Little Miss E gave us quite a scare last week. She wasn't feeling too good and I thought maybe she had a cold but she had this funny rash. So when I talked to the health nurse about Baby J's incredible eating habits, I mentioned it to her. Well she thought maybe it was a strep rash and urged me to take them in. E had the rash one day and R the next. So, after a bit of calling around, I packed up the kids and headed to my moms. My mom took J and L and I took E, R and Baby J up to the ER.
The ER was very busy and some people had been waiting awhile. A nurse, Cindy whom was there while I laboured with R, came out and chatted with us and assessed E. Another nurse also came out and took a look. Louise and I have a good relationship and it was good to see her. She was super busy and Cindy took over after that. They both checked her breathing and her oxygen levels. They were LOW only 75!! We were the next ones in! They put E on 'magic mist' or Ventolin almost the moment she got on the bed. This is the same meds as she now gets in her inhaler but they give it too them in a mask over their mouth and nose in a larger dose. Then they started to tell me what we were looking at. Probably asthma. But they did x-rays and ruled out pneumonia and bronchitis. They did 2 more rounds of Ventolin and her oxygen levels made 88. Now I didn't get a whole lot of information there. Actually I got very little. I think they were trying to not panic me. Which seems a bit counter-productive as I panicked more without the information.
Papa came to pick up R, Baby J had to stay with me, and took her to grandma's house. While he was there I left the room for a minute and they gave her a liquid steroid which she promptly threw up again. They told us while Papa was there that she'd probably need to stay in over night. Ok, we can handle that. Papa stayed for a bit, talked to the doctor and then left to bring R to Grandma and go finish off the last 2 hours of his work day. It seemed under control, she was breathing better now and he would come back when work was done. Nothing really he could do there. Well. Not very long after he'd left another nurse came to tell us that we were bumping the guy next door, who had a run in with a chain saw, and taking his ambulance to the CITY!! That was the 1st's I heard of it. Oh she thought the doctor had told us. NOPE!! Didn't even see him again!!
Within minutes I was frantically trying to get a hold of Papa, I could go with E but Baby J could not go. They had no way to strap him in, even though he was in his car seat. The paramedic's had her on the stretcher before I'd packed up Baby J and all the mittens, jackets and 'stuff', as it was I forgot her boots there! Papa was still not there. Later on Papa told me that when the nurse called him, and I was there when she did and he's right, she told him that HE was taking us to the city. Not that we were going with flashing lights and FLYING along in the ambulance. So Papa finished the job he was working on, looked at another job and then made his way down to us. Well we are already in the ambulance, E had to be hooked up on oxygen and they'd already hooked her up in the ambulance and done everything they needed to do. I was being asked if Baby J could stay with the nurses and I kept saying. NO He's just up the hill he be here in a minute. E was stable as far as I knew and I just couldn't leave my baby with nurses, even though I knew most of them from other visits. I know none of them socially. It was almost to the point where I didn't really have a choice when Papa drove up. I'd already called his work again and he'd left so we knew it wouldn't be long. (The male paramedic John asked me what Papa looked like so he could be on lookout for him.. I told him he's not a big man and will be very dirty!! And it worked!! John recognized him! LOL)
Papa grabbed the baby seat with Baby J in it and the diaper bag. For ease of use I'd clipped my purse to the car seat and so he got that too..
E was half asleep and both paramedic's were super good with her. Lights, sirens, and SPEED. I actually have no idea how fast we were going as no matter how hard I looked I couldn't see the speedo, but we were MOVING!!! John told Papa, Follow me but don't keep up! If you get caught they WILL charge you with speeding! Papa had to go home before hand to get some stuff as we had NOTHING with us. E was pretty sleepy and out of it so I talked to her on and off the whole way there. She was still on oxygen and her numbers where good so the main concern was on going care. They did give her another dose of Ventolin about 20 minutes into the ride but by the time we hit the outskirts of the city she was doing MUCH better and they turned off the lights and sirens and slowed down! You can't see much from the back of an ambulance and I fought car sickness the whole way! Thankfully I'm good at controlling my nausea and only felt nasty!
When we got there they rolled her right to Pedi's ward and, even though they knew we were coming they still didn't have a room ready for us. So we spent 10 minutes waiting at the nurses station. E was VERY thirsty and John went down the hall to get her a drink! She'd been asking for one since we left town and slurped it up so fast I thought she'd choke! She drank A LOT that night. Then peed in her sleep on ME! I was soaked, her bed was soaked, she was soaked.. and she has no memory of it at all. She had no memory of the ride in the ambulance until several days later and yesterday when we were in town an ambulance went out of town and she told me "I think that was the one I was in!"
That night they did the Ventolin mask every hour until Midnight and then every 3 hours for the next day! E perked right up but still could not be without oxygen. If we took off her oxygen her numbers fell so quickly the nurse wasn't even out of the room yet and she turned around and put it back on!
My friend Amber and I were going to meet in the 'city' at W.mart which is close to the edge of town and about as far into the city as I like to drive. (Did I mention I dislike driving? I DO!!) Anyway Papa and I were going to butcher our steer that week and I was going to bring it to the meat cutters that Wednesday. Amber had JUST moved and I didn't know her new number, though thinking about it now I do know Matt's cell and could have called that. Never even occurred to me! Anyway my Mom had posted on FB for me and that is how Amber showed up at the Pedi's ward in the city. What a wonderful thing to see someone we knew! Her little boy Z had also spent a night in pedi's and she was very helpful as she knew the floor well. After they left B, Amber's 4 year old, cried all the way home! She was so worried about E. So they spent some time making things for E which she really enjoyed the next day! Yummy cookies!
We had more visitors that day. The T family had a doctors appointment just down the hall and spent part of the afternoon with us. Miss T was VERY worried about E and sat by her while she slept and was very careful not to wake her. Miss T had been in the same room we were in and you could see that it had connected with her. Big Mr. T spent over an hour with Baby J in his arms.. mostly sleeping! Baby J just could not sleep while we were there and it made life rough! Big Mr. T tried 3 times to put him down and Baby J just woke up! Thank you for persisting :) The T's also looked after E and Baby J for a bit while Papa and I got out of those 4 walls and went for a little walk. Papa headed home to be with the kids overnight and it was really nice to have a few moments with him.
E had a great night. Slept so hard that the nurses didn't even wake her with moving her around and checking on her. Baby J had a better night and I actually got some sleep!
The next morning E was put on puffers and taken off the mask that was giving her Ventolin. She liked this much better and was up and around more playing. She had pulled her oxygen tubes out of her nose early that morning and the nurse and I didn't notice a change in her levels at all. So we started giving her oxygen only when her levels went down. We found when she was concentrating her levels went down but we'd tell her to breath and she'd go right back up! She holds her breath when she concentrates. Grandma showed up fairly early that morning and spent the morning with us. E was pretty excited to see her and Grandma and E made a string of beads for R. Our Pedi came in with a group of interns and E got very shy. Fishbowl effect! They were all very kind and we'd seen several of them but there were 5 or 6 of them and it was just too much! They talked about her for a bit, told us we could go home and left! E wanted to stay! She was having too much fun watching movies and being waited on! :) Amber and her kids showed up with cookies and grapes and Grandma brought coffee (Thank goodness.. I REALLY NEEDED SOME!), Hot chocolate and donut holes! So we had a snack. And as we were snacking Papa and the kids showed up! E and R hugged like crazy!! They were like glue for several days afterwards! Amber left and we sat the kids down in front of Toy Story 3 and took a couple of deep breaths! Baby J was asleep on my lap and it felt very much like the world had been lifted off our shoulders at least enough to breath! The Pedi came in again and chatted with us while the kids watched their movie. He was amazed at how well she was and told us what to look out for, what to do and gave us more info on why and how and now what. I'd talked with the respiratory nurse the day before and learned A LOT and Papa was going to talk to her yet so we waited for her and packed up, signed papers and finally took the kids down to the HUGE play room they have there! It's fabulous!! The whole place is fab! The nurses were helpful and full of information. They taught me how to read the machines and clues and hints to what are warning signs. I learned a lot in those 2 days! The play room has a cool kids door and just about every toy you can imagine! The kids loved it! E and R played food and babies.. just like at home.. but rarely more then 2 steps apart! Papa and the resp nurse had their chat and then, just like that, we were walking down the hall and out the doors. E's boots got left behind somewhere (we still haven't found them.) and so Papa carried her thru the snow falling down to the truck. It was amazing.. we were light as air and floating.
For long term care we have a couple of puffers. One E takes every day and another for whenever she has trouble breathing. By day 4 at home she could take deep breaths again and hold it for a bit, which is what your suppose to do with a puffer. She got amazingly better amazingly fast. Her eczema went away almost completely with the oral steroid she was on for 5 days. She'd lost a little bit of weight but is now gaining well. We saw our Pedi the other day and he is EXTREMELY happy with her progress and at Christmas she gets to go down to only 1 puff on her daily puffer a day! She probably has had asthma for a while. She used to have croup and it seems somewhere in the last year or so it turned into asthma. The nurses kept thinking I knew more then I did because they couldn't believe it was only her 1st attack! I got the impression that's fairly rare. E has a little blue backpack she carries when we go out. Puffers, benadryl, epi pen, eczema lotion, we got it covered! We're going to pick her up a little bag for her stuff soon. This one is clear with blue trim and I don't think everyone needs to see what she's carrying with her. The new bag will probably have princesses on it :)
Sorry this took so long I know some of you were waiting for it. I found it REALLY hard to write. Several times I wrote for a bit and then had to leave it for several days to re-process or process some of it. I look at the happy healthy child running and chatting and singing and be thankful that it wasn't worse then it was and that it's controllable and she's fine! And she's here with us! God is SO GOOD to us and I thank Him for my children every day!
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD," plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who help. The doctors, interns, nurses and paramedic's. Mom for watching the kids, Ang and Korey for the use of their cell phone and for keeping the fire going! Amber and kids for everything you did to help keep our spirits up! And the T family for being there when we needed you and for understanding! Thanks also for those of you who were praying. God heard you.
