A few weekends ago, our family was supposed to go to Salt Lake for a wedding reception and birthday party. Trisha had been to the doctor a few days before and he told her that she was not cleared to take the trip, so Sam and I ventured off on our own. Sam had a little cough as we started the trip, but nothing more. We got to SLC without incidence and played with Grandma and Papa. Friday night was the reception for Trisha's cousin, Katy. Sam and I went and stood in the hour long line of people. By the time we got to the greeting line, it was past Sam's bedtime and he was just plain grouchy. I tried my best to make him say "Hi" to everyone, which he generally loves to do, but he wouldn't have any part of it. He just turned his head and cried at me. We got to Bob (Trisha's uncle) and Sam reached his hands out for Bob to hold him. It was really cute. I didn't catch the picture in time, but Sam really did like his uncle Bob. The reception was beautiful, and I am glad Sam and I were able to go and represent.
After the reception we went to Texas Roadhouse with my mom and dad. Sam wouldn't eat anything and he was just tired. I knew he didn't feel well, when I picked him up and he fell asleep in my arms, that just doesn't happen anymore. We got home, gave him a breathing treatment and put him to bed. He nor I slept well that night. He kept coughing and turning and waking up and crying.
Sam at playland
Saturday, we went to McDonald's with all of Sam's cousins and played. We spent most of the day with family. Saturday night was the birthday party. Sam was getting more and more cranky by the second. Probably because of exhaustion and being sick. He wouldn't eat anything, not even cake and ice cream. He just wanted me to hold him the whole time. We had to leave because he was so cranky. We went back to my moms house and I fed him some real food, which he later threw up all over my mom and dads couch. Then I went to give him a bath because he had thrown up. I got really scared because when I took his pants off his legs were a blue/gray color, the color of dead people. It freaked me out. I thought maybe he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his legs. However, his arms and other parts of his body were colored normal, so I didn't know what to think. I called my mom into the bathroom and she looked and got scared as well. Then we called my dad in and he took one look at him and said, "It's probably from his pants." He was right. He had been wearing brand new blue jeans that had dyed his legs. What a relief that was. He seemed to feel a little better so I put him to bed. He then woke up every 2 minutes coughing and crying. I decided it wasn't worth trying to put him to bed on his own, so he came up and layed on the couch by me. He was having a really hard time breathing. I gave him a breathing treatment but the didn't seem to help at all, just made him more upset cause he hates that stupid machine. His chest just kept working harder and harder to breath and his heart was racing and he was so miserable. I was gonna wait it out until morning, but finally decided to take him into the ER. Just before I decided to take him to the ER, I get a text from Trisha that says, "hey, keep your phone on. I'm having some contractions. I'll call you if they continue." Oh great; a night at the ER and a laboring wife 3 hours away, not what I wanted...
Sam sick on the couch
We (Sam, my mom and I) got there at midnight. They got him right in and started doing things immediately. His heart rate was definitely elevated and his oxygen was a little bit low. Mostly his chest was so tight. They gave him a steroid and started a series of breathing treatments immediately. About 15 minutes after they gave him the steroid, he fell asleep and stayed asleep for most of the time we were at the ER. We ended up being there for 5 emotional and exhausting hours. Each hour, they would give him a breathing treatment of sorts then wait a while then the doctor would come in and check out his lungs. The doctor was never satisfied with his lungs and his oxygen kept dropping to 85. Luckily, our good friend, Esther, who works as a social worker at IMC, walked by our door about 3:00am. She kept us company, got us drinks, made us feel good and told us all the good stories about her crazy night in the ER with several level 1 traumas and a few deaths. Poor Sam was still just miserable while we sat in there. The diagnosis: Bronchiolitis, possibly viral pneumonia, but they didn't care to examine that further. About 5:00am the doctor decided it would be best to transfer him to Primary Children's by ambulance. I hesitated, but it's hard to go against what the doctor says. So, a 15 minute ambulance ride up to Primary Children's it was.
When we got to Primary Children's, they did an initial assessment, and acted like they didn't know why we had been transferred there. By this time Sam was acting more like himself and all his stats were showing it (of course). We just sat at Primary Children's for about an hour and a half and they monitored him before they finally discharged us and sent us on our way at 7:30am. We went home and got a short 3 hour nap. Sam was acting so much better at this point, but still had a lot of congestion. The doctor at the ER told us to come back to Primary Children's later on Sunday and go to the respiratory "Suction Shack." So, I took him there and the respiratory therapist analyzed him and confirmed that he still had a lot of congestion, but he didn't really need a suction. He said that because he was acting so great it seemed like he would be fine on his own, just watching him closely. So, after a long weekend, and a really long night at the ER I drove home to Vernal in a zombie state.
Sam in the ER, you can't see all the wires he's hooked up to. We had to hide those under the blanket so he would stop getting irritated with them.
Luckily Trisha didn't go into labor that night, and we kept the ER visit a secret from her until morning when we knew everything was okay so she wouldn't go into labor. Sam got progressively better on his own after that so we didn't have to do anything else. We are lucky since he has already had RSV and pneumonia and bronchitis that it wasn't more than it was and that he didn't need to be hospitalized.
All is well that ends well. Let's hope we don't have to do that again!
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