A night in the E.R.

And the award of the first kid to make mom sit in the E.R. goes to -------------- Jaxen!
Oh what a night it was.  Sunday morning, I dropped Jaxen off at the baby sitter's house.  I noticed he was coughing but then again so were the other two.  When I got home, Jaxen was still napping.  Jerry said he was cranky so I let him sleep longer than normal after Jerry went to work.  It was about 6pm when I woke him up for dinner.  His cough was horrible!  It was now high pitched and sharp . . . barking like a seal.  Which is never a good sign.

Being a Sunday night, our pediatrician's office was closed so I called the Ask Mayo Clinic which is provided free of charge with our insurance.  I've called them before and they are pleasant to talk to.  Very helpful and reassuring.  Sometimes, Mom's just need to know that they are doing the right thing and that a doctor's visit isn't always necessary.  If anything, the Nurse Line saves me in doctor's bills.  Just by giving me another option to fight a stubborn cold.  Jaxen's only 12 months old and I can't give him anything over-the-counter without calling the doctor and getting a dosage.  Most medicine packages say "Under 4 years, Ask your Doctor".  The other two are on Musinex 24/7 because of their own coughs and it's working.  I was curious if I could give Jaxen some Musinex.  However, this time it wasn't reassurance or a dosage that I got.  :-(

After taking all Jaxen's information and hearing him coughing and trying to breathe through the phone she recommended that I get a hold of the pediatrician and if I could then an ER visit was necessary.  Of course, the pediatrician wasn't there and the answer machine says to go to Children's Mercy.  Now, no offense to other parents but Children's Mercy is in North Kansas City and would take us an hour longer to get there and would probably cost me 10 times more than our local hospital just because it's a "Children's Hospital". 

I called Jerry and let him know what was going on.  He was going to see about getting off to come with us - to watch the other 2 for me.  I got the other 2 ready while waiting for Jerry to call me back.  Which didn't take too long. . . he was on his way.  And by the time that I got all three ready and a backpack packed for a lengthy wait, Jerry was here and off we went.

I felt really stupid because the cold air opened Jaxen's airways and by the time we arrived at the Emergency Room, he was breathing okay and the coughing had stopped.  But thankfully, the ER staff took everything serious and told me cold air opens the lungs and that his symptoms would come back in a few minutes.  And sure enough, by the time I got the paperwork filled out, Jaxen was struggling to breathe.  The respiratory specialist was called down before the doctor saw Jaxen and gave him a breathing treatment within minutes of arriving in the ER - which helped a lot!  The only thing Jax didn't like about the breathing treatment was the clip on his toe that was monitoring his heart rate, while he got the medicine.  The respiratory specialist verified that he definitely sound croupy and that it was the beginning stages of croup.

After the breathing treatment, we waited a long time!  The ER received 3 cardiac patients who took priority over Jaxen - which is understandable.  And the nurses kept coming in a playing with Jaxen, keeping him happy.  I finally got Jaxen to fall asleep about 11:15pm.  And sure enough it was about 11:40pm when the doctor showed up to check Jaxen {we checked in at 8!}.  He ordered a blood test, a flu test, and a chest x-ray to make sure that there wasn't anything extra going on.

I held Jaxen down while they drew blood and swabbed his nose.  Jerry got to go with him for the x-ray, while I went to the bathroom and visited with the other 2 in the waiting room.  After the x-ray, Jaxen and I were back in the hospital room. . . waiting for the test results.  It wasn't too much longer when the doctor came in and let me know that Jaxen has Bronchiolitis {which is a baby's version of Bronchitis}.  Jaxen's white blood cells were great, he tested negative to the flu and RSV, and there's no pneumonia in his lungs.   Jaxen got a dosage of steroids before we left and a prescription for another weeks worth.  And we had orders to see the pediatrician in 2-3 days for a follow-up appointment. 

We were discharged and back home about 1am.  Once we got the kids in bed, Jerry went back to work.  I called into work, called off the babysitter and went to bed myself.

Jaxen woke up the next morning acting more like his normal self.  Still a little raspy but not struggling to breathe.  I filled his prescription and got more Musinex for the big kids. . . trying really hard not to spread this one around!!  I don't need another ER visit anytime soon!!