First Trip to the Emergency Room

Well, at 3 years, 10 months and 5 days old, Little Man made his first trip to the Emergency Room. It was the middle of the night on Tuesday, October 20. He'd gone to bed without any problems and was feeling perfectly normal. The only sign of anything out of the ordinary was a slightly crusty nose Tuesday morning. However, he had absolutely no problems with it during the day. Around 2:00 AM Wednesday morning, he woke up in a panic and unable to breathe very well. Between gasping for air and coughing like a seal, it was quickly determined that he probably had Croup.

The first thing we did was try to get him calmed down. Then, we wrapped him in a blanket and took him outside in the cool air. Those two things helped quite a bit, but he still had labored breathing. So, we decided to make a trip to the ER for a breathing treatment of Epinephrine.

We got there and were seen right away. He was put in a room where we did a whole bunch of waiting! Apparently, he was 1 out of 4 kids there with Croup at the same time! They gave him the Epinephrine as well as a dose of Prednisone (steroid). They also took a chest x-ray, which came back okay. So, 2 hours later, we were sent home with the diagnosis of Croup and a prescription for 3 more days worth of Prednisone.

We got home and Little Man went back to sleep right away. Unfortunately, even though he was awake for over 2 hours in the night, he was still up by 7:00 AM! Blech!

Thankfully, that was the only signs of the Croup. He was perfectly fine on Wednesday; he ate normally and played normally. It was very weird; I definitely think it was a result of so many prayers for him! He did have a stuffy nose and slight junky cough, but nights were perfectly fine. The cough was completely gone within a few days and the stuffy nose cleared up about a week later.

At least it wasn't the H1N1 virus!!!!! (Knock on wood!)

Here are a couple of pictures from the ordeal:

A Trip to the ER...

for Shad, that is. He was playing softball and was in the 2nd inning of the 1st game (they were supposed to have a double-header) when he injured the middle finger on his right hand. He thought that he either broke it or dislocated it. Since he's had experience in the past with a dislocated finger, he knew to go straight to the ER (the sooner it gets put back into place, the better). So, he drove himself while Christopher and I followed. We only waited for a few minutes before getting called back to Triage. However, as soon as we walked into the room, Christopher FREAKED out. Apparently, he thought he was going to get a shot or something along those lines. He only calmed down after we walked out into the entry area. So, since he wouldn't let me take him back inside even after trying to reassure him that we were there for Daddy to see a doctor for the owie on his finger, I just went ahead and took him home.

Shad ended up waiting for about 3 hours from the time he walked in until the time he walked out. I guess relatively speaking, that's not *too* bad. It's still frustrating to have to wait, though. They took his blood pressure and vitals first. Then he waited until they put him into a room. Then he waited to have an x-ray taken. Then he waited for the diagnosis. As it turned out, his finger was neither broken nor dislocated. Instead, it's separated tendons from a jammed finger. Then he waited to talk to a doctor about the diagnosis and to discharge him.

He was referred to an Orthopedic Surgeon, but when he called today to make an appointment, for some reason, they referred him to yet another doctor. Instead of playing their dog and pony tricks, he just went ahead and made an appointment with his regular doctor since his back has been bothering him again, too. In fact, he ended up leaving work this morning because of his back, not his finger. He goes Monday afternoon to get checked out.

Did I mention that we're supposed to go to Nashville tomorrow to have family pictures taken??? That ought to be fun.