We had a ridiculously stressful and exhausting week, which is why I haven't been online to post. My little guy had a cold last weekend that led to him being admitted to the hospital via the ER after we realized he was having trouble breathing. He was in respiratory distress and ended up diagnosed with the general "reactive airway disease." Basically he had an asthma attack, but he wasn't doing what I thought was traditional wheezing. He has no history of wheezing, so we are really hoping this was a one time occurrence as a result of the cold virus. He was released after a day and has been on round the clock nebulizer treatments, which has just wiped me out. I haven't slept more than three hours in a row for a week now. Yesterday during our second visit this week to his pediatrician for follow up we were told his lungs sounded good and we just had to continue the nebulizer treatments around the clock four times a day for another week. In my exhaustion I almost screamed at the doctor, but held it together enough to just question the length of time on the meds. He agreed that just four more days would be enough. In the meantime, the little guy HATES the nebulizer. It's so bad that I've taken to promising candy if he does it, something I swore I'd never do! Let's hope that he doesn't get alot of colds this year, as that could lead to him having another wheezing issue.
I do have to say that our local hospital was just wonderful. We were in the ER for about six hours before he was finally admitted because his pulse-ox levels did not improve enough with albueterol in the ER. While there, he had to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. While we were waiting for the x-ray tech, we witnessed an older woman in a hospital gown, drunk, being arrested and led out of the ER in handcuffs. I covered the monkey's eyes for that, since I wasn't up for the questions that would follow. A young football player in full uniform, helmet and all, was wheeled by us with his family in tow. That freaked me out, every parent's nightmare of a kid being whisked off the field into an ambulance without even removing his helmet. I tried to find out if he was ok, but our nurse wasn't involved in his care. I reassured the little guy that he was ok. Someone overdosed and was either being treated or died while we were there, as all of a sudden a nurse came to our area and told us she had to shut our curtain for a few minutes. A gurney passed by shortly afterwards and we later learned that someone had died. There was a little six year old girl there in worse respiratory distress than my little guy and our nurse was really upset about it as they were hoping that she wouldn't have to be intubated. Saturday night at a suburban hospital was quite exciting. The physician's assistant that took care of us initially was a mom from our music class that we used to take, which was nice since we knew her.
The pediatric unit at the hospital was very impressive and run by CHOP. There was a playroom complete with a play house, which is something my son desperately wants to own. Every room had free tv with a DVD/VHS player. The play room had a full video/DVD library, so we were able to watch the Lion King and Phineas and Ferb! There were race cars for the kids that parents could wheel around the unit. The staff was wonderful and really helpful. For a while the little guy begged to go home, but after he started feeling better he realized how much was there to play with and see. He loved checking out the kitchen that was filled with snacks and drinks. He must have had four cartons of chocolate milk that day, a usually one time a week treat. The liquid prednisone he was on made him sick, but we were able to mix it with Hershey's syrup to make it more palatable. Today he told me he loved being at the hospital and can't wait to go back there to play. I would love to never have to go back there, but at least it was a good experience for the little patient.
He's back at school this week and loving it!
