Flash Back Friday - 4th Asthma Hospitalization

 

 

4th of July always makes me a little jumpy. I have PTSD from my son's traumatic hospitalization.

About 8 years ago, the "fun" started with Son #2 when the neighborhood started to fill up with smoke from a forest fire. 

 

My son was 5 years old at the time, and had been outside playing with friends. I didn't notice the smoke filling up the valley and brought him inside and gave him a breathing treatment. Later, he wanted to go out that night and watch fireworks so we reluctantly let him watch a few neighborhood fireworks. 

 

The coughing was persistent, so we did another breathing treatment and watched him throughout the night.

The next morning, after giving him another treatment, I went into the kitchen to wash out the nebulizer. When I walked back into the living room, I saw a side view of him laying on the couch - his stomach was sucking in dramatically and his lips were turning blue.

I called my next door neighbor and said, "Come quick! I need to take Son #2 to the ER, watch the other kids!" 

 

I put the emergency flashers on my minivan and rushed to the ER. By the time I got there, the engine was smoking. I scooped up Son #2 and rushed into the ER. They motioned for me to have a seat and I yelled "He's having problems breathing, I need help!" 

 

They took one look at him and put the oxygen monitor on his finger. His level was between 79-81. (He should be close to 100) And his respiratory rate was at 77, they said it should be closer to 20. 

 

The nurse screamed for help as she wheeled him around the corner to a triage room. Not a good start. They put him on 6 liters of oxygen and tried to stabilize him.

He continued to struggle and the doctor asked me what I thought. I said, "Something's wrong, I can't put my finger on it, but he just doesn't look right". 

 

So they admitted him to the pediatrics floor. I watched as they put a heart monitor on him and thought it was strange that there were so many nurses in the room to get him set up. In the past, there had only been one nurse.

Later, the head nurse confided that she took one look at him and thought, "Please don't crash! please don't crash!" 

 

I didn't realize my son was classified as being in ICU, but she said that he was very close to going into cardiac arrest and needing ventilation. It ended up being a very stressful 4 days, and he was discharged on oxygen.

The problem with Son #2 is that he drops hard and fast, even catching ER doctors off guard. We've learned to be more aggressive with his asthma, keeping bottles of prednisone on hand and supplementing that with Decadron injections. 

 

Sometimes it's effective at keeping him out of the hospital, other times it doesn't seem to work. It's always a learning curve!

I learned a lesson and wouldn't let him go outside if there was a wildfire nearby. Or if the neighbors were letting off fireworks. 

My mother-in-law thought I was being too strict, but she didn't visit him in the ICU and doesn't have any idea how scary that was. 

I'm the mom and my job is to protect my kids! 

So it's a big NO from me on watching neighborhood fireworks. He can watch them from inside the house where the air is clean.