A Hospital Stay

We spent a night in Akron Children's Hospital this weekend with Caleb.  He came down with a nasty cough a week ago one evening, but the next day he seemed fine with just a touch of a cold. 

However, that touch of a cold turned worse again Friday night.  He and Keith were staying at my mother-in-law's house Friday night when Keith called that evening to tell me Caleb was coughing terribly and having trouble falling asleep.

Caden and I joined them at my mother-in-law's on Saturday and his cough was continuing.  He was still playing around, but the cough was nearly incessant.  Then he started complaining his eye itched; Keith looked and fearing pink eye along with the cough, I found a local urgent care to take him to.  I wasn't concerned going in, just hoping to stop in, get some meds, and take him home to rest for the rest of the afternoon.

However, that sure isn't what happened.  The nurse checked his pulse ox levels when we got there to find they were low and his breathing was more labored than what it should be.  A breathing treatment and chest x-ray later, the doctor thought he may have the start of pneumonia.  They gave us an inhaler prescription to start right away before we drove the hour home to take him the emergency room as they recommended. 

We leave, call Keith, get to the pharmacy, take the meds, and head on the drive back home to the emergency room. 

When we get back home to ER, his pulse ox was normal and they wondered why they'd sent us here, but proceeded to check him out anyway.  After an initial review, they thought everything looked fine and were getting ready to send us home. 

Then they checked his pulse ox one more time, and it was too low.  So we started another breathing treatment and then walked around for awhile to see how his pulse ox level held, and it wasn't enough.  So another few rounds of breathing treatments and another walk around the ER checking his levels, with them dropping as low as 85 led them to decide to admit him overnight for more treatments and observation. 

We learned they don't like to admit pediatric patients at our local hospital and commonly send them to Akron Children's, so we waited for them to arrange a transport.  We arranged for my parents to take care of Caden the dog, and our other car, while Keith rode with Caleb, at his request.  I ran home to pick up a few things and met them at the hospital.  

We spent the night there, they weren't too concerned about keeping us for long, but continued regular breathing treatments and monitoring over night and through the next morning.  We were released around lunch time Sunday with directions to follow up with our regular pediatrician Tuesday. 

Through the whole process Caleb repeatedly told us he wasn't sick, he didn't feel bad, he just had the coughs. 

I've stayed home with him today and he's been playing just fine and is well on the way to healthy again. 

They say it could be the first sign of asthma or just a virus of some kind that needed to work itself out.  We're home with an inhaler and steroids for a few days and hopes that everything will be just fine.