A Night at the ER

I don’t want to hear one more person tell me the flu is no big deal.

Yes, it probably won’t kill you, but it will still make you miserable and send you to the ER.

Putting you hand in a fire probably won’t kill you either, but it will hurt you and send you to the ER. So we avoid doing it right?

Well, it stands to reason we’d want to avoid the flu also.

I thought David was getting better, then he started coughing on Saturday. We put him to bed last night with Vicks on his chest, and the humidifier running with KAZ decongestant in it.

I was worried about David, and checked on him an hour later. He was laying in his bed in the fetal position moaning and coughing. We got him out of bed, and he could hardly stop coughing long enough to get a breath. He was crying too. Then he gagged himself, and his dinner made a reappearance.

When David was  a year and a half he had a bad episode of croup that put him in the hospital over night. It took two or three rounds of meds through an IV, two breathing treatments and a several hours on oxygen before he was well enough to go home.

So we decided to take him to the ER last night before he got that bad again. I mean you just don’t know, and I didn’t want to wait until he was turning blue.

I suggested that Dave take him, and I stay home with Wade. That sent David into even more hysterics, because he wanted me to go. But I knew if it came to needing to hold him down while the nurse administered an IV, I couldn’t do it. The last time when he was still a toddler it took three people to hold him still. I’m not kidding when I tell you he’s freakishly strong. I really wonder sometimes if he’s from the planet Kypton.

That’s a horrible experience by the way, standing there helpless while your child fights and cries, scared to death of what the doctors and nurses are doing to him. I so feel for parents with seriously ill children who go through stuff like that on a regular basis.

So we woke Wade from a peaceful slumber and ran out the door to the ER. It was a blessing that they weren’t busy. The doctor saw him right away, and they took him for x-rays, all in less than an hour. There was a delay while we waited for the results of the x-rays, but as far as ER visits go, it was pretty speedy.

David had swelling in his throat and voice box that caused the croup. The nurse gave him some steroids that helped with the swelling. The doctor said the swelling was caused by a virus – the flu that he had.

David got upset again over taking the medicine. He was afraid it would taste bad. He wouldn’t even try it at first. The nurse tried tempting him with the promise of a Popsicle. But she didn’t know how stubborn David is. Bribery usually is wasted on him.

Now this is the same kid who today wanted to taste the homemade playdough I was making. I told him it was yucky, and he tasted it anyway. Why the playdough and not the medicine? Good grief.

Oh, and his conclusion after trying the playdough?

“Hmmm, it tastes like playdough.”

Really? Who’d of thought.

Back to last night, David kept asking to go home, and I think we finally got him to take the medicine by telling him he could go home if he did.

The medicine did taste terrible, but he got it down.

The nurse gave him a Popsicle, but he didn’t eat it. Who wants a Popsicle at 1 a.m.?

They sent us off with a prescription to fill in the morning.

We got home around 1:30, and put David back to bed. Wade who even seemed to sense that there was some excitement going on, was over-stimulated and didn’t go back to sleep until 2:30. I just laid down and closed my eyes when David crawled into bed next to me around 3.

No one got much sleep last night.

I went out this morning to fill the prescription. I was second in line at the pharmacy when they opened, and still had to wait 45 minutes for them to fill it. Does it really take that long to pour liquid in a bottle and put a label on it? Seems like it used to only take 15 or 20 minutes.

There’s a joke in there somewhere about the government taking over health care, but I’m too tired to come up with it today.

David is breathing fine now, but he’s worn out and still feels yucky.

Now, here’s the thing. The flu doesn’t kill you. The complications do. You can get pneumonia, and a myriad of other things after the flu that can kill you.

You don’t want the flu. You don’t want your kids to get the flu. Stay away from it. Wash your hands. Get the vaccine if it’s available.

The flu stinks.

(I don’t know if it was Swine or seasonal flu. David had a seasonal flu shot, but he got sick with in the 10 days that it takes for the vaccine to be fully effective. And no, he did not get the flu because he got the shot. It’s a myth that you can get the flu from the vaccine.)