Well, we had our first (and hopefully last) visit to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital ER last night. When I got to daycare yesterday afternoon Tyler was breathing really fast and shallow and the breathing treatments did not seem to be helping. We made an appointment with our pediatrician, or actually the doctor on call that we had seen before (so great that they have night hours). The doctor was concerned about how hard Tyler was having to "work" to breathe and decided to give him a breathing treatment and see how he responded. He also has another ear infection :-(. After the breathing treatment (like the ones we do at home) his wheezing and counts (of how many times he breathes in a minute) did not improve so she decided to test his oxygen saturation levels. They like the levels to be at 92 or above and he was wavering between 89 and 93 - not too bad, but just enough when combined with the other things going on for her to send him to the hospital. We (just me and Tyler - Lance was staying home with Katie) left straight from the doctor and went to the ER.
I was initially upset because we waited for almost an hour in the waiting room and if that was any indication of how serious they thought it was I did not want to be there keeping baby boy awake and spending money that we don't have (I now know that my new insurance isn't that great - $250 co-pay and 20% of hospital costs but I'm glad we have it and it is the same as my old job). When we were finally called back to the triage room the pace picked up quite a bit and the nurse labeled Tyler a "working wheezer" and got him into a room. From there a respiratory therapist and a physician and a nurse listened to him breathing and decided the first course of action would be to deep suction his mouth, nose and lungs. Tyler HATED it, but was so so good all night. Everyone commented on what a good (and cute :0) baby he was just sitting and talking and playing amid screaming babies all around. He was up, with no sleep, until 1:30 AM and did great - he really is a trooper (better than mom). The first suction seemed to help a bit, but it made the wheezing more pronounced and they needed to try to get that stopped. So they let him sit for a while and then tried the suction again which resulted in a gushing nose bleed (that is still happening this morning). That was probably the scariest part - I am a bit of a spaz and I was calmer than the nurse. Blood was gushing down the back of his throat and the room looked like something really bad had happened because as we were trying to stop the bleeding Tyler was thrashing and crying which made it go literally everywhere. A new set of sheets, a mopped floor, and a wiped down baby with a book and a piano made everything better!
They then decided to give him some steriods, a little motrin (for the fever from the ear infection), and another albuterol treatment with some other medication in it that he had not had before. That made 5 treatments for the day and he didn't really get better after the last one so the doctors said no more to that. Poor little man was so wired and jittery - that is A LOT of albuterol for one day. The final treatment (at about 11:15) was a 20 minute saline treatment combined with a medication that worked similarly to albuterol to open the airway. That seemed to clear out some of the congestion and really helped him breathe a lot better! He had to be watched for an hour after that and then the therapist and the doctor had to see him again. They all listened to him breathing and said it was much, much better. My pediatrician happened to be in the hospital and came down to see Tyler and we will go to him on Wednesday for a follow-up. We came home with some steriods, more albuterol and antibiotics for the ear infection and a very, very sleepy boy who seemed to be feeling better. He was very grumpy this morning when he woke at his usual time, but that is to be expected. The steriods make him crazy so I can expect a few rough days in our future!
The hardest part of it all (other than seeing my baby boy not feel well) was that my cell phone was dying, Lance was at home on pins and needles waiting for updates that I didn't really have, and the hospital wasn't really set up for little ones and there was nowhere to set him to go to the bathroom or get anything to eat or drink (and no offers from nurses to watch him for a minute). Oh well, we are all home (well, actually I am at work) and doing better and hopefully these steriods and the breathing treatments with clearer lungs will help my Superman get well. Funnily, the most stressful part of the evening (other than handing over my credit card at discharge) was the drive home in major fog! I was grateful that Tyler was still jabbering and "singing" because it was pretty eerie.
Gosh, that is a long post! I guess that makes sense considering it was a pretty long night!
No comments:
Post a Comment