Daring continued

So, let's continue... we left off on Daring having multiple episodes of not breathing in the middle of the night at home and we called 911. 

Paramedics arrived and at that point, Daring was fine - heart rate and oxygen levels appeared normal from the brief eval they did to him. He passed some serious gas at some point while we were all sitting there and the one ambulance tech seemed to just accept that as what was going on, "Maybe he was holding his breath trying to pass gas?" I felt so foolish when she said that. Like I'm some idiot making a deal out of her kid having to fart. 

I was feeling like a crazy person, but this thing happened! What was it? What if it happens again and I'm not awake to realize it? 

I just remember the one paramedic looking at me and telling me we could go to the hospital - no harm in having Daring looked at ... and that's what I needed to hear. 

We went by ambulance to the closest hospital. I remember Daring being put on the bed and one nurse kind of moving around him, hooking my perfectly healthy looking baby up to various wires to evaluate him. As the ambulance tech is going over why we're there with another nurse (or the doctor?), Daring's oxygen levels plummeted. 

He looked fine, but Daring's oxygen levels legit dropped to 32 (I can't forget that number) in a split second - FYI: below 92 is concerning. 

Suddenly the room is flooded with hospital workers. If there were any less than 10 professionals around him, I'd be shocked. He's officially being hooked up to all monitors, they're getting him oxygen, they're looking for where they can get IV lines put into him in case he needs meds, etc. They actually moved us out of the children's' emergency section and into a large general emergency room. It was explained to me that "emergency medicine" care was more appropriate than "pediatric specialty" care. 

As we moved into the big room, with even more people around, Daring had another one of these episodes again and I remember one of the professionals in the room saying maybe he was having a seizure. They started doing all this crazy testing on him and some serious antibiotics in case he was reacting to some sort of infection that wasn't otherwise present/symptomatic yet. The local children's specialty hospital was also contacted to set up transport.

By the time transport arrived, Daring once again seemed like himself. He remained stable while we packed him up, transported him, set him up into the room in the pediatric ICU and while things were being reviewed - write up from previous hospital reviewed, me having to go over for what felt like the 10th time and generally looking him over. As he moved from the transport cart to the hospital bed, with the doctors (thankfully) right there, he had another episode again of his oxygen levels plummeting while he looked fine & awake otherwise.

The next few days were a battery of tests - his heart, his respiratory system, his brain waves, his GI, was it reflux? was it apnea? an MRI, a spinal tap, all this lab work, etc. All clear! 

What happened with Daring was a complete mystery that was basically diagnosed as "BRUE" (Brief Respiratory Unexplained Event), which is pretty much incomplete SIDS - Hello, terrifying! There was no other clear answer though. 

Daring had 3 or 4 of these episodes in a half hour or so at home. Then he had the event as soon as we arrived at the hospital maybe 45 minutes or an hour after the last and another maybe 15 minutes later. Then he had one event a couple of hours later when we arrived at the local children's specialty hospital. Then never again and none since.