU at St Joe's Childrens Hospital