We followed the ambulance on the one hour drive to the nearest children's hospital. It was a surreal drive...Ryan and I didn't talk much as we stayed steadily behind them. I think I just kept reading the name of the hospital on the back of the ambulance over and over and I felt like I couldn't breathe. They took Chase to a room on the 8th floor and we were met by the Doctor and his student in the room. As they introduced themselves, I remember them asking me how Chase looks to me. I could tell they knew he didn't look well, but since this was the first time they had ever seen him, I am sure they were just wanting my opinion. After a complete medical history and some blood draws, they left the room and told us they would be back. About and hour later, the whirlwind began. The door opened and the room flooded with people. The student that had been with the doctor tried to talk to us and tell us what they were doing as more and more people kept coming in. At one point all I could do was count people (there were 22) because I couldn't even see Chase. We were trying to focus on answering all the new questions coming at us from the medical staff, but all I wanted to do was know what they were thinking. They told us his sodium was at 119 and potassium at 8.9, but we still didn't know what that meant. A team from the PICCU came from the 6th floor and he was quickly taken to their unit. The questions kept coming and when we got to the 6th floor. They were suiting up in yellow scrubs from head to toe and explained we would be under contact isolation as a precaution since the diarrhea was so bad. They explained to us the dangers of the potassium level and other tests they were about to perform. They quickly done and echo cardiogram to check for heart damage and to see how his heart was reacting to the potassium level. He was in hypovolemic shock and his heart was showing signs of tachycardia. The emergency response team came in and began trying for additional vein access for all the things they were about to run in his IV. For the next 3 hours Chase was stuck about 60 times as they tried time and time again for vein access. By this time it was about 4 AM and Ryan and I were just staring at our Baby. He had lost the ability to cry at this point and just gave up and went to sleep. There were so many different IV's they had to bring in another pole and pump to hook them all up.
At around 7 AM some of the Doctors came by to do initial consultations with Chase. The "tremors" he was having were thought to be seizures by now. His kidneys were shutting down and he had quit producing urine. They cathed him in hopes of measuring and sampling any urine he could produce. The diarrhea was non-stop and by now he was just passing black water (blood). They explained to us they were resuscitating him with the fluids and had to give him dangerous ammounts of sodium in a short ammount of time. They followed the sodium boluses with an MRI to check for brain lesions. Chase had metabolic acidosis, aldosterone level in the thousands (normal 5 to 30), elevated renin and a WBC at 35 thousand. All we could do was stand by his little crib and watch all the monitiors constantly beeping. The staff was trying to keep us informed about their plan, but no one knew what was wrong with him. We were at their mercy and just prayed God would guide them. When I look back on this day and even these pictures, I see my sick baby, but I also see Angels. Angels that rode with him as he was transported, held him all night as they worked with him, and guided the decisions of the doctors as they resuscitated him.
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