911 calls

So in the wee hours of July 5^th, little Tyler had a very rough incident – at midnight he woke up with shallow breathing with abdominal pulling. This is the 2^nd time in his 21 months of existence that this has happened. I thought – well, we can’t do anything tonite – I will have to bring him in early in the morning. We propped him up in the car seat to sleep so his head could be elevated.

Well, at 4 A.M. I heard some strange crying from him. I went in to check on Tyler and I hear him saying, “Hek, Hek.” Which means, “HELP.” He was looking at me and pulling on him car seat straps. But I knew by the way he was doing it, he was trying to figure out a way to breathe. It was very shallow at this point, he was burning up, and he had no strength to put pressure on his limbs or hold onto me. I told Brian and we decided to take him into Urgent Care. I hoped we could be in and out – and expected to probably give him breathing treatments for the next week.

Well, after Brian took Tyler to the back rooms, they suddenly came back and asked me to be in there too. The Doctor proceeded to say, “I don’t want to freak you guys out, but his not getting better, and its so difficult for him to breathe (WHILE HE WAS BREATHING WITH A NEBULIZER) that we don’t want him just to give out and stop breathing. That’s what we worry about for someone so small. His oxygenation was actually getting dangerously low.

The doctor ordered an immediate IV to get air to him that way. They pricked him with a needle to get the IV in – TYLER DID NOT REACT TO THE NEEDLE!

Tyler was so lethargic and unresponsive that PAIN did not register in his little body. As the nurse announced that she had never seen a child NOT react to the injection and there was something very wrong with this - horrible chills went through my body. The doctors were freaking out – and the head doctor said, “MAKE THE CALL!.” They called 911 and in 2 minutes we were in the ambulance. I held him on the stretcher as they rushed us to the closest hospital.

Before we took Tyler in I had been wondering if I was jumping the gun by taking him into Urgent care. But instead of confirming that I was right in taking him to Urgent Care, they said, “Next time, don’t even bother with Urgent Care – THIS is a 911 call.”

For 3 hours they pumped Tyler full of intravenous steroids to open up his tight, constricted lungs. They rushed a pediatric team from Christ Medical because they weren’t equipped to treat young children there at that hospital.

So for the 2^nd time that morning, I found myself in another Ambulance, with Tyler in the back with the paramedics. At the Hope of Christ Pediatric Unit, they placed Tyler in his literal CELL – a crib of steel bars and a plastic tent covering the upper openings. He started breathing on his own again, and he was advanced to breathing treatments every 3 hours, along with IVs now and then, and other meds. We prepared to be there awhile.

They did tests for pneumonia, whopping cough, influenza – all negative. My personal guy feeling on the whole situation was that He had a little cold – runny nose for a couple of days, and then we went blueberry picking right after rain – a VERY muggy, humid, day. With sends red flags for one thing – MOLD! I think that combined with pollen there was just an overload on his little body and immune system (since we knew because of his eczema he would be prone to allergies).

He ended up being diagnosed as BASICALLY Asthma without deeming it to be Asthma. Its called Reactive Airway Disease. And he COULD grow out of it, which would be ideal. But they also said he was have to be medicated with breathing treatments of steroids indefinitely, as well as allergy meds everyday. Well, that’s fine for now – but how about lets try and figure out what the triggers are! I asked every nurse and doctor about allergy testing – all were evasive and – “ get in touch with your regular doctor.” I can medicate him everyday – but if I never find out what caused the issue, what good am I doing for him. I could be exposing him everyday. So I am definitely going to have to take the initiative and get some testing done. At this point I don’t think enough research has been done to know how these meds can effect a child developmentally or behaviorally. And, if it does, it could be in minute ways that add up.

At the hospital, Tyler was extremely obedient and compliant with the nurses and doctors. When they told him it was time for a breathing treatment, instead if the normal fighting they would get, Tyler would put his head forward so they could put the mask on. When they had to give him an extremely foul tasting med they said all the kids hated and coughed and spit out, Tyler sucked it down with a slightly puckered look on his face. The nurse said it was the best she has ever seen anyone take it. During the breathing treatments, one of the black nurses said, “He take it like a MAN, don’t he?” We were proud of him that he was handling things well.

So we left the hospital after 2 days – to our relief, purchased a nebulizer, and started him on his indefinite breathing treatments. Glad that our little scary and expensive adventure is over.