Ambulance, Hospital, Ugh!

Last Thursday Hallie was coming down with a cold, but was still well enough for preschool/daycare. At lunch I checked on her and she didn't want to eat, just wanted to lay down and rest... she was starting to wheeze. By 4pm I went down to check and she was struggling harder to breathe, so I took her home. I soon realized she wasn't getting better and was more lethargic, so I called her Dr and then took her to Kid Care (insta-care). As we are checking in, they tell me their facility isn't contracted with my insurance. Great... so where do I take my child??? About this time, the nurse came out into the waiting room and took her O2 reading, scooped her up and said, this kid's not going anywhere...

So we spent the next 3 hours giving her oxygen, albuterol, steriods... anything to get her to keep her oxygen levels up... nothing was working. So they transported us via ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital. After 7 1/2 hours in the ER, a chest x-ray, and more breathing treatments... she was admitted at 4 am.

She was NOT thrilled about being back in the hospital. Everytime someone walked in, she shreeked, "what are you going to do to me???" She even yelled at the janitor. Her lungs were all crackly sounding and her oxygen levels couldn't be stabilized... we got to spend the next 2 days confined to a hospital room... do you know what it's like to be in a room with a bored, overly-tired, very dramatic, bossy, scared, sick 4 year old??? I wanted to light myself on fire at several times...

But we made it. She was released Saturday night and diagnosed with severe asthma. She'll be on daily maintenance for a long time... hopefully it will help us avoid these scary flairups in the future. So scary to see your child struggling for air.

So even though she wasn't the best behaving patient... she was by far the cutest...