Child Number Five Is First

Last Thursday I made my first ER visit with one of our children.  Anthony had gotten sick the evening before with croup and got up multiple times during the night.  Then during the day on Thursday he seemed to be improving, crawling around on the floor and playing with the other kids.  Then right after dinner time, he suddenly took a turn for the worse.  His breathing grew labored and he did not want to interact with anyone.  He just looked at me, seeming to say, Help!

So I put him in the carseat, grabbed my purse, and drove off to a nearby hospital (7 minutes away).  He got seen almost immediately and they gave him the standard treatment for croup (racemic epinephrine) and he got worse instead of better.  So they transported him (on my lap) by ambulance to a hospital in Wichita.  What a scary time.  The poor little guy was really working hard to breathe.  In the Pediatric ICU, he was poked and prodded all night long.  I had to help hold him down multiple times for IVs, blood draws, x-rays, breathing treatments, etc.  Finally, by morning he seemed to be breathing easier, and he was able to go to the regular Pediatric floor on Friday afternoon.  

Dan's brother came to our house after he got off work and stayed with the kids all evening so Dan could come up to the hospital (and cooked them dinner, and then even fixed our broken sewage pump, which had quit working on Thursday - wow!  Thanks, Al!) 



Here's Dan with our poor little sick baby on Friday evening in the hospital.  It was so warm in the room that Anthony was happy in just his diaper.  It's hard to crawl around in a hospital gown.





You can tell he is feeling better at this point.




Anthony got to leave the hospital on Saturday afternoon and come home.  Daddy and the kids picked us up.  The kids were so excited to see Anthony. 

 
Anthony is doing better this week, but still recovering from his illness.  The house is a disaster, and I'm still trying to catch up on laundry, but we are very thankful that he is home!