4 ER visits and It's only February!

Have I told you lately how much I cannot stand the emergency room at PCMC.

True story:

First, who did not cross their fingers? Jonah has been sick. Very sick. First with something respiratory, he is now back on steroids. (I think he is on steroids more then he is off of them) but today his work of breathing is almost invisible. He is still wheezing though, but that's pretty typical for this kiddo. On Wednesday, Jonah continued to have a temp, but then it progressed into retching (J has a Nissan so he is not suppose to be able to pass stuff back through), by Thursday morning my entire house smelt of bum...Gross, I know, I was there! I went through 23 disposable diapers! (I was not going to be using cloth for this mess!) I threw away 4 onsies before I realized I would rather have him pull out his feeding tube then to pull one more poopy onsie over his head . He was a good boy and didn't even try to pull his G tube out, just spun it a few times in a circle, and was kind enough to let Morgan have a turn to spin the feeding button. Gross, I know... I was there!) Then, more retching, which means more venting, And I'm sorry this one is super gross, If I did not vent him fast enough, the whole that was drilled into him to put the feeding tube in started gushing the throw up out. Gross, I know I was there! When Isaac got home, I took a much needed break. I left J home with Isaac for a bit. An hour or so later I get the phone call that Jonah has thrown up all over our bed and I quote "Its gross" luckily I wasn't there!

When I did get home I saw that he had gone through even more diapers and a full tube off "butt paste" Wow! It just kept going all night! FINALLY, yesterday around 8 am he had his last blow out, and was doing much better. 6 pm I was getting his meds out and pushing them through his tube, hooking up his vest and then I realized that I hadn't changed his diaper all day. I squished it and it was bone dry. I gave him a bolus feed and still no urine...I did what any medical mom would do and went to the computer to google it, then called our nurse to get her thoughts...she said to give it a few more hours, but to give him more liquids through his tube. I gave him another 5 Oz. by 9:00pm he was still dry, I called my fave medical mom Melissa who I know just had a similar experience with her little Josh, but then she reminded me that Josh never was sick, Jonah is sick, and had lots and lots of poopies, so I called Susie the nurse, and took her & Melissa's advice and went up to PCMC...

I walked into the waiting room that You could have mistaken for a bar, with the smells of Alcohol, and cigarettes, ooh how I cant stand the rude people who do not respect the 20 ft rule! anyways I go and check in and the nurse said that there is a 3-4 hour wait to even get into a room. I looked back to see all of the kiddos who were coughing, and laying there lifeless. I told the nurse what was going on, and by this time he had been dry for almost 16 hours, she could see that he was on oxygen, and breathing hard, and she said to just have a seat...I turned to find a seat and there wasn't one to be had, I then told her that I didn't think I had enough O2 to last 3-4 hours, she said "well, when you run out I will just have to bring out a new one for you." Grrrrr! I was mad. I took a chair and dragged it out, next to the hallway. A Man who must have been sticking out the waiting room with alcohol stink, came over to me and started telling me how cute it was that Jonah had to wear oxygen. I wanted to scream its not a fashion accessory, I wonder how cute he thinks Jonah's collapsed lungs are, or how cute his mucus cough is. Hmm I should have asked. That was just a piece of last nights ER visit. By 11:30, Jonah had a spot of urine in his diaper, It was good enough for me. I went up to the front desk and told them that I would be leaving. I signed a paper and took in the biggest breath ever when I hit that fresh cold, non recycled air. I don't mean to sound rude, but I felt like PCMC had turned into some sort of freekshow, of adults. I was so uncomfortable.

This morning Jonah once again woke up dry. So... I was a bit more worried, and thought perhaps I should have stayed to have a Dr check Jonah out. By now it had been 24 hours and 1 barley wet diaper. I took him back up, and was seen right away. No waiting! when the resident Dr came in he looked at Jonah and said "well, he looks OK to me." That's great Mr resident, but the kid has not peed in over 12 hours. HELLO am I talking to the wall???? okay, I didn't say that, but he must have sensed my irritability and had another resident come in, ah, I liked her, she listened, and responded to questions...a bit refreshing. Jonah finally peed and then the attending doc came in and said well, he looks great and peed a ton, (and by ton she means .75 Oz even though I have given him over 30 Oz in the past 16 hours)and he is very active, she thinks he will be fine to go home, just keep doing what I'm doing. THANK YOU! THANK YOU FOR NOTHING! BYE BYE, I just don't get the over casualness of the whole thing. Maybe I'm over reacting, but when it's you kiddo things are so different. I think its part of the curse of having to deal with the medical world so much.