Well, I've had a week! I guess more like a weekend, but it feels longer. S started coughing on Monday. J was just getting over a cold, so I assumed it was the same cold that J had - such good, sharing brothers! Then, on Tuesday, S got a fever that lasted all day long. It was pretty high, but he wasn't really affected by it too much, so I didn't worry. I just let him watch movies and play X-Box all day long. That night, Dad took the girls to a Halloween party that he was playing music for, and the boys stayed home with me. S barely ate any dinner, and then he told me at 7:00 pm that he was tired, and wanted to go to bed. I had washed his bedding, so I climbed up onto the top bunk, made his bed, and he WENT TO BED!!! I was amazed. Slept all night long.
I woke Thursday, hoping that his fever would have worked it course through the night, and I might still be able to go to work. No such luck. His fever was as high as ever, and he would only whisper - though he didn't complain about his throat hurting, his voice had been crackly for a few days. I told him I thought his crackly voice was cute, and he sais, "My voice?" and it reminded me of the Emporer's New Groove, "Is this MY voice??"
The girls were home from school, so I let the kids hang out while I cleaned the house. Everyone was on the main floor, or downstairs, except for S. E told me he was laying in my bed, watching Alladin again. I took him up a different movie, because he had already watched that in the morning. He was happy just laying in bed.
I was IMing Dad, and he asked if was going to take S to the doctor. I told him I wasn't planning on it, because it was just a fever and a cough, he seemed to be doing just fine. Not complaining of any aches or pains. Dad said he was just afraid of the flu, which I brushed off because there were no real symptoms of the flu. BUT, his fever had remained high for more than 24 hours now, and I was worried about that. I went onto WebMD, checked his symptoms, and decided a trip to the doctor wouldn't hurt. So I called and got an appointment for that day.
Just to keep the chaos down, the girls stayed home (nice they're old enough to do that, finally), and the boys and I went out in the cold to the doctor. S's fever was 101. The Physician's Assistant that was checking him checked his oxygen levels... then chose another finger and checked his levels again.. then said he didn't trust the small machine he had, and went and got a bigger machine. This one beeped urgently every time he put it on S's finger. The doctor kept telling S that was wasn't choosing his lucky finger, and asking which finger was more lucky. He went and consulted with the Doctor, then came back to tell me what I had suspected from the urgent beeping. S's oxygen levels were down past safe levels. Typical level is 95 and above, 90 is okay, but S was at 85.
They gave S a nebulizer breathing treatment, then check his levels again. The treatment hadn't helped to get his levels up. The PA said that he wasn't comfortable sending S home with such low oxygen levels. He asked me to take S directly over to the ER to get oxygen. He told me that S might be whispering because he couldn't get enough breath to actually use his voice.
When we got to the ER, the PA had called ahead, and they told me that they were trying to decide if they were going to just admit him to the hospital, or if they were going to try treating him in the ER first. Then, they asked if there was anyone I could call that could take care of J, so they could limit what J was exposed to. Everyone that I know has young children, and if S really did have the flu, like everyone kept saying, I didn't want to share that wealth. Thankfully, I have a sister in town. What you can't ask friends to do, you can ask family to do. She came over quickly and took J back to my house, where she hung out with my kids until Dad could get home from work.
They decided to treat S in the ER, so we were admitted back into the ER, and they hooked S up to oxygen - the little tubes in the nose. He kept complaining that it was hurting his nose, and I just kept telling him that he needed to keep it in. Very quickly after he got comfortable on the bed, all energy drained out of him. I can't explain why he dropped so suddenly in the ER, when just 10 minutes before he had been running around, my normal boy.
When the took him to get a chest x-ray, he could barely stand up to allow for the x-ray. He was so limp and exhausted. I tried to get him interested in what was going on, and he just sat there, uninterested. We went back to the room, and he lay back down. I told the nurse that his nose was hurting with the oxygen, and she tried a adult sized tube. She had to trim it down, but once she switched that out, he was happier with the tubes. He drifted off to sleep.
The doctor at the ER were convinced that S had the flu. One doctor made a point of making sure I knew that everyone else in the family would get the flu - I don't know if he was trying to make the point to prepare me, or to point out that if we had gotten vaccinated then we wouldn't be IN this situation. I still am not convinced that he had the flu - there were no flu-like symptoms! I was watching the news there at the hospital, and they ran a story on determining the difference between a cold and the flu. A cold, you have a wet cough - the flu dry. A cold, you can have a fever, but no body aches. Flu always comes with body aches and a fever. Sean fit the cold, NOT the flu.
We got to the ER at about 1:30 pm. They watch S's oxygen levels, and finally decided that they needed to admit him. They got a room ready for him, and we were moved. Thankfully, they gave us a room with two beds so I could stay with him. Our room was on isolation - anyone coming into the room needed to wear a plastic robe, gloves, and a mask. If I left the room, I would have to wear it outside of the room - I had already been exposed, so I didn't have to wear a mask, thank goodness!!!
Dad got home from work and he and our neighbor came over, all dressed up, to give S a blessing. Then, we were on our own. The nurses were concerned that S would freak out over everyone around him. He was too tired to even respond to their jokes about it, but even if he had been himself I doubt it would have bugged him. He is a good boy, and doesn't freak out easily - about most things. We didn't experience anything there at the hospital that pushed his freak out button, because we never saw his siblings! :)
S played the Gamecube that they had in the room. I had Ray bring me clothes, and my book. The nurse asked me if I wanted to help out with the feeding, bathing, and other stuff. I said yes, of course, as much as I can. She told me that there are some parents who don't want to - the impression I got was they just treat it like a full-service hotel, with the nurses at their beck and call. I could NEVER do that myself. The only time I called the nurses in was when I couldn't do it myself.
The funny thing was that anything that came into the room was then stuck in the room. Any games, any medical stuff - we had quite a collection by the end of it. The food was served on styrofoam trays that could be just thrown away. Every time someone came into the room, they had to dress up - and then take the mask, gloves, and robe OFF before they left the room. The garbage was overflowing with robes before we'd been there four hours. The only exception to that rule, it seems, is the nurse that comes to take his vitals. He wheeled his stand in behind him, put on the blood pressure cuff, and tested his oxygen levels - weren't they constantly checking his oxygen? - then when he was done, the cart left with him. Things that make you go hmmm...
If you ever plan these things, do NOT stay in the hospital overnight around Halloween time. The only movies I could find were all horror flicks, not my cup of tea, so there wasn't much for me to do. S was not very needy, he just lay in bed staring at the tv. It took a lot of effort just to get him to respond to anything else. I don't have any pictures to scrapbook, but the most vivid images for me are S, limp on the bed, his oxygen tube in his nose, his oxygen monitor on his finger, IV in his hand, staring at the TV. So not my normal little boy. I also won't forget when the door opened and Dad and our neighbor were there, all robed up, to give S a blessing. I didn't ever actually break down and cry, though there were a few overwhelming moments when I was close, and that was one moment, during the blessing, that my control slipped a bit, and tears flooded my eyes.
I never sleep well in hospitals. Lately, I don't sleep well away from home at all. S fell asleep around 10:00 pm, and I attempted to go to sleep at 11:00, without much hope. I didn't really realize I had falled asleep until I woke up. S's oxygen was tanking out, even with the oxygen tube, so a nurse came in to turn up the oxygen, and they did an extra breathing treatment. I got back to sleep, to be woken up by the IV machine beeping - it did that every two hours, and there didn't seem to be much they could do about it. Why? Hmmmm.... I don't know. It beeped for 45 minutes straight once, not in the middle of the night but right at nurse shift change - and they can't just run in and fix it, because they have to robe up... So, I didn't get more than two consecutive hours of sleep, but I did sleep, so that was okay.
Dad and I were both hoping that Friday would be the day S would get to go home. Through out the day, they tried taking S off of the oxygen to see if he could hold his own levels up. And, each time they came back in and put him back on the oxygen, I lost a little more hope. S's IV got clogged, and instead of replacing it they just disconnected it because he was probably going home. But, around three, the nurse told me that it looked like we would be staying the night again. Dad dropped by more supplies, and we settled in.
Following my mommy instinct, I asked S to stop lazying around on the bed. I asked him to sit at the end of the bed, using his own muscles, or in a chair. He obeyed after some coaxing, and quickly seemed more energetic. I took him to the bathroom, taking the oxygen off... and I didn't put it back on him. I made note of the time, so I could tell the nurse when it was, and they could check his oxygen levels from that point. S got dressed, ate his dinner, and started asking if he could get out of the room. We put on masks, S put on gloves, and we went for a walk.
At 7:00 pm, my nurse called me on the phone. She appologized for calling me, but she said she was just going off shift but wanted me to know that S was doing so much better that the doctor said he could probably go home tonight -they'd just watch him until 9:00 pm, and make the final decision. I tried to keep S up and moving around to keep his oxygen up, but he was still sick, and started asking if he could lie down. He ended up on his stomach, asleep - I kept worrying that would tank out his oxygen, thinking about turning him over so his levels would stay up... but knowing that if his oxygen was too low to go home, we shouln't go home, and I shouldn't buck the system.
Even with his sleeping on his stomach, at 9:00 pm we were released to go home. We put on our masks, I carried a sleepy S and a nurse carried my bags, and we went out into the cold night to go home. Oh, it was so good to go home. The staff at the hospital were all great, as helpful as could be, and having my meals brought to me warm and yummy is always a treat - but nothing could compare with my son being able to breath on his own! :)
I have an inhaler at home for him, in case he needs it, but he hasn't needed it yet. The doctor did show me his x-rays, and there was a bit of what the doctor called viral pnemonia in his lungs. So, that is what I think he had, a touch of pnemonia. I'm still not convinced of the flu. The most common question is if S had asthma, which he doesn't, but I asked the nurse if I should be watching him for signs of it, since his lungs were so involved in the illness. She said I shouldn't be too worried about it, one time doesn't make asthma.
I'm keeping him away from people, just in case of the flu, or something else contagious. We only went to Sacrament meeting today, and that only because Dad was being sustained in his new calling today. Now, we're just hanging out at home, the boys feasting on Halloween candy. S didn't even go trick-or-treating. He and J fell asleep at 4:00 pm watching a movie - and S didn't wake up until this morning. Dad tried to wake him up, asking him if he wanted to go, and he just shook his head and went back to sleep. He's healing. Fro which I'm thankful. I was never truly worried that I would lose him, he just was never that sick - but being in the hospital is NOT a good sign of health!!!
It is nice to not be around people who are afraid of my germs, though. The first thing I did after I got home and got S to bed was take a shower. Spending 20 hours surrounded by people who have to wear a mask just to talk to you can do weird things to your head!
