Like my other post, this is a late one but a significant one that shouldn't be skipped.
January 14th Benny had to pick up Joel from the daycare because he was running a temp. and had thrown up. So Benny took him to see Dr. Arnold and she checked for the flu and rsv. Negative on both and she tells us he just has crud in his chest and is congested.
So that night we give him tylenol to keep the fever down and he sounds very hoarse and congested. The next day we still notice congestion in his chest so we try steam showers, nasal spray, bulb syringe, humidifier, you name it we tried it. That afternoon he started sounding weasy and I notice when he would breathe in his chest was retracting. I kept asking Benny, "What did the Dr. say? Did she say he had croup?" This irritated Benny b/c he had already told me what she said, but I just couldn't believe that he was "just cruddy with congestion."
So eventually we called Carol to get her opinion on whether or not we should take him to the ER. She said he was probably fine, but it would make us feel better to just check. So me being the smart one that I am suggested we go to the urgent care clinic instead of the ER. There's usually not much of a wait there and I figured they would just tell us he had the croup and there wouldn't be much we could do about it (from what I had seen online).
Well we went, and he did have croup but instead of them reassuring me that we had done all we could and it would get better on its own, they told us to transfer him to the ER right then. What? Why does he need to go to the hospital?- This is what I'm thinking. Turns out it was a lot more serious than I thought, or at least it was at the point where it could have easily gotten very serious very fast. We stayed in the ER until around midnight before they told us they wanted to admit him over night to keep an eye on him. We had been giving him breathing treatments every couple of hours but he was still weazing and his chest was still retracting. At that point the doctor didn't seem to concerned, more just taking precautions so we didn't get stuck in the middle of the night with a sick baby, so I only shed a couple of tears. I stayed the night with Joel and let me tell you. Seeing your baby in a hospital bed crib is not a sight I ever want to see again. It was so pitiful. I wanted to crawl in there with him and hold him all night but I couldn't. He was so exhausted he was able to sleep pretty well.
So the next morning another doc came in to talk to us and ending up saying Joel needed to stay for another 24 hours for observation. That's when it hit me. My baby is really sick. I couldn't help but put my face in my hands and let it all out. It was mostly guilt for letting him go as long as I did before taking him to the doctor. It just falsely reassured me that he was okay since not 24 hours before we took him to the urgent care clinic, Dr. Arnold had told Benny he was fine and just "cruddy". She didn't even prescribe any meds. But the thing about croup is it's on-set is fast. Kids can go from being fine to an hour later barking like a seal. Joel's was so severe that he couldn't cough. He couldn't get enough air in his lungs to cough and here I was trying to sit him in a steaming bathroom. I felt for the first time like I had failed him. I felt guilty before for things like not breast feeding him when he was first born, but this was different and worse. I felt like I had put him in danger. I think at times I can be too relaxed about things and I need to stop and realize it's ok to be a little dramatic and over-protective/cautious when it's my baby. I guess I didn't want to be "that mom" that rushes her kid to the ER with every little fever or cough, but hey- I bet that mom's kids are healthy and that's all that matters.
So during our 2 day hospital stay Joel was his usual angel self. He was exhausted from all the breathing treatments and strangers coming in at all hours to check his vitals, but he never once was fussy. He would just sit in his crib and play or we would go for a walk around the halls and he would "talk" to the nurses. I was better knowing he wasn't hurting at least.
We got through those two days, Saturday and Sunday and went home Monday afternoon. We were off from work that Monday for MLK day, but I still stayed home with him Tuesday and Wednesday. I was pretty drained from being in the hospital all weekend and I just wanted to be with him. It would have drove me nuts to be away from Joel the day after he was discharged from the hospital. Plus he still needing breathing treatments from a nebulizer the next few days after, so I wanted to be the one to help him.
So here we are, over a month later and my little man is all better. The flu went around his daycare a couple weeks ago but he managed to avoid it and he has remained pretty healthy with the exception of a little cold he had in early February. I really appreciate all the doctors and nurses at NC Baptist though. They were so good to us when I delivered Joel there nine months ago and they were go to us when we checked in for the weekend. However, I hope I never see them again! :)
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