I sure can’t say that these last few weeks haven’t flown by because that would be lying. It’s kept me away from here which is unfortunate because when the time comes to summarize it (for posterity) pieces of info get lost! Anyhow… here we go.
Last week seemed to have been an extremely bad one for asthma sufferers. Chantale, my sister-in-law, and Melyssa all confirmed that they had it a little rough but with Kyle it was too much. After fighting off a small runny nose for a few days and requiring to be pumped on Monday and Tuesday, it became too much and I had to bring him to the emergency on Tuesday night after pumping him repeatedly (as trained) to attempt to regulate his breathing.
We got there and shortly after triage his o2 sats were quite good although he was raspy. We’re brought into the Asthma Center and he’s given a mask. Every seat/ bed in the place was taken! And everyone I listened to had gone through the same issues. At a little after midnight, we were released (even though he was still coughing). I know it was an overcrowding issue.
We got home after 1am and he promptly fell asleep and slept deeply until 530am at which point he awoke due to coughing. I pumped him again and he managed to fall back to sleep until a little after 6am. Again, the coughing wouldn’t subside and I knew I had to take him back.
We were back at the ER before 7am and sure enough his o2 sats were down at 92%. Off we went to the Asthma Center and treatments started. We basically “opened” the center because we were the first ones in. Within an hour, though, another 5 cases came through. We settled in for a very long wait because he was not responding to the treatments. This was the first time we weren’t released after 3 masks. It would take 6 before he finally subsided.
His sats kept hovering between 92% and 94% and he ended up starting a fever. Doc was worried enough to get xrays and I had to explain to Kyle that there was this big machine that had “eyes like Superman” and would look into his chest and take pictures. He really wasn’t too keen on it before and during, but at least afterwards (when he saw his OWN lungs on the computer screen) he was impressed 🙂
The last mask was basically triple-powered and sure enough he started breathing better and his sats went up to 96%. I think having Chantale there at that time was also a good boost as he had started to whine/ cry about wanting to go back home about an hour before she arrived. At any rate, we were finally cleared to go. I had predisolone to give him for 3 days and regular pumping.
After an emotionally draining experience like that, I took a vacation day on Thursday and stayed home with him. We rested and watched videos, he took his meds, and we even took a nap together. It was recuperative. On Friday, Chantale stayed home to take care of him. This weekend, he got better slowly but finally this morning he was doing MUCH better. Of course, after all that (and being stuck seated next to a lady who had a bad cold) I ended up getting laryngitis and popped pills all weekend long!
Okay, next post will be very soon and much shorter than this 🙂