Monday, March 24, 2008

Our Easter....in the ER.

Ahhh yes, never a dull moment around here. In between rehearsals and performances for One Voice Luke and Owen seemed to be 'coming down with something'. I brought them in on Friday morning..just to be safe and it turned out that Luke has strep throat and that Owen appeared to have some sort of virus. As soon as Luke started taking the ABX he was fine...but poor Owen just wasn't kicking whatever he had.

After four straight sleepless nights...and a very fussy, sleepy boy...I decided to take him to the ER on Sunday after church. The ham was in the oven..and the fam was over, but it was the general consensus that I should bring him in.

Our family friend (someone who snuggled with Josh as a baby) came along with me and Owen to the ER...and I'm glad she did because we spent quite a long time there. Fortunately, we got right in when we arrived and I was glad they were taking such good care of Owen.

The first thing was to take an rectal temp...with read 102.7. They swabbed his throat to test for strep, and his nose to test for RSV. (They had me plug his nose to get him to open his mouth for the strep test...THAT was hard and felt so unnatural for me to be doing to him!).

After both of those test came back negative the docs were concerned. He was "the epitome of lethargic" as the nurses said and was definitely a sick little guy. They spent lots of time listening to his lungs, watching his chest...all the while he just laid there sometimes sleeping, sometimes just laying there. He didn't even have the energy to show that he didn't want to be there. Poor guy. They also did the oxygen saturation test thing and fortunately, that was fine too.

From there they decided to draw blood..and do a chest x-ray...both of these are not fun to do on an almost one year old! I had to hold him down while they drew his blood. He did not like that at all..and mustered the energy to fight us on that one! The next thing was to do the x-ray. For those of you who have never had to have one of these done on your baby...this is what it looks like...(this is a pic I got online..not Owen..)



Again..poor guy! I can tell you that Owen was MUCH less happy than the baby in the picture above! After 3 rectal temps and a blood draw...this was not what he was hoping for. Fortunately, it was quick and the x-ray tech was super nice.

So after all that it is determined that his blood work is fine (thank you Lord), his lungs look fine...and well, he just has a virus! Ugh. Its almost easier when there is actually something that you can treat. I was happy that even after being told that it looks to be a virus that they were going to treat him with some zithromax just in case. I know...the whole thing with unnecessary use of antibiotics and all that...but for me it was good news. He has now had two treatments of this ABX and he is definitely getting better. Who knows if its a virus that is just wearing off (it is day 6 of this whole sickness thing) or if its the medicine...but whatever is making my baby feel better is making me happy!

Ultimately I was so happy with how much they did for him. I'm sure there are people out there who would think that now he may have had unnecessary ABX, and unnecessary radiation...but for me it was a sense of relief for them to rule out all of that stuff so I at least didn't have to worry when I got home with him. They treated him very well there (Speare Memorial in Plymouth by the way).

After all was said and done..we got home to have our ham dinner that was still warm..and a relaxing night with the family. The fact that I have been pretty sick throughout the last two days would have to be another post in itself..so I won't even go there!).

Despite the sickies..I still HAD to dress Owen in his Easter outfit. I felt a bit guilty putting a tie on him when he felt so sick, but the pics are priceless!





The boys with Nana. (Jessalyn was down at the sunrise service with Daddy at this point)



"Rock, paper, scissors...SHOOT!"...



Luke, hiding with his Easter candy..







3 comments:

Kann said...

Oh man what a day for you!!! But at least u know!!! I had to do the chest x-ray thing with S too! It was horrible! They still look precious!

Becky said...

Awwww, poor Owen :( I hope he feels better soon!

Amy said...

Poor guy! I hope he is back to feeling himself soon! You too!!

Hang in there mama, spring is coming!! Actually, isn't it already here?? ; )
Amy~