Saturday 8th of March- Blue Lights

At 03.00 the food drip was finished and I turned it off. James woke up crying but settled quickly. I thought to myself that he would most probably need to go to the hospital in the morning because of dehydration/low saturation. An anxiously crying James woke me up, it was not a normal cry, clearly something was wrong! I picked James up in my arms and he vomited a bit. His colour did not look too good. I walked up to Nigel upstairs and tried to wake him and told him I needed to take James in to the P- ER anytime soon, so if he woke up without us in the house, he knew why. I walked downstairs again and I placed James at the changing table. I took off his wet clothes and he laid there naked whilst I checked his temperature. I noticed the temperature was 40C which is very high fever and I realised I had to take him in. I looked up at James. He laid still with his eyes opened and with his head turned to the side. Suddenly I clearly saw his chest movements stop. I stood there and watched his chest and abdomen for a long time, which would have been for about 15 seconds. Then I saw his chest started to move very fast with tiny movements up and down. I realized he had a real apnea. I pushed him gently and James started breathing and cried anxiously out instantly. He had very bad colour. I went upstairs to Nigel and woke him, placed James with him whilst I called the ward 67. They thought as long nothing more happened to James we could drive ourselves to the hospital. Nigel came downstairs with tears in his eyes. I took one look at James and saw he had turned grey. Nigel said James had vomited a couple of times and struggled a lot more than usual. His breaths had been too far apart as well. We both agreed to call 112. I called and explain what had happened and James´s diagnosis. The 112 operator said she would send help straight away, she asked me to light all the lights in the house so the ambulance could find it easier. She also asked me to call back if he went worse. Of course Mum woke up while I was turning on the lights in every room and I quickly gathered things for James, I dressed and had an eye on James in Nigels arms. We saw the blue lights out in the street. When they showed up his colour had changed in a good way and James was in my arms looking around. I went outside with James. I was not prepared for an “acute-car” to be there. Thankfully they were prepared for the worst. I was almost (sick I know!) embarrassed to have called since James had picked up a bit. But knowing James shunt was starting to be "old" we absolutely would not take any chances. The ambulance was there after a couple of minutes. I was in the ambulance with James in my arms. Tommy the paramedic was in the back with us and Arne from the acute car joined us. They rushed away pretty fast with blue lights, the acute car behind us with blue lights and Nigel trying to keep up behind them :o) Tommy was a very nice man and had a very good way with James. When Tommy put the saturation probe on James, it showed 60%. I actually thought it was lower than I expected and did not really want to know how low it had been before. I explained to Tommy it was not a very bad saturation for James though his average usually was 70%. We chit chatted for a bit and I thought to myself "the men must think I am crazy". I had witness my baby stopped breathing just 20 minutes earlier and I was chit chatting cheerfully (even if you can react that way in shock). But I am surprisingly calm (what I think) especially when I feel I have it under control, as long as I feel I know what to do to help James. Knowledge is a security many times. I also felt very relieved when I saw James answered to oxygen and his saturation went up. Then I knew it was his lungs it was wrong with not his heart.Then what I was scared was excluded in knowledge anyways and I could relax until we saw the doctor. Pneumonia I thought to myself. In a way I think when James has bad times I step into a working role. At the same time as parents we are forced to keep a cool head though James are not gained by us panicking. I studied to an assistant nurse with the dream to study to a nurse to become a paramedic. When I fell ill with my arthritis I placed my dreams on a shelf. In 1,5 or 2 years they are off the shelf again. Thanks to James/Elisabeth I know what I want to work as, as a nurse in cardiology, PICU or Neo. So I have to study for 3-4 years in total :o) my dream is to have Intensive care Nurse on my name tag. I am extremely interested in medicine so it will be a joy and most probably a pain in the neck ones and a while as well. You don´t have anything for free in life.
We found out he had a lung infection but more of a setback from the RS-virus which affected him again when fell ill and he suffered from Atelectasis . Just behind his heart on his lungs a part had collapsed. The alveolus had fallen together, which meant James could not inhale enough oxygen to saturate himself with satisfaction.