Highest Elevation Emergency Room Visit

We left at 5:00am on Thursday the 26th and headed for the mountains, our first of many trips to my parents new home in Twin Lakes, CO.  I've been waiting for this house for 20 years.  I remember the day they called my landline in college and said they were in Colorado and had bought some land.  The house finally went up and we were looking forward to a week of mountain fun.  We made it by about 4:30 or 5:00pm, unpacked all the things, toured the house and were preparing for dinner.

Our Colorado vacation took a very eventful turn.  Perhaps I should have known or realized or thought to have asked how Lydia would do at high elevations, specifically 10,000 ft.  Now we know.  She went out when she was 3 and did fine.  I guess the continual infections, CPAP, reactive airway and bronchomalacia have made that not so any longer. I should have known.

We reached Denver and Lydia started to complain of muscle cramps in her legs.  We reached Silverthorne/Frisco and she started to complain of back pain.  We thought she might be dehydrated and started giving her lots of water and she stayed restless dozing in and out of sleep the rest of the way.  

We reached Leadville/Twin Lakes, pulled up to my parents home.  She was excited and energized to see the house and run around but quickly laid down on the couch with a pillow.  Not like Lydia.  I checked her temp, normal.  Gave her water, hardly drank.  Checked her pulse ox, thank goodness I did.  Her blood oxygen was in the 60s and her pulse was racing.  We packed up all her meds, called the hospital in Leadville, St. Vincent's, and headed for the ER.  

They immediately put her on 5 liters of oxygen, did a Covid, flu and urine test, along with bloodwork and cultures - all negative or normal.  The chest x-ray was concerning to the doctor so I had him call the pulmonologist on call at CMH. They started albuterol treatments throughout the night, continued the Augmentin, added a prednisone steroid, and Lydia stayed on oxygen throughout the night.  She couldn't come off oxygen and stay out of the 80s and the doctor said 92 was normal at 10,000 feet.  We got supplemental oxygen for the drive from Leadville to Denver on Friday, dropped it off and didn't refill it  because Lydia was at 94 or 95 without it.

We continued home, stopping for the night in Goodland.  Lydia loved the hotel, as usual, and was back in good spirits with high energy and her appetite was coming back.  We pulled up to the house at about 5pm on Saturday, our trip cut short by 3 days and it was just that, a car trip.  She's the priority and we did everything right by her, but my goodness I'm sad and disappointed and a little lost for words.  I spent about 2 hours total in my parents house, never took a hike, didn't eat a meal with my parents, slept in an ER chair, barely noticed the mountains, and I don't know when I'll be able to go back.  And I don't know if Lydia will ever be able to go back.

She was so brave.  Never complained.  Just kept asking from her ER bed when she got to go back to Colorado and do her Legos with Grandma.  She doesn't realize hospital trips and ER visits aren't typical.  She doesn't know that the Colorado trip was supposed to be very different than what it was.  Friday morning she laid in her hospital bed, on O2 with line access and monitors on, and we made a list of things to do on vacation, when we got home.  We're checking them off one by one and trying to make the most out of it.

Our staycation includes playgrounds, swimming, the Arboretum, Legos, a backyard bbq, maybe Deanna Rose, bowling, and a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's...at their house that is NOT in the mountains.

Lydia amazes me.  While having her blood drawn she commented on the boring color of the walls and how her blood was red, which is Grandma's favorite color.  She was excited to take chest xrays because she's good at xrays.  She can put her own nasal canula back in place after blowing her nose.  Sitting at a meal a Friday she tells me how nice Papa's house in the mountains is.  

Lydia has a good outlook on the whole situation and says that maybe we should go to the beach on our next vacation.  I don't like the beach.  I'm going to learn to love it!