a visit to the rawlins hospital

I finally got to ride in a wheelchair with my baby- I never got to when he was born since he left in an airplane- but I got to on Tuesday morning!

Brecken has had a fever since Friday. We thought it was another molar coming in- he had a fever over Christmas and when it went away, we found a molar. So we kept alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen and trying to keep the fever down. Monday we decided we better get him to the clinic to get checked out, so I stayed home with him. Dr. Jake thought his ears were pretty red, but not infected, and that his throat looked terrible. Brecken had a good cough too, so Jake thought it was the same crud that has been going around. He prescribed us antibiotics and we went home. Brecken had some energy back that evening and we went to bed as normal.

At midnight, I heard him wimpering in his sleep. So I went in his room and felt his head and almost burned my hand off. Brecken was BURNING. I got out the temporal thermometer and totally freaked out when it said 106. I tried several more times and got readings between 104 and 105. Josh tried the under-arm thermometer and go 102.9. He called the doctor on call, who thought we could probably give Brecken a half dose of ibuprofen since it wasn't time for a full dose yet. After Josh hung up, Brecken threw up all over me. That's when we decided it was time to head to the ER in Rawlins.

When we got admitted to the ER, they took his temp rectally, and got 105.1. It's so much more scary to get a reading like that from professionals. I was terrified. My first thought was "Oh my God, he's got meningitis." His heart rate was over 200, and his oxygen level was only about 72%. They started him on an IV, which was TERRIBLE. They only had to stick him once, thank goodness, but the look of terror on his little face is something I'll likely never forget. They drew blood, did a nasal wash to check for RSV (negative), and then we had to do two chest x-rays. Let me tell you how fun that was. It wasn't. He had to sit on a stool by himself. Josh held his head and I held his hips. At 3:10 am, when you are two years old and not feeling good AT ALL, it was a miserable experience. They said his upper right lung looked a little off. They asked if Brecken had ever had problems with his lungs that had hospitalized him before. Why, yes, he has! (click on "why yes he has" if you don't know the story!) By this time, Brecken had had a bag of antibiotics through his IV and was started on his second bag of fluids. They decided we better be admitted into the hospital. FINALLY at 5:30 am, we were given a room. (this is when I got to hold him and be wheeled up to our room!) Then they poked and prodded him and we got no sleep. (I forgot to mention that the hospital is under reconstruction, and at the dot of 7:00, the construction started. RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR ROOM, IN THE HALLWAY.)

So we got to hang out in the hospital bed all day yesterday. Couldn't go anywhere since Brecken was hooked up to the IV, and we had to keep an oxygen tube near him at all times to keep his oxygen up. Plus, Brecken didn't feel like going anywhere- he felt pretty terrible. He would cry every time a nurse would come in because he knew they were either going to mess with his IV in his hand, put a "sticker" on his foot or finger to check oxygen levels, take his temp, make him do a nebulizer treatment, or something else he wasn't interested in doing. Poor kid.

Early this morning, around 3:00 am, his fever broke. And you could tell- he was up and hyper! He was pushing the buttons on the bed I was sharing with him (Josh slept in the other bed in the room), making it go up and down and up and down. He channel surfed on the TV, watched movies on his DVD player, we walked the hallways, he put a million stickers that the nurse had given him on to his hospital mug, and the best thing- he asked for food! He hadn't had an appetite in 4 days so that was a wonderful sign! Finally, he went back to sleep about 6:00 this morning. Just in time for construction to start at 7:00. :) The doctor came in around 8:15 and said we could go home. Hooray! His final conclusion was that he thought Brecken had an upper respiratory infection, even though his white blood cell counts were in the normal range when we came into the ER. And he didn't know why exactly Brecken's temp was as high as it was. But he sent us home with a decongestant, the nebulizer machine, antibiotics, and tylenol.

So, we got home around 11:00 and after lunch, Brecken and I took LONG naps. :) Now we're hanging out and taking it easy. It's so nice to be home! I have to go to work tomorrow morning to work with my all-state kids before we leave on Sunday, so I will go and Josh will stay home with Brecken. Then we'll switch at lunch and I'll come home and Josh will go to work for the afternoon, since he has a home game that starts at 3:00. Josh doesn't have school on Friday so he can stay home with Brecken. Next week we'll get back to normal!

Thanks for everyone that threw prayers our way- they worked and Brecken's on the mend! I can't believe how brave our little boy was. We are very grateful that we have such an awesome kid. Throughout this whole thing, HE was kissing OUR owies. What a trooper.