After the nap

When Will woke from his extended nap on Saturday afternoon. I knew things were not "right." He had thrown up all over the place and actually slept through it! I picked him up and he was on fire. Thank goodness I travel with my handy dandy ear thermometer. I know, call me anal, but its true. Anyhow, his temp was 102.5 and he was extremely lethargic. Off to Vanderbilt we went.

Thank goodness my Mom came with me!! Apparently they are doing road work on the interstate and it was to be closed all weekend long!! I had NO idea!! Well, after sitting in traffic for what seemed like forever and then taking every back street known to man, we arrived at the hospital. I took Will in and we waited. Not long though, I would say about 15 MAYBE 30 minutes. When he was triaged his oxygen saturation's were in the mid 80's. This is NOT Will!! Also, his respiration's were pretty high. His rectal temp was a boiling 104.7!!! He was immediately given rectal Tylenol at my request. From previous experience I knew that anything we put in his mouth, we (mainly I) would be wearing it in a matter of seconds!!

Once in a treatment room and hooked up to the wonderful jumper cable like monitors, Wills respiration's were well over 100 and his heart rate was INSANE! I was in shock!! I had NO CLUE what was going on with my baby. This was so sudden and odd for him.

The decided to do a chest x-ray and a urine. Both came back lovely. Still no answers. They started and IV and a continuous albuterol. Now, seriously, knowing Will, I was pretty darn certain he would fight that mask with ALL he had in him and it would be pointless. To my surprise, my poor baby didn't even have the energy to fight it. He just sat in my lap and moaned. It was heart breaking. They gave him a dose of Mag Sulfate, it is a smooth muscle relaxant and helps specific muscles relax. Here, we were shooting for the smooth muscles of Wills lungs. When I had mag, we were shooting for the smooth muscles of the uterus. Remembering how AWFUL this stuff is, I went into tears for my little man. The Doctor eased my fears and gave him some IV Zofran to help ward of the nasty side effects of the Mag. Bless her heart!

After the does of Mag and 2 hours into the continuous albuterol, Wills heart rate and respiration's started to level off and chill out a little. They were admitting us! So here I am in Tennessee with Will and Morgan. Mike is at home with the dog. Will and I are to spend an unknown amount of days in the PICU at Vandy and my poor Morgan is with out me.

Once we get up to the PICU our nurse and RT seem to move like pond scum! I know it's 3am but seriously. Let's get in, get it done and let the baby sleep already, right? Yeah, NOT on their minds I don't think. The nurse takes her dear sweet slow moving time getting all of the info from me. I am ready to just spit it all out and be done. But it's more like one question here....listen to Will there....another question over here....GRRR! OK, so FINALLY she is finished. No big deal. The Doctor comes in and is wonderful. Love her. Cannot remember her name.

The Doctor has ordered a RSV and FLU tests. Perfectly fine with me and completely expected. No big, right?? Right! Or so I think. The nurse gets "tired" of waiting on the RT to help her. I ask if holding him is all she needs help with and if so, I do not mind doing that at ALL! I actually prefer it. So OK, here we go with the nasal swab for both tests. Annoying to Will and I cannot blame him. I mean who ENJOYS having something shoved up his nose?? But it is over and done and good to go. Or so I thought.

I had JUST gotten him calmed down from the swabs and in walks the nurse and RT, flapping some paperwork in their hands. Apparently the nurse did a super stupid thing. I have NEVER wanted to deck somebody so bad in my entire life!!! She had taken those swabs from Will BEFORE she got the official order from the Doctor that stated she wanted a nasal wash done. OK, step back for a moment here. My husband works on multi million dollar aircraft. They do not do a single thing to these aircraft until they have and order. So WHY on Earth would you do a test on a baby BEFORE you get the order!??!?!?! My mom asked what was going on and I (rather rudely might I say) told her that because this nurse screwed up, Will was going to have the test done again. I had to walk out. I have ONLY walked out of a handful of procedures in Will;s hospital life and those are ones family members are advised NOT to be around.

I am so thankful my mother was with me. She advised the nurse and RT to get everything they needed for the test and the entire night before I got back in there because they were NOT to touch Will again until he had gotten some sleep. My poor boy had not been allowed more than 20 minutes of rest since we got to the hospital at 5pm. It was now 4am. To my surprise, they didn't touch him again.

Will did end up needing to stay on Oxygen for 24 hours. After albuterol treatments out the rear and some much needed rest, he was feeling MUCH better. Saturday morning we had a great care team. If Will was sleeping, they would do their best to be as quiet as church mouse if they NEEDED to come in. Otherwise, his cares waited on him to be awake. This was also the case with the AMAZING crew we had Sunday evening.

Will was taken off of Oxygen during the day on Saturday and needed very little, practically NO help the rest of the time we were there. On Monday morning we, again, had great staff. The nurse found a wagon for Will and the Doctor took away ALL of his wires. We were free to roam! And roam we did. I think we visited almost every floor of Children's and even went for a small outside venture. It was WAY too hot for us to be out there. Once returning to our room for a little late lunch, we had discharge orders! YAY!

I know a two day hospital stay really, honestly, is NOTHING but it seemed like the longest two days of my LIFE! My husband and I joke that I am never coming back to Nashville. Every time I do, one of our children ends up in the ER or in the hospital. I swear.

So anyways, long story short (longer than I meant to write) we are still here at my moms house in Nashville and are planning on leaving in a few days. Will is restricted on his time outside each day and Morgan is going insane from boredom. I hope you all are having an amazing week so far.

Be safe.