Until we are blue in the face

7.14.12

Last night was another first for us.  We made our first ER trip.  Evan gave us the scare of our lives last night.  Jacqueline had just finished feeding him and passed him to me to burp.  She began feeding Emily and we started our favorite way to pass the hour or so it takes to complete the feeding process, an episode of Bones.  We didn't make it more than five minutes in when Evan started to cough.  This is something he has done on a few occasions in the last week or so, but this time would be different.  It seemed like he was trying to spit up and couldn't, so he began coughing harder.  After a few seconds of this he stopped coughing and I began a process of aging a decade in ten seconds.

He wasn't breathing, was beat red, and in a matter of seconds his lips started turning blue.  I could feel my heart hit the floor.  Jacqueline told me to blow in his face and elevate his feet. I did both and was calling out his name (not that he responds to his name, but I would have quacked like duck if I thought it would help).  Ten seconds or so later, which passed in ten years, he began coughing again.  The whole process lasted about two minutes and he calmed down.  We called the pediatrician and they told us to go the ER.

They did an EKG, chest X-ray, and are running cultures for a host of things including whooping cough.  He was admitted and is still at Lurie Children's Hospital. So far everything has been normal and the docs think it was a case of reflux gone bad.  He might have a little cold type thing that is contributing to the problem.  If everything checks out and they don't find a major underlining cause of the event then he should be home tonight.

I have never wanted him home more, not even when they were in the NICU.  We are praying, and ask you to join us, that this doesn't happen again, that there are no insurance issues - Jacqueline was officially done with NIU yesterday and we will be switching everyone to my insurance - and that his reflux begins to clear quickly.  The doctors have said there is no real time table for reflux to calm down, but six months is usually the earliest.  So we are aiming for that time frame.

Lurie Children's Hospital is very nice and has some great views of the city.  I will try to add some pictures or video (our point and shoot is officially dead) tomorrow.

Ryan

****UPDATE****

We were sent home about 2 this afternoon.  Doctors think it was a 'perfect storm' of small cold and reflux.  We are still waiting on a few labs that will be back on Monday, but they are pretty sure it isn't anything worse. X-rays, EKG, and all other tests were normal and they are happy to see him eating well, which they take as a sign he isn't too sick.

The biggest challenge tonight will be to sleep instead of staring at him all night looking for signs of life.  Thanks for the prayers and words of encouragement.  We have many praises, not the least of which is that Evan wasn't one of the 'traumas' that came into the ER the same time we were there.

Waiting for doctors. There were some more critical than our little man and I was okay with that.

So far he isn't a fan of stickers

The monitor allowed the mind, and body, to rest

Home away from home for about 18 hours

A night full of tests makes for a tired little man