I just wanted to share how grateful I am for the blessings in my life. We had a hard couple of days but God has carried us through and protected all of our little ones. (The photo is of us in Olympia on our trip to Seaside, Oregon last week)
It started when we spent the past weekend in Bellingham at my In-laws home on acreage. The farmers in the surrounding fields were cutting and raking grass. In the past Josh has had some complaints of sore, red eyes during June when the grass pollen counts are high. Usually I just give him Claritin for kids or Benadryl and he is better. He started complaining about itchy eyes on Saturday. He took some medicine and seemed better. By Sunday, however, he started seeming a bit tired. He told me that his chest hurt. However, he was not coughing or wheezing noticeably. I accidently gave him too much Benadryl (bad Mom, I know) as I couldn't find a marked medicine dispenser and mistook a Tablespoon measurer as a teaspoon. He became rather tired and didn't want to play (I attributed this to the Benadryl). Then he did go out and play in the sprinkler, at which point he ended up getting really splotchy on his back from the grass. We had him shower off but he never perked up from there. He just kind of sat around and then slept on the way home in the car.
Once we got home he still didn't want to get up, just didn't have the energy and sat on the couch. We were hoping to take him to the doctor in the morning because of how high our medical bills are for the ER. I know that sounds terrible, but since he had no history of asthma and really wasn't wheezing we thought we would be overreacting to take him in. I was still looking up info on the computer about asthma and so was Kaleb, when I discovered something about a constricted chest (I think that is what it was called). It was when a child is not wheezing because so little air is going through that they can't wheeze.
It seemed upon listening to his chest that he was barely exhaling, very short breaths. Also, by this point he was sleeping again and as I was checking on him started to shake. He appeared rather pale and all of a sudden wet himself. We really freaked out. Kaleb and I called the neighbor whose niece came over and sat with our kids while Violet drove over to spend the night. We were flying around the house packing stuff and ended up bringing Gabe since I didn't know how long we'd be gone. I was praying all the way to the hospital that God would open the doors for us to have good, quick care and not have to wait too long since he seemed pretty sick. When we got there he managed to walk to the desk with me to check in while Kaleb parked the car and brought Gabe in (this arrangement because I argued that I am the pushy one). I think originally they marked Josh as a code yellow and then changed it to code orange (code red is the highest, then code orange) when they saw that he had basically passed out in his chair while waiting to be seen. We were holding him up so that he wouldn't fall. He fell asleep again while being seen in triage and then they took us to a room. I was very thankful for that. I was actually in tears when they said they would see us so soon (there were probably 40 people waiting to be seen and we bypassed all of them).
It is a very helpless feeling to sit there in the hospital waiting room with so many sick people, worrying and not being able to physically do anything.
Anyways, they saw him and we got a Doctor right away, she was very concerned and ordered a chest x-ray, IV with steroids and broncho-dilator treatments for his lungs. He did really well with all of it, we were very proud of him. He perked up after the IV (something about being poked must wake a person up) and watched late night cartoons and "Family Matters" with Steve Erkyl who he thought was funny. He kept laughing so hard that he would have coughing spasms. This was after he started getting better. The doctor said that he wasn't coughing or wheezing because he wasn't moving enough air to even do that. The respiratory specialist was excellent and took the time to answer all of our questions and was very patient with us. We were thankful that the chest x-ray came back normal (no pneumonia or anything).
Everyone we saw was surprised that this was his first asthma attack because of its severity. It was pretty shocking as a parent. I had asthma when I was younger and I didn't enjoy getting "all my old gear back." All the stuff to measure his breathing, the inhaler and everything. However, I can relate to it and I do know how to use all of it. We are wondering if he has been suffering from mild asthma for awhile and we just didn't know (he has been more tired seeming lately and I thought it was just a growth spurt). Josh was released around 2:30 AM and we got him home. He seems so much better this morning and he started taking steroids which will be for this week. We canceled our camping trip for the 4th and are trying to keep him inside while the grass pollen count is so high. We need to let the inflammation go down. Josh will see his pediatrician tomorrow for follow-up. We are very thankful that he is doing so well!
As if that wasn't enough going on, Gabe got ahold of a very small piece of a corn husk, it looked like a top of a green onion and choked on it. Only, I did not know what he had. I just looked over at him on the floor (he crawls and gets into everything now) and he was gagging and trying to spit something out (Josh had just husked the corn for our BBQ dinner before going upstairs to read). I picked Gabe up and put him upside down and nothing came out. By this time I am freaking out and telling Kaleb to call 911. Which he would not do. He said I had to but I wouldn't hand over the baby. Apparently we aren't the best in emergencies. I don't know how EMT's do it but it obviously would not be the life for me. Well, I did end up talking to a 911 dispatcher person for about a minute, giving them my address, etc while trying to dislodge the mystery object from Gabe's throat. Luckily, our older children were busy doing other things and didn't even know this all happened. Finally he coughed out the husk, it was about 2 inches long but not very thick. It was such a wonderful moment.
So I have a renewed thankfulness about life and the gift of each of my children. Thank you, Jesus.
