Friday, March 30, 2012

ER Visit and Hospital Stay

Spring Break didn't start out how I'd hoped. Once we got home from Rachel and Eric's house, we put the kids to bed around 7:30. Brian and I didn't go to bed until around 11. We didn't get to sleep very long. At 12:30, I heard Gavin crying out for me. I jumped up and before I even got into his room, I knew that I had to take him to the hospital. He was crying and struggling to breathe. I knew it was a repeat of the past and he could only be helped at the hospital. I took him outside for a brief moment hoping it would help, but it didn't do much. Brian took Gavin and changed his diaper and loaded him in the car while I got dressed and put some necessary things in my purse. Even though it was a very short drive the hospital, this seemed to take forever. I was praying the whole way that I would get him there and they would treat him right away. I hated going by myself, but there was no other option.
We walked into the ER around 12:45 and they took him back right away. In fact, two people were working on the process because they could hear him when we walked in. Once back in a triage room, four people came in at one time (doctors, nurse, and tech). It was a little overwhelming for me so I can only imagine what Gavin was thinking. He handled it so well though. He is such a good patient and quickly charmed everyone who came in contact with him. After asking me a bunch of questions, the doctor ordered a breathing treatment and steroids. They came and gave him a breathing treatment and ended up giving him two back to back because it wasn't helping enough. Even after two treatments, his breathing was still labored.
After the initial chaos, things calmed down and we just hung out for a bit. I brought a few toys to entertain Gavin and we found some random cartoons on tv. Not a lot of variety at that time of night! I climbed in bed with him and tried to sing him to sleep. He wanted me to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "ABCDEFG" over and over. I almost had him asleep and then he bounced back. This is when it got a little crazy. He was so slap happy. I was started to get really tired and struggled to keep him on the bed. He was attached to a pulse oxygen reader and he kept wanting me to take it off. He also wanted down. Finally he said, "Daddy get me down? Grammie? Grandma?" and proceeded go to through everyone in our family. It was too cute.
After a few hours, we were taken up to our room. We finally got settled in around 4:00am. I got him to go to sleep and I was able to sleep for a few hours too.
Gavin stayed until Tuesday morning. The steroids and breathing treatments made him super hyper. We literally walked around the halls too many times to count. Everyone took turns walking laps. He also got to play in the playroom a few times. He was like a Tasmanian devil destroying everything in sight!
Gavin had a few visitors. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Allie, and Aunt Katie stopped by. Thankfully, Aunt Katie took Macie with her to Sturgis. Lilah was a whole different story. Brian brought her to me so I could feed her and I pumped the whole time to keep up with her. This was a moment when I realized three is enough for me!
Overall,Gavin was in good spirits the whole time and charmed everyone he met. One tech even called him froggy. When it was time to leave, they were sad to see such a sweet, happy patient go. He took his medicine like a champ! They even joked they should video tape him taking it so well!
I'm happy to be home, but I still have a lot of worries and concerns. In my heart, I know we are going to be back there again. Only time will tell how it all works out.
*I took a lot of pictures with my new phone, but now I have to figure out how to email them to myself:)

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