While You Were Sleeping (Saving Elias x7)

We are wearing our green toady, but someone please pinch us anyway and wake us up from this nightmare. Last night was restless & stressful. Elias had seven more episodes where he stopped breathing, with the 2 am moment one if the most frightening as it took the longest to get him breathing again and his O2 sats back up. Even on the Ventilator he is doing this. If we went to the ER we would be admitted and then Dr. Wood, our pulmonologist would not have been able to see Elias (stupid insurance rules). So we had to tough it out and pray we made it through and that Dr Wood would be able to see Elias today. A friend pointed out the similarities of these and the September/October episodes. Both are at season change when everyone’s ability to breathe is complicated by allergies and other nonsense. One difference between the two periods so far has been this time Elias is doing it in his sleep as well and on the ventilator. He was awake for every episode last year and the vent was not in the picture yet. With Elias airway compromised and a pin-hole sized anyway, as we have noted before the slightest issue could be serious for Elias. If allergies are to blame for causing the airway to swell, how do we prevent these frightening and dangerous moments? We spoke with his Pulmonologist this morning who didn’t seem surprised our ER visit went the way it did. He is squeezing us in because he feels that Elias needs to be seen ASAP. He is slightly puzzled that Elias is doing this on the vent though. The pressure support is suppose to be helping to keep the airway open and help him breathe. So we are operating on minimal rest from the past 48 hours. Fear alone is keeping us awake. Between the ER visit and 7p last night when the episodes began again Elias was doing better, much better and playful. They hit without warning and happen fast. It has been extremely stressful and unnerving. We will update again later on what the Pulmonologist thinks and what we are doing to resolve the situation. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!