Toddler Asthma
Usually it's something that they outgrow, but right now we're in the thick of it. Eric was admitted to the hospital last Monday for the second time since September. I expected to be released the next day, but his oxygen levels dropped in his sleep to dangerously low levels and it took a lot of oxygen and albuterol to keep them normal. The nurses and residents hovered around our bed in the dark throughout the night. In my exhaustion I thought we had been abducted by aliens. This trip to the hospital coincided with some of the first deep sleep I've been able to get since I got pregnant again. For the last few months, I've been sneezing through the nights, or getting up to pee every 30 seconds. Suddenly now, for no explicable reason I've been sleeping soundly again.
Cambridge Hospital doesn't have a pediatric pulmonologist. We didn't get to see one until Thursday night. By then we were ready to fight to get taken to Mass General or to Childrens. During my limited contact with the outside world I realized that there would be much better hospitals for such an extended stay. So, on Thursday night we agreed that we'd either go to MGH or go home on Friday.
Rich was grumping around saying "Let my people go!" I said you can't really say that unless you're Jewish. He shrugged and said, "My people are Jewish." Fair enough... Fair enough.
The pumonologist came on Thursday night and took Eric off the albuterol, changed a few other things, and voila! He got through the night without oxygen. He came back the next day and released us around noon.
So, he's been at school all week. Two of his teachers came to see us while we were in the hospital. I finally realized the point of a cooperative daycare center. Yes, it's a real pain in the ass time committement. But DAMN, when the sh*t hits the fan, these folks come through for you. Another family came to see us as well. The year is still new, and we are slowly becoming friends with other parents. However I think this accelerated a few frienships we would have wanted to have.
Rich is on a business trip to Burlington Vermont. Thank God, he'll be back tomorrow. I've been a single mom since Tuesday evening. Every day when I manage to get me and Eric out the door fully clothed, I want to ring my neighbors doorbells and say "Look what I did! We're dressed and fed and it's before 8:30 AM!"
Usually it's something that they outgrow, but right now we're in the thick of it. Eric was admitted to the hospital last Monday for the second time since September. I expected to be released the next day, but his oxygen levels dropped in his sleep to dangerously low levels and it took a lot of oxygen and albuterol to keep them normal. The nurses and residents hovered around our bed in the dark throughout the night. In my exhaustion I thought we had been abducted by aliens. This trip to the hospital coincided with some of the first deep sleep I've been able to get since I got pregnant again. For the last few months, I've been sneezing through the nights, or getting up to pee every 30 seconds. Suddenly now, for no explicable reason I've been sleeping soundly again.
Cambridge Hospital doesn't have a pediatric pulmonologist. We didn't get to see one until Thursday night. By then we were ready to fight to get taken to Mass General or to Childrens. During my limited contact with the outside world I realized that there would be much better hospitals for such an extended stay. So, on Thursday night we agreed that we'd either go to MGH or go home on Friday.
Rich was grumping around saying "Let my people go!" I said you can't really say that unless you're Jewish. He shrugged and said, "My people are Jewish." Fair enough... Fair enough.
The pumonologist came on Thursday night and took Eric off the albuterol, changed a few other things, and voila! He got through the night without oxygen. He came back the next day and released us around noon.
So, he's been at school all week. Two of his teachers came to see us while we were in the hospital. I finally realized the point of a cooperative daycare center. Yes, it's a real pain in the ass time committement. But DAMN, when the sh*t hits the fan, these folks come through for you. Another family came to see us as well. The year is still new, and we are slowly becoming friends with other parents. However I think this accelerated a few frienships we would have wanted to have.
Rich is on a business trip to Burlington Vermont. Thank God, he'll be back tomorrow. I've been a single mom since Tuesday evening. Every day when I manage to get me and Eric out the door fully clothed, I want to ring my neighbors doorbells and say "Look what I did! We're dressed and fed and it's before 8:30 AM!"
posted by Margaret at 9:31 PM
2 Comments:
How awful and scary for you!!! I don't remember that he had asthma - is this new?
Hugs,
P
My 27month old was just admitted on Tuesday! His daddy has asthma really bad. It started with weezing so I scheduled a doctors appointment. At the doctors, 3 doctors came in to listen to his chest and back(lungs) and decided to give him a nebulizer treatment. After they all listened again and there was no change. They sent me to Franklin Square Hospital. After finding a sitter for our little girl(15mths) we were on our way to the ER not knowing what was in store. We got there and had 2-1 hour treatments back to back and some chest x-rays. Our lil man was not a happy camper!! It was so hard and painful to see him so much in pain. He really wanted to talk to his aunt(Aunt Manna), so that made him light up for a bit. So, around 6pm they decided with his oxygen still being extremely low, to put him on oxygen and admit him. I cried my eyes out. I was scared for my baby boy. He was scared as well, so he just had to call his grandma and pop pop. So we got into his room, and I saw this cage looking crib. It looked like they were trying to lock in a tiger!! They were putting him on 10 minute treatments every 2 hours. He had about 5 of these. Through the night he slept and his oxygen, they said, was great!! Of course, daddy had to go home with sissy over night, so he did not like being without daddy!! So they came and ave him treatments every 2 hours while he was sleeping. That morning they decided to space him to every three hours. In between waiting, they came to listen to his lungs and they said he sounded wonderful and to space him to treatments every 4 hours. By noon that day daddy came back and we all ate some lunch. They came and said that we would be able to take our little boy home by 7 that evening!! We were so happy. They released him and now he must take the albutorol treatment every 4 hours and take 2 teaspoons of steroids once a day for 3 days!! Today, being the second dy hoeme, he went to the doctors for his hospital follow up. She said he was doing great!!! He still must do treatments every 4 hours until tomorrow when I can change it to "as needed". I am now so worried when he gets active and starts weezing. I just don't want him to go threw another hospital day and night. It was really one of the worst times I have ever experienced. Seeing him in so much pain and discomfort was hard!! I have now been doing a lot of reading on toddlers with asthma and it seems not as bad as I thought, but still something that needs to be cared for on a regular basis!!
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