So, Benjamin has had his first post-transplant emergency admission now. On Monday, I thought he was coming down with a little cold, but I wanted to be sure, so we went to the pediatrician. She said everything else checked out and it was just a cold, call or come back in if he worsens. So, we went home. Later that night, he was very restless in his sleep. Around 3 am he woke up and was whining. He felt a little warm, so I took his temp. It was 100.4 at that point. I also listened to his heart. He was at around 130 (his norm is 100-105). And, he was not very active at all, so it's not like he was being active and getting his HR up. So, I called the on call cardiologist. While I was on hold waiting, he had some diarrhea.

The cardiologist got on the phone and said that because of all of his symptoms and especially  the fever combined with the higher heart rate and the fact that he is, obviously, on immunosuppressants, she wanted him in the hospital for observation. So, off we went to Children's, at 4 am :( We got there about 5 am and got brought back to the ER right away. We settled in. They started an IV of Potassium Chloride and ran bunches of tests. Xray, labs, ekg, etc. The cardiologist came in and talked to me. She said she was keeping him for at least 24 hours. More if any of his tests came back not so great. So, we got a room in the CCU. I had not slept really at all the night before or that day. So, I was exhausted!

At around 4 they had taken his temp again and it was 100.8. They gave him some time and hoped it would come down on it's own, which it did around 5:30. So, that was good. Benjamin looked pretty miserable most of the day until around 7 pm. Then he started getting playful. The cardiologist came in and was glad to see him looking happier. He told us that if he continued to look good through the night, he would let us go the next day. Ben was a rockstar all night. He kept his heart rate under 120 through the night and under 130 through the day. Only minor temp elevations. So, since his heart was able to tolerate the temp elevation, the cardiologist told us we didn't have to call in unless his temp was over 101, or his resting heart rate got to over 130, or his active heart rate got over 140, or he started having trouble breathing or was lethargic or showing signs of dehydration.

So, we got out of the CCU around 1 pm yesterday. He has been looking pretty good today. No fevers or vomiting of diarrhea. He vomited twice and had a really bad diarrhea last night. He just is REALLY congested and coughing quite a bit today. We do have to hold his aspirin until at least tomorrow. If he has any fever tomorrow, we will hold it another day. The reason is that when you give a baby or child aspirin while they have a fever, there is a risk for Rheyes syndrome (sp?). So, the benefit does not outweigh the risk at this point. We will start it up again when he is fever free. He just started eating some solid food again, today at lunch. Yo baby yogurt for lunch (I figured it would help the diarrhea ) and a homemade squash applesauce combo for dinner. He tolerated them well and really enjoyed both. We have to follow up with our pediatrician on Saturday and labs next Friday, but otherwise, they said he did well for his first cold.