Asthma

A couple weeks after we moved to Georgia Tyler came down with a cold.   He started wheezing a little so I gave him his inhaler and sent him to school.  When he came home he was in a rush to go  jump on the trampoline. A few minutes later he came in coughing and saying he wanted his inhaler because he was having trouble breathing.  I gave him his inhaler and he seemed to be doing ok. At dinner that night Tyler told us he has a rash on his chest. He lifts up his shirt for us to see, and yes he had a mild rash on his chest, but what was more astonishing was the way he was breathing. He was retracting everywhere! I gave him a couple extra puffs of albuterol which helped a lot, but we still wanted him to be seen by a doctor.

We were new to the area, so we didn't have a doctor or know where anything was. We still didn't have internet but thankfully we had our smart phones. We tried to find an urgent care to visit, but all of them were closing. Eventually we looked up a hospital nearby and brought him there.  The waiting room was packed, but I was told pediatrics has their own doctor and we were on a separate, shorter list.  We wait and wait and wait. We finally get a room at 12:45 AM...3 1/2 hours later. I guess the short list of pediatric patients were really sick and so the pediatric physician couldn't get to them all before he was off and so we were seen by a regular ER doctor.

In the ER Tyler received several breathing treatments but started looking worse.  His oxygen went down, was retracting quite a bit, and was for the first time using his abdomen to breathe. Tyler said the medicine "made him worse". The doctor said that sometimes happens when you open up the lungs, and the circulation hasn't caught up and symptoms look worse.  They put in an IV and gave him some muscle relaxants.  I think it was all too much, because when we stood him up to go to the bathroom he started throwing up.  Poor little guy.

His symptoms did improve with the muscle relaxants, but the doctor made arrangements for us to go to the Children's hospital in Atlanta. So at 3:30 AM Tyler and I hopped in an ambulance. It was was the first time either of us had been in an ambulance.

Unfortunately, the arrangements were for us to go to their ER, so we had a new set of doctor, nurses, Respiratory Therapists, admitting staff etc. Thankfully they immediately decided to admit him and we weren't in the ER for long.  So at 7 AM we were finally in our room.  It was morning time for everyone else, but I was ready to finally get some sleep.  They did a respiratory panel to test for the influenza, enterovirus, etc. Enterovirus D68 was going around in Colorado and elsewhere and causing severe asthma like symptoms in previously healthy children, so we were worried he might have something like that.  Thankfully everything came back negative.  Tyler was feeling tons better by that point.  To him the hospital stay was a free day off of school to "lay in bed and watch tv."  

Tyer looking at his dinosaur mask at the Children's Hospital

The next day Tyler was well enough be discharged.  Tyler has had mild asthma/allergy symptoms the past couple years, but now he has a stronger asthma treatment plan with daily medications rather than solely relying on the rescue inhaler.  Hopefully no more hospital visits for this guy.