A 4 day hospital visit

I don't feel like writing about this now, because I've told so many people this story and written about it on facebook...but I won't be able to look back a year from now and read about it if I don't document it here.
St. Patty's Day we were all packed and ready to head for a 6 day Mesquite vacation. Hudson had March Madness Baseball Tournament games down there.
Logan had started coughing the Sunday before and had a fever for 3 days so Wednesday about noon, 4 hrs. before we were heading out I took him to the clinic (because his Dr. was full) to get any meds that might make him feel better for the trip.

Turns out his oxygen level was so low they suggested I take him to the ER! I still didn't think anything of it. I thought he'd have some Nebulizer treatments, (which I have at home and had administered to him the previous night), a little oxygen and we'd be on our way. They took chest x-rays then admitted him into his own room about 4:00 on outpatient status, waiting for Dr. Rose his pediatrician to come look at him. They told me his lungs looked fine. I refused the RSV test because it didn't change the treatment and there is nothing they can do really at this age and it just cost a bunch of money. Even the Respiratory Therapist agreed with me! They thought he had bronchitis. Sleeping in the ER

Dr. Rose said he'd have to spend the night and he'd look at him in the morning! So Larry spent the night with him and we were still hopeful he'd go home in the morning. We'd have to leave by 10am to make it to Hudson's game at 4pm in St. George. Larry had about 1 hr of sleep because the oxygen monitor beeped all night, and there is no way of turning it down! And the nurses are in and out all night. I find it hard to believe that patients can recover without adequate rest! Just like when women have children...leave us alone and let us sleep through the night! I asked them to give Logan Tylenol for his fever at 8:30pm as he was falling asleep for the night. He was exhausted! But they wouldn't becuase "it wasn't time for their rounds" they'd be in in 1 hour for that... so instead of taking care of it, they let him suffer with a miserable, achy fever for another hour, then come in to wake him up and take his temp and give him meds. Get off your "clock" and help your patients "as needed!"
Dr. Rose came in the morning and still wanted to test for RSV just to have it documented, I again declined and Rose then told me Logan probably had RSV that turned into Pneumonia and he'd probably need to be in the hospital until Sunday! That crushed us! So I told Larry to take the kids and go and I'd stay with Logan.

They gave him a hospital buddy (doll) he drew a face on him and named him "TV". They also gave him this fleece flag blanket. So when he asked for "TV" I thought he was asking to watch television...it was quite confusing.
He doesn't look too thrilled. He couldn't even smile. Poor buddy! He kept telling me he was ready to go to Mesquite and swim though! He loved to play with the buttons on his bed and would raise himself "to the moon". He didn't let me adjust the bed for him either.

Trying to be optimistic...St. Patty's Day...first day in the hosp, still under "out patient status". The most comfortable seat was Logan's bed so I hung out in it with him. The other 'good' chair which converted into my bed was directly under the TV so that was pointless!

They were concerned he wasn't drinking enough so I felt better about just having them put in an IV to try to get him well faster. That was a pain to push around the stand so he could use the bathroom or walk down the hall. We'd have to unhook his oxygen, pulse monitor and unplug the IV from the wall to go anywhere and the machines would BEEP BEEP BEEP! Enough to drive anyone insane!

After being in the hospital for 2 days I told them I was going home to get some DVD's, they then realized they hadn't given me a list of movies they had there at the hospital or told me about the Ronald McDonald Family Room! I also didn't receive the remote to the TV until our 3rd day! I did like most of the nurses though. They were very friendly toward Logan.

They made him a deal that he could have his IV removed if he could finish off his sippy cup by bedtime. Gram was the drink Nazi so we had to take this pic and send it to her when he finally did it! He downed lots of popsicles instead of drinking. One nurse brought me a cherry flavored Italian Ice sorbet. I gotta find those!

I got a few offers to have lunch brought into me...thanks for thinking of me! Logan's visitors were his BF Dawson and his mom, he brought him some Ben 10 action figures to play with and some balloons. I had to meet them in the hall because no one under the age of 14 were allowed. My brother Darren and nephew Hunter, Gram came and she sat with him while I went home to shower. She also brought him a bag of goodies, sticker books, chalkboard, magnifying glass etc. Pop came with Gram another time and brought me an Applebees salad for my dinner...a nice change from the limited hospital menu. Tiffany and Shae came and brought him MORE goodies! Yo-yo's, a puzzle, books, coloring book and crayons etc. etc. Even I got a puzzle! The next day Logan tried to sit on the floor to do his 25 piece puzzle and got too tired before he even flipped over all the pieces and needed to lie back down! He's a picky, stubborn eater and didn't eat much, plus he was constipated, (a norm for him) so that didn't help with his energy level.

But I could tell he was just plain going stir crazy from being cooped up in this tiny, white room. He had an attitude! When Gram gave him his gifts he said they were "dumb" and threw some on the floor. I was totally embarrased! He doesn't act like that at home! He started talking like a baby using one word to shout orders at me...usually while I'm trying to talk to a Dr. or nurse. I felt like giving him a little spankin'. But I can't blame him. This place was eating me alive too!

He got tired of sitting in his bed and came to sit in my bed to eat his breakfast...where he just fell asleep before he could even take a few bites. (Another fleece camo bug blanket we got to take home, given to him in the FamilyRoom.)

Soooo... late one night after Logan had fallen asleep I went out to request an Italian Ice from the nurse (mmm) it was midnight and I needed a treat. I seen this board out in the hall.
It has the diagnosis of all the children on this floor. Logan's is the last one. "Difficulty Breathing"??? I thought he had RSV or Pneumonia? And I told them he is always coughing so they diagnosed him as having asthma too... All the other children's diagnosis seem very serious. So I talked to his Dr about this and he said Logan didn't have Pneumonia because he was thinking of someone else's lung X-rays when he told me that! He didn't have RSV because he wouldn't have recovered as quickly. (good thing I didn't have that test done after all then)..So when was I going to be informed about what he DID have??

Dr. Rose said it was a "Rhinovirus" (he likes to use fancy words to throw you off and confuse you ) but I happen to know that is just the common cold. Which combined with asthma (if he really does have that, threw him for a loop. Now that he's home they have him on preventative Asthma and allergy medication. They drew blood but we haven't even got it back yet to see if he really does have allergies! And why hasn't he ever been diagnosed with Asthma before? So I don't believe he should have been hospitalized that long if he had none of the "serious conditions" above! Sure he had a fever, was tired (normal when someone is feeling under the weather) and coughing but I think he would have been better off resting at home and me giving him inhaler treatments! They said he wouldn't be able to rest on vacation??? What? The 6 hr drive would give him rest. More sleep than he ever got in the hospital at any one given time. I also believe the warm air and lower altitude would have done him good! Larry and I believe Dr. Rose seemed adamant about keeping us from our vacation for some reason and was purposely late to our appts. just to annoy us. ha ha Maybe he was peeved because I refused the RSV test 2X's. On the first night when we were anxious to get out of there the next morning, he told us he'd be in at 9am, we asked if he could make it by 8am cause we needed to get going...no answer. We ended up having to have him paged at 9:30am and he showed up at 10am. On the other days he came in around 8 when he knew Larry had already gone and I wasn't going anywhere! He would just peek in in the mornings and say "one more night and I'll see him in the morning". Even when he hadn't needed oxygen all night! There was no other reason to be there then! Why couldn't we have taken an oxygen tank with us? I've always loved Dr. Rose and think he knows what he's talking about but this time, he made a mistake and was ornery about it!

It's not that we don't care about our sons health. We just believe we could have managed it on our own. It didn't seem as bad as they were trying to make it sound...and in the end it wasn't that bad! Sure his cough sounded horrible...but he's had coughs like this many, many other times. We were trying to keep our baseball schedule in line since Larry is the coach and had 10 other kids and families depending on him. Logan and I could have lounged around in our hotel room and rested.
Oh well. What's done is done. All's well that ends well. (Except all the debt we've incurred with this stay). Logan and I checked out Saturday afternoon. The family came home that evening as well, two days earlier than planned. And we are hoping to go back down over spring break to make up for it.

I guess I did feel like talking about this after all....it feels good to get out all my "issues" i had.