Friday Night in the ER

Since the beginning of January Brad has been sick. Unfortunately, we have not been able to see his normal doctor. To make a long story short, they are hard to get in to see...so we found a new one. Brad visited the urgent care twice. Both times diagnosed with bronchitis, but that it was viral and they couldn't do anything but have him wait it out. They did give him antibiotics the first time and it kind of worked, but he got sick 2 weeks later. The second time he went in....same thing: coughing, wheezing and very lethargic. This time he yaked all over the urgent care lobby (that got him seen ASAP)! They gave him a steroid and sent him home saying he'll need to wait it out as it isn't bacterial.

Fast forward to this week. He has been coughing a bit here and there. Then he came home Friday all lethargic. By bed time he was having a hard time breathing. His face was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. We didn't want to wait for urgent care in the morning, so we took him to the ER.

It looked pretty busy, but as soon as we said "trouble breathing" the nurse pulled him back to the triage room before I could finish filling out his name on the form. The dr immediately saw him. We had a respritory therapist (I can't spell) come in and help him with some breathing treatments. About 3 minutes in to the treatment his cheeks were pink again and he was able to take deep breaths. It was such a relief.

He hasn't had to have breathing treatments since he was about a year old. We were hoping the asthma Rob has as a child wouldn't be passed down to Brad. However the dr thinks Brad may have it. The RT showed Brad how to use an inhaler and they checked his oxygen levels and lungs again before we finally got home.

Brad was exhausted and was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

So glad to have my pink cheek sweetie back to breathing normal again! A sick child is such a scary thing. As a parent I feel so helpless to help him. I am very thankful for the staff at the hospital. They were fast, friendly, and very helpful.