Nothing Like a Trip to the ER to Ring in the New Year!

Well, Happy New Year, everyone. Hope 2009 has been going a little better than ours thus far.

After Caleb's flu-bug last Saturday, he seemed to be on the mend. He would still complain about his tummy hurting every once in a while, and got visibly nauseous a couple of times, but no more throwing up. Yay!

Then on Wednesday morning, New Year's Eve, he woke up with a pretty gnarly sounding and incessant cough. This always raises red flags for Jeff and me, since something like that can easily turn into pneumonia with his weak muscles. So we cancelled our plans for the evening and just had a quiet New Year's Eve at home. Caleb went to be early, and so did we.

In the middle of the night I was up with Caleb, giving him cough medication. He also broke out with a fever, so I gave him some Tylenol which did the trick. New Year's Day Jeff and I tag-teamed a football party, so we could still enjoy some festivities, but not have Caleb there.

At about 2:00 in the afternoon, his fever was back and his cough wouldn't quit. I tried to give him some medication, but he vomited it right back up. His breathing was labored and shallow and his heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his little chest. By the time Jeff got home, around 3:30, Caleb's heart rate was at 180 and his respiration rate was at 60 breaths per minute (normal is about 100 and 30 respectively). We got some Motrin in him, packed him up and headed to the ER at Children's Hospital.

Once there, they got us right in. Basically, they got his fever down (it was still 101 after the Motrin) and hydrated him (orally, thank goodness) which brought down his heart rate and respiration to a stable level. They took a chest x-ray to look for pneumonia, but didn't quite know how to read it because he has a funky structure. After a few hours of hanging out, we got to come back home. Luckily we had been smart enough to pack up the DVD player and some movies for Caleb, and books for Jeff and I, so this wasn't a horrendous visit.

Some other positives were that Jeff and I found it refreshing to have an ER doctor that respected our opinions as educated parents, realized that protocol doesn't work for Caleb because he's so different, and came up with a plan of care with us instead of for us. Also, Caleb had a positive experience with doctors this time around. I think this was good after his last encounter with the sleep study, which I had feared would scar him for life (see post: Sleep Study = Purgatory). He even enjoyed all the stickers that the nurses and health techs could hand out. Yahoo, he's not terrified of stickers :)

Caleb's doing well now. He's still coughing a lot, but his lungs still sound clear. As long as we keep him on an alternating regimen of Tylenol and Motrin, that keeps the fever down which in turn keeps his heart rate and respiration rate down. We're going to the pediatrician later this afternoon for follow-up.

Hopefully our first evening of 2009 is not an indication of how the rest of the year will go.