Hospital, hospital, jiggity jig (and 1000 days)

M and I have been dating for 1000 days today.

I wished him a happy 1000 day anniversary last night, just after midnight as we were driving home. I told him that I wished it could have been a more romantic evening out for us.

Real life tends to laugh at our plans.

We spent the day (and night) "out" at the Childrens Hospital. After a day dishing out Advil and Vapo-rub and serving up chicken soup and Jello, we became alarmed as the youngest took a turn for the worse.

My kids don't do anything half-way.

We walked in to ER with the youngest working up to a full-blown Asthma attack. With O2 saturation at 92-93 when we arrived and her pulse rate was 110, my child wasn't critical - yet - but was close (90% usually indicates probable admission as an in-patient for treatment, not just ER treatment).

After a wait in Triage (2 hours?!) we were transferred to the assessment room to wait for the resident. M plugged in his phone and plugged the parking meter. Again. The oldest was happy to play the DS games (in Triage) and read his Harry Potter book.

Eventually the Resident came in and did the assessment - and didn't like what he saw (ears and throat) or heard (chest). I pointed out the child's facial swelling and a new broken blood vessel (eye) due to overstraining to breathe.

The Resident left to get the Attending.

At this point the youngest was showing pronounced signs of hypoxia euphoria and confusion. I was starting to get angry - the delays were going to cause after effects (muscle soreness, broken blood vessels) and compromise recovery. I did not want my child to end up on oxygen just because of the hospital's delays.

The Attending walked in and looked at the younger and declared "That child is working MUCH too hard to breathe". He pointed out to the Resident "Look at the posture, swelling in the face... that child is in trouble." He totally "got it" when I said "virally triggered Asthma" and declared that the youngest is "a cougher, not a wheezer". He asked about corticosteroids and I responded that Dex usually helped immediately.

I think the fact that we were presenting a "cougher" and not a "wheezer" confused some of the staff (like Triage and the Resident) - but the Attending got it. "You've done this before, huh?" with a knowing grin. (Although why objective criteria like pulse/O2 didn't make a difference is beyond me).

Then we were off to wait in a second room for treatment (Dex and inhaled meds). We cobbled together a couple midnight snacks (we'd been there since before supper - thank you Ronald McDonald House for packed lunches for families - wonderful idea) and we all watched waaaay too many hours of Treehouse TV.

Thankfully the youngest started responding to treatment and once everything was stabilized we were sent home.

We headed home on deserted roads in the early morning, picked up a snack, got home at an ungodly hour, emailed work (to take a sick day), fed the cat, tucked the kids in and fell into bed.

Anniversary night at the Children's hospital. We are SUCH parents.