Children's Hospital at Parker is Awesome

I was hoping to never have to know the inside of the Children's Hospital at Parker, but alas, it was not to be.  Sam had a fever on Wednesday night so Brian stayed home with him on Thursday.  He wasn't sounding very well on Friday morning, so I took him to his pediatrician's office and, based on his pulse oximeter and RSV (positive) results, we were sent directly to the emergency room.



When the PA mentioned the words "emergency room" my eyes welled up and I was so worried.  The PA told me that this is normal.  Children do not always handle RSV very well, so this is a precaution.  A nurse walked me to the emergency room and helped me get Sam checked in.

Initial Small Room

He was immediately put on oxygen and x-rays were ordered.

We were put into a very small room for emergency patients.  I called Brain and told him what was going on.  He busted ass and got to the hospital within 50 minutes, by way of cab ride (paid for by his office) and his vehicle.



Large room



It took a few hours, but Sam was formally admitted to the hospital and we got a very nice, big room where he had room to move around.  We moved right in.

Friday night and Saturday morning were not the best days for Sam.  His breathing was was not the best, so he had to be put on oxygen. 

The first few nurses wanted to give him Neb treatments, but as before, they didn't do a lot to help unclog Sam.  It was just something that annoyed Sam and was pretty worthless.

Sam's oxygen tube



Suctioning treatment



Staring on Saturday afternoon, he started feeling a lot better.  The suctioning treatments were really starting to work and he was doing a lot better.  We were pealing him off the walls.  He was having a whole lot of fun.

Gunk from Sam's nose

Playful Saturday afternoon

Even though he was looking and acting well, tested him without the oxygen and his stats would drop again.  They wanted to keep him overnight again, so we pulled out the pull-out bed and set up for another night at the hospital.

Considering we were at a hospital, the food was actually pretty good.  The best meal that we had was Saturday night.  Their ham and pineapple pizza was pretty good.  I should have taken a picture of that.

Sunday morning and afternoon, Sam was doing just as well as he had been doing on Saturday.  The nurse was somewhat optimistic that Sam would be able to get out later that day, but didn't want to commit to it.  Sam could only leave the hospital if his oxygen content (on room air) needed to be above 90% or
he could leave if he was on 1/2 L of oxygen per hour and keep his oxygen content up. 

Sunday night, around 6, we received a call in our room from Sam's doctor and, since he was on 1/2 L of oxygen per hour and keep his oxygen content up, we were allowed to take Sam home and set up a visit from a respiratory therapist to check his oxygen over the next few days (awake and asleep).  We packed up and got Sam into bed around 8pm.  Brian promised to stay home on Monday so that we could get the house in order before he went back to work.

Sam did very well today.  He was his playful self.  We were able to use a nasal bulb to get more of the gunk out of his nose, but the quantity was greatly reduced.  We received 4 tanks of oxygen this morning to cover him for the next couple of days. 

We received a call to set up an appointment with the respiratory therapist to check his oxygen between noon and 2pm tomorrow.

We will continue to keep everyone up to date on his progress and when he will be able to go back to daycare.

Thank you so much for all of your worry and good wishes.  They have really helped us get through this trying time.

P.S.  I'll talk about the TMJ that I developed on Friday night another time.  :(