The Real Story

Here is the information about Everett's hospital stay Thursday and Friday, for those of you who want to know the gritty details.

I posted a little about Everett's illness. His breathing was very labored and so I looked that condition up online to see what I could learn about it. Apparantly if the areas between the ribs are caving in with each breath (and the whole chest area, even), it is a sign of respiratory distress. Those of you who know Everett know he is a pretty solid little guy, so when I saw how deeply his ribs were showing I knew there was a pretty big problem.

Even so, I called the pediatrician and explained the situation because I know that sometimes the Internet is not always the best medical resource. He balked a little after my explanation and proceeded to tell me that I needed to get him to the hospital as soon as possible. The way he talked to me made me feel like he was amazed that I was even talking to him rather than having gone straight to the hospital. I had never seen this type of situation before so I didn't know how seriously to actually take it.

Then it took me a few minutes to get through to Joel, who was playing basketball at the church. He came right home as soon as he realized it was his phone that kept ringing. I mentioned how I would like to take Everett but I knew I had to stay home to feed Ashley. Joel understood and happily volunteered to feed Ashley formula for the night while I took Everett to the hospital. I was so grateful for that. My "momma bear" instinct was kicking in and I think I would not have been happy sitting at home and not making the decisions for him.

When we got to the hospital they took one look at him (his breathing was getting worse by the minute) and brought us to the back immediately without even waiting for me to fill out any paperwork--a first for me in the emergency room.

Everett was so miserable he did not even protest the oxygen mask he had to wear for the next little while. Later when he was feeling better, though, he obviously refused to have anything by his face.

After an examination and an x-ray, all of which took surprisingly long considering the emptiness of the ER, the doctors told us that he was in "acute respiratory distress" and that he needed a dose of steroids and a nebulizer treatment. They considered it a full-on asthma attack and were flabbergasted that there was no history of Asthma in either family. After a few hours of treatments they decided that his oxygen levels were still too low to go home to the admitted us to the pediatric unit. By this time it was 4am and Everett had not really gotten more than a few minutes' worth of sleep.

The next morning Everett's oxygen count was much better, but his chest was still retracting (sinking with each breath rather than expanding) and his breathing rate and heart rate were still high. We saw the pediatrician from our regular office and he determined that Everett had a respiratory tract infection and let us know that the wrong infection in the wrong person can cause a reaction like this, so that must have been what happened (apparently there were alot of people in the hospital with the same problem so it is going around). I was surprised to hear this because his symptoms came on so suddenly. They still considered it an asthma attack, but they do not know if this is going to be a chronic problem, something that we have to watch for over the next few years until he gets older, or a one-time occurrence.

So, we were able to go home Friday night which was nice because Everett's energy was back (plus some of the meds made him a little hyper) and keeping a toddler confined in a hospital is not the most fun for anyone involved. He can only watch movies for a few minutes at a time, after all.

We need to give him an inhaler treatment every four hours and steroids twice a day for the next three days. The only bad thing about the inhaler treatment is that he hates it and screams through the whole process, so getting him back to sleep at night is quite the issue. Since we obviously can't just let him cry it out due to the problem with his lungs, we have been a little lax with making him sleep in his bed.

I think that about sums it up. I know this is more information than many of you care to know but here it is all the same. Everett is happy and energetic today, but he has really dark circles under his eyes and is still a little pale. His breathing is much better which is a huge relief.

My main concern at this point is for Ashley. If this is really a communicable infection then I'm sure she has already had the germs. I'm really hoping that the illness that I have is the same thing that Everett had because that means she has gotten some good antibodies through nursing. So far she is looking good, so I am trying not to be paranoid about her breathing.