To Grandmother's ER we go!
What a 24 hours we've had. After very little sleep Thursday night (up late packing, fretting about that I'd forgotten to pack - pull ups and deodorant, it turns out) and an early work day Friday, we headed for Wisconsin around 1:15 Friday afternoon.
The trip ended up taking us about eight hours - during which Michael slept a total of about 45 minutes. At least he was pleasant in the car, babbling, playing with toys, and watching the cars and trucks pass on the freeway.
We got to my parents' house and took our time getting the kids in bed, knowing their schedules were pretty much out the window for the weekend. Michael screamed and screamed and screamed before finally falling asleep around 11 p.m. (midnight, Ohio time!). And then he woke up shortly before 2 a.m. fussing and coughing that awful barking cough. It took me a few minutes to get my head around the fact that he was really having some trouble breathing. We tried using his inhaler (the one we got the last time we were here) and it gave him no relief at all. Clearly we were going to have to take him to the hospital at some point today and we finally decided that we may as well just go in the middle of the night, rather than fretting for hours first.
The people at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin were wonderful and it was a little easier this time because we were already in their computer system. The doctors diagnosed croup pretty quickly. They determined he sounded bad enough that he needed a hefty dose of steroids, as well as a breathing treatment. Unfortunately the breathing treatment meant he had to be monitored for a couple of hours. The meds they were using sent his heart rate pretty high, which was expected. Between that and the alburterol we'd given him at home he was WILD. He screamed his (large) head off during the breathing treatment, Matt and I both had to get involved to keep him from tearing the mask from his face. Then I tried to lay down with him on my chest so we could get a little rest - he slept about another 45 minutes. (For those keeping track, between waking up at 6:30 Friday morning and going down for a nap at 10 a.m. this morning, Michael had slept for a total of about five hours - this from a kid who normally sleeps closer to 14 hours in a 24 hour period.) We were finally sent back home little after six-thirty this morning.
As we left the ER one of the nurses working at the desk joked that they'd go ahead and make a reservation for us for our return to Wisconsin in June.
9 comments:
OH, what a nightmare! I hope he's okay and you get some sleep and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
You & Matt are troupers of an elite degree! We'll say a prayer (or 2) for a healthy & restful trip (the rest of it, that is)...
Oh noes! I hope he conks out for a nice long restorative sleep soon.
Oh I hope he is doing much better!
So we each have a Harper- I love it!
I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was pregnant with Sam. I fell in love with the name Harper for a girl. We obviously didn't use it once our baby boy was born so we went with a traditional name Sam- which is also my grandfathers name.
I was pregnant a year later so Harper came up again if we had a girl. It was absolutely my favorite and when we had a girl I was so excited to use it. Our top two were Harper or Abigail but she is 100% a Harper.
Your Harper is adorable:)
Ok - this drama definitely takes the cake for Easter weekend sickness! I'm so sorry. I keep meaning to talk to you sometime about all the asthma related stuff, since you commented on that one post... but for now, rest up and I hope you have a smooth and uneventful trip home!
I am glad everything worked out and that Michael was in good hands- but what an experience!! Hope you get caught up on the missed sleep :)
It sounds like that hospital likes entertaining out of state guests. Glad you're there once in a while to help them out. Ha! Poor baby, though, glad he's better.
Holy crap!!!!! I'm glad everything turned out OK, but what a nightmare!
Also, I've been catching up on all your posts that I fell behind on while I was slacking off, and congrats on going to work! That's *exactly* the job I would like to have someday. I just need to get off my ass (again with the slacking) and go back to school for my degree.
Oh no! Croup is the WORST! Good thing you got it checked out quickly as opposed to waiting through the night. And drugs--gotta love the drugs. But the stress. Oh the stress. I'm so sorry!!!
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