Sunday, August 7, 2011

Nolan's First ER Visit

Nolan has been battling a cold for about a week now, but hasn't shown any signs of pain.  Nolan's cold symptoms were pretty much straight forward, i.e., cough, runny nose, and watery eyes.  I called Nolan's pediatrician on Thursday, because his babysitter said he seemed irritable and wasn't eating very well.  Nolan's pediatrician is currently out on maternity leave, so another pediatrician answered my questions.  She said as long as Nolan has a clear discharge from his nose and no fever there is no need to bring him in for an exam.

Yesterday started out great, Nolan and I went grocery shopping and he was his perfect little self.  After we were back home, Nolan started to become really grouchy and wouldn't eat or go down for his nap.  I figured he was teething so I gave him some Tylenol to help with the pain.  Nolan laid down for about an hour and woke up screaming his head off.  I figured he was hungry, so again, I tried to feed him.  Nolan went down for a second nap around 3:30pm and slept for an hour.  This time he woke up screaming bloody murder.  I knew something was terribly wrong, so I called the pediatrician's hot line since they're closed on Saturday.

The nurse from Children's took our information and asked all sorts of questions.  After evaluating all the symptoms, she told us we should take him to the hospital to have an evaluation done.  We were in route to Children's when Nolan started to breathe weird.  He would take a deep breathe, scream, and then not breathe for a few seconds.  I was so scared.  I made Bill turn around and go to Anderson Hospital, since it is the closest.

Upon our arrival to Anderson's Cardinal Glennon Emergency, we checked in and Nolan was taken into the evaluation room.  After his heart rate and oxygen levels were taken, we were escorted to a room.  It felt like the pediatrician on call took forever to come into our room.  All I did was sit in the corner and pray over and over again.  The pediatrician finally came into our room.  She listened to Nolan's heart and lungs, because he had no labored breathing and his heart and lungs sounded great, she wanted to finish doing the whole body exam.  Nolan did great! He laid on the bed with his legs and arms spread out, so she could evaluate his entire body.  The pediatrician looked in Nolan's left ear first and she said it looked great.  As soon as she looked in the right ear she said, "Oh my it's red.  I need to take a closer look!!"  The cause of the screaming was an ear infection in the right ear.


Even though the source of the pain was discovered the pediatrician still wanted to have blood work done and a chest x-ray to rule other possibilities out.  I could finally breathe, Bill was about ready to have me admitted to the hospital for a nervous breakdown.  I have never in my life experienced so much fear and helplessness.  Bill said I was white as a ghost and sitting in the corner shaking.  I don't recall any of this, but as soon as the pediatrician said Nolan was going to be alright I calmed down.

Nolan was given his very own Anderson Hospital gown.  It was a little big, but he didn't mind.  He was a trooper through the blood work.  The nurse did a great job and Nolan only screamed for the stick, but calmed down before he was finished drawing the blood.  The x-ray went well too.


We had to wait around for about forty more minutes to have the x-ray read and his prescriptions given to us.  Nolan was exhausted and passed out on the way home. Poor little Poot Poot!!


Last night was a little rough, for me that is.  I kept waking up to check on Nolan every five minutes.  He woke up only a couple of times when his pain medicine was wearing off, but slept great other than that.  This morning he awoke, ate a little bit of his bottle, and settled in to watch Disney Junior.  I can't get his big smile out of him just yet, but a little grin will work.

 We stuck a band-aid over the cotton, so he won't pull it out.
 A little grin
Watching Agent Oso

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