J's Hospital Stay

I have been quiet for a week now and never intended to wait so long to post again, but we had a crazy weekend. And by crazy- I mean awful. (Warning- this is a LONG post!) Last Thursday evening, our youngest son, J, began sneezing and then Friday it had progressed into a little cough. Now, this is nothing new with a 2 year old and the insane amount of colds they get in a year, but J has asthma induced by respiratory viruses. We started him on the nebulizer Friday, but he had a pretty tight cough that night and slept with daddy in the recliner the second half of the night. Then Saturday morning, J was doing pretty well. He went to swimming class and then ate well at lunch and went down for nap. When he woke up at 3pm he started wheezing and had a tight,dry, unproductive cough. We gave him steroids for the wheezing and a triple dose on his nebulizer to stop the cough, and he seemed ok and had 95 oxygen (which is good). For reference, below 93 oxygen is bad and requires a hospital visit. 

So we decided to go ahead and all go do a little bit of grocery shopping. Hubby wanted to go check out the 'other' HEBplus that we hadn't been to visit. On the way we noticed that the freeway had a lot of traffic to return and were hoping it would be gone by the time we left the store. We were a lost in the new store and wandered back and forth looking for the things on our list, but having to sort of zig zag back and forth to grab things we missed. Well, J was getting a little fussy with the speed of our shopping and we could tell his cold was still bothering him and could still hear his wheeze. Daddy began to worry about J when he held him on the way to a bathroom break and suggested that we stop shopping and go home. I was unsure if we needed to leave and wanted to just get the fruit & veggies before we left. So daddy and D, went to get the bread we had forgotten while J and I went to the produce section. J was sitting in the cart and holding a baggie for me while I grabbed various fruits and veggies, but then he started having a fit. I picked him up and his chest sounded awful and I began to panic. I began heading toward the checkout and hubby called my cell phone looking for us. When he found us, he saw the look in my eye he could tell we needed to leave. Every isle had 3-4 customers in line, so we abandoned our full cart and hurried to the car.

I strapped J in and was so worried about him. Thankfully our older son, could tell we were panicked and hurried along.  I immediately thought of the traffic on the freeway and knew that we should NOT head that way to a hospital. T checked traffic and decided to head a little in toward town on the back roads to Children's Methodist. A hospital that I hadn't even been by and hadn't previously verified was on our insurance. We began heading that way regardless and the back roads seemed like forever with all the stoplights, but at least we were moving. 

Upon arrival at about 5:30pm, T dropped J and I off at the door to the emergency room while he parked the car with D. There was a line of about 12 people just to check in! I took J around the line and up to the window to let them know he was having an asthma attack and needed to get some oxygen now! The nurse reached her arm through the window and placed an oxygen sensor on J's big toe...it read ..84..85...and 88. The nurse immediately escorted us to a triage room where 2 nurses began to do a saline rinse on J's nose so that he could get more oxygen, while the doctor came in and got information from me. Then J got hooked up to oxygen with a tube in his nose and taped to his face. Soon afterwards, daddy and D came in the room. We were still waiting on a nebulizer treatment to help open his airways. They placed him on continuous nebulizer for an hour and he was still struggling and causing his sides to retract when he breathed. So again, he was placed on continuous nebulizer for an hour. Then he was sounding better, but still struggling and each breath caused a sinking at his collarbone and sternum with each breath. The doctor said that was all she did at the ER for asthma patients and that he would now need to be admitted to the hospital. This was about 10pm.

J began a third continuous hour on the nebulizer and daddy and D headed home to get some rest. We stayed in the ER room, because all pediatric rooms were full at that time. The hospital doctor came to visit us and recommend that J be given some magnesium for his continued wheezing. So J was then going to be placed on IV to be given magnesium and steroids along with saline. I hated that J had to be put on the IV, but the hospital staff is all very insistent that it was necessary- mostly if an emergency arose but I saw it just as procedural. I acquiesced, but then was told that I could not hold him because I was pregnant. Oh, I about lost it and called hubby to come back to the hospital to hold J while he was stuck with the IV. This was 11pm. I felt awful as hubby and D were just getting tucked into bed, but I also felt awful for J to go through such trauma alone. The IV insertion was awful and was pushed so far into J’s tiny had that I was cringing. After that D and I left to get some sleep. They also began J on a course of Singular and Flovent for his asthma.

D and I got in bed by about 12:30am. J had another hour nebulizer. I woke up at 5am freaking out and wishing I was at the hospital. J had woken up during the night with daddy and had a freak out, hitting, kicking, pulling wires, screaming, crying and as much as I hated not to be there it was probably best that daddy was there to use his strength to hold J. D woke up at 8am and we hurried into the hospital with snacks from our pantry to supplement J’s breakfast. J had not been allowed to eat the night before because of his dry cough. J had eaten a few bites of sausage and eggs and then a breakfast bar. Daddy and D left to go back home while I got to spend the day with my baby. J was doing much better although his chest was still tight. He was on the nebulizer with the respiratory therapist every 2 hours and would be released once he could be weaned to every 4 hours.

J slept from about 11:30am-1pm and through a nebulizer treatment. My mom flew in that day at about 2pm and hubby and D picked her up at the airport. She left daddy and D at home to nap and came to visit J at the hospital and bring me lunch and J a snack.  Shortly after, J was transferred to the ‘flex’ area in the pediatric hospital because they needed the ER room. At J’s 2 pm nebulizer he was taken off oxygen and then at the 4pm nebulizer was reduced to treatments every 3 hours. Daddy brought D back up to the hospital and 6pm and brought everyone dinner of El Pollo Loco- surprisingly delicious! J had another respiratory treatment at 7pm, but via an inhaler instead of the nebulizer. I didn’t realize that they weren’t doing both and had T insist that they continue using the nebulizer since I was unsure if J was really getting anything from the inhaler.

Then D, my mom, and I left to go home for bed. J was then transferred rooms again into the actual hospital and daddy had to insist that J be offered the nebulizer instead of the inhaler. At the next respiratory treatment between 2-3 am, J was doing so well keeping his oxygen rate up while asleep that they pulled the taped on oxygen mask off his face while he slept- and of course that hurt and woke him up screaming! Why oh why this respiratory therapist thought that it was urgent or appropriate to pull tape off the face of a sleeping toddler, I will never know! Daddy told me how sweet his overnight nurse had been trying to calm him with toys that J just threw and broke because he was just tired.

By morning, J was feeling great and ate most of his sausage and egg breakfast. I arrived at about 8:30am with breakfast for daddy and J, but J was full and I was glad to see that he was eating well. Now, we were just waiting to see the doctor and be dismissed. J’s nurse was very sweet and continued to look for J’s doctor because it was pretty clear he was ready to go home! The doctor arrived after lunch at about 11am to check on J, and discharged us. We had to wait for all of our discharge papers and left the hospital at noon. J fell asleep quickly on the ride home and had a wonderful nap in his own bed.