As most people know Christopher has Allergies and Asthma. At times he seems okay but a lot of the time he is not. He don't like to tell anyone but me when he is having difficulty breathing. Last week a lot of the farmers started harvesting their crops. This always makes his allergies act up and then the asthma starts getting real bad. I gave Christopher several breathing treatments Saturday with the last just before bed along with his oral asthma medicine. In the middle of the night I heard some commotion coming from the boys room and heading towards Ashley's and mine. Daniel was carrying Christopher up the stair case to put him in bed with us and said that he was breathing weird. I had Christopher beside me for not even a minute listening to him breath (63 breaths/minute) before I knew that this was something I could not fix. So, I quickly got some shoes on and Christopher and I drove to the ER for him to be seen. We got in the door and they immediately took him back to place a oxy-sensor on his finger and get his vitals. As soon as the sensor read out 85% the nurse opened the door and shouted out "Call Respiratory to the ER". RT came in and did a albuterol breathing treatment but the numbers stayed the same. They then connected him to oxygen and did another breathing treatment with another drug to which they discovered the O2 stats was not going to budge. Next came two different shots in the thigh of steroids hoping that one of them would dilate his bronchial tubes so he could get more air. After about three hours his levels came up to 92% with oxygen on but when they would remove it his levels would plummet back down. So my darling son let the nurses insert a IV into his hand, x-ray him, draw his blood, swab his throat and all with consent from him. They went ahead and admitted him into the hospital until he could hold his O2 levels on his own. They tried many time Sunday and Monday to wean him from his oxygen but were not able to get it until Monday night. Here we are Tuesday and he got to be released with a 96% O2 which is GOOD but not great. SO, what did Christopher have that caused this, his immune system was weakened by having to deal with allergies and asthma that he caught pneumonia in both lungs. Christopher will be on steroids and antibiotics for the next five days, and he will also continue his home breathing treatments.
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Looking back at "The Good" in all of this I came up with a list, or should I call it "What I am Thankful For" list.
It is good that Daniel knows when to get help when he senses something is wrong. He is a smart one and knows his brothers routines.
It is even good that Christopher has Asthma. I had given him a breathing treatment before bed and was already alert to his breathing difficulties.
It is also good that Christopher snores. The lack of is what got Daniels attention.
It is good we have a great ER with caring nurses. There was at all times one Respiratory Therapist and one nurse in the exam room watching him trying to get his O2 levels up.
It is good that Christopher let the doctors and nurses do what they needed and was polite to them about it. He said he forgives Mr. Jason for the needles and that he is not mad. He knew it needed to be done and was happy that he knew the person doing it.
It is good that the nurses and RT came in every hour to wake him. His O2 levels were never the same, sometimes he had to have more treatments than what was prescribed. He got to sleep Monday night for 2 hours at a time (that's the maximum amount of time a stabilized child's IV can go unsupervised).
It is good that Christopher insurance got switch unexpectedly just one week before. They can keep the premiums
for his old insurance coverage, I'm not upset about the switch now.
It is good to be home after being cooped up in a small hospital room with Christopher. After three days laying in bed hooked to oxygen it is nice for him to be able to play.
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