Trip Number Three

Bryson is becoming a regular in the world of ambulance riders.  Today he had his 3rd, YES THIRD, trip to the hospital via an ambulance.  When will the madness stop??

It all started this morning when he over slept.  Dave didn’t think anything of it…but when 9:30 rolled around he decided something wasn’t right.  Note, Bryson is normally going strong by 6:30AM.  So anyway- Dave went in to check on Little Bee and found him to be febrile and lethargic and (of course) working hard to breathe.  After our experience last time around, he didn’t waste any time calling me at work to tell me what was up.  I suggested that they should call the pediatrician and head in to be seen.  I updated my co-workers that Bryson was a little sick, but continued working in the trauma bay, because everything sounded pretty stable.

Then I get a text message that his pulse ox was 83%.  JUNK.  Yes, I was thinking another less P.G. word at the time, but anyway.  All I could think was how quickly can I get out of here?!  Thankfully the people I work with were awesome and told me to leave before I even finished telling them what was going on.  I guess they could read the distress on my face.  So then I drive, like a bat out of hell, to the pediatricians office, my imagination running wild, because Dave isn’t answering his phone.  When I get there, Bryson is strapped up to an oxygen tank, and getting 3 liters of oxygen and his second nebulizer treatment.  He has already received a dose of steroids.  He looks pathetic.  Just laying there.  The pediatrician says that she just isn’t comfortable sending him off like this, and says she is calling 911 to get an ambulance transfer to Egleston Children’s Hospital.  Seriously? 

So 5 minutes later, we are loading back onto a big red ambulance and whisked off to the hospital. 

His saturations were improving by the time we got there.  I guess the nebs and the steroid were helps some.  That and maybe the pulse ox at the clinic was not working as well. At least that is what I am telling myself.  But regardless, he was quite febrile (temp of 103) and he was working too hard to breathe.  A quick chest x-ray revealed the culprit.   PNEUMONIA. 

Its not a “big pneumonia” like I am used to seeing in surgery when kids need to have chest tubes and VATS (video assisted thoracoscopy). But still, there is was, clear as day, and it was making our little Bee sick. 

Poor Bryson. 

So they gave him a shot in each thigh of rocephin and sent us home on nebulizer treatments every 4 hours.  If his breathing gets worse at all, or he changes in any way, we are to come back in immediately.  Tomorrow we are supposed to go back to our pediatrician to see if he is going to continue with antibiotics by shots or if he will switch to oral meds.  <sigh>  

Great- and I am on call tonight.  Not that I don’t trust Dave…his instincts were right on this morning.  But I want to be here with my baby.  Remind me again- why did I pick this career?