The Doctor Hotel!

Let's all take a little flashback to May of 2010. One morning we woke up and Lucas was breathing really hard and we were really worried. We took him straight to TMC to the ER. We spent a night in the Children's unit to get his breathing under control. Enter in Dr. Riordan who diagnosed Lucas with asthma. Back in May of 2010 I remember being so worried about my little man and sleeping on the floor of his hospital room praying we would never have to return here because of his asthma. 

May of 2010, Lucas at 7 months.

Lucas' asthma had been under control for the longest time. No episodes. In fact, he was off all of this asthma medicine for over a year. Then we began preschool and with the passing of each cold his asthma was triggered. So back to Dr. Riordan we went and updated his action plan. As the year progressed and his immune system got stronger his asthma got better. Then came Spring and the WIND!!! Asthma flared up again. So sick of the wind.

Anyway... Here is what happened the other night that brought us back to my least favorite place in the world. Thursday we got home, Lucas was doing great. He was riding his little strider bike in the house and came around the corner of the kitchen table and the bike slid out from under him. He wasn't riding fast, but he did take a little spill. He didn't hit his head, but cried for about 10 seconds. I gave kisses, he hopped right back up and went and got out the baseball bat to play baseball with Matt. At that moment, I left to go to a retirement party for one of our teachers. Matt was playing baseball with Lucas and Macie for a little bit then he took off to go pick up dinner. 

As he was driving to get dinner, Lucas was really lethargic and had a hard time staying awake. This is not like Lucas at 4:30 in the afternoon. So Matt was really worried. Plus then Lucas started having a really hard time breathing. It wasn't like his usual asthma wheezing. It was the sucking in breathing like back in May 2010. Matt quick ran home, dropped off the pizza, gave Lucas a breathing treatment and took off for the Urgent Care. 

Meanwhile he had been calling me, but I didn't hear my phone (horrible mom moment)! At 5:30 I looked down at my phone and saw 10 missed calls from Matt. Lori had 3 missed calls. Immediately panic set in, we left the party, I called Matt and Matt said that they were taking Lucas by ambulance to TMC. All I could think on the ride over that Lucas was going to be in the ambulance all by himself because Matt had Macie and couldn't ride with him. I swear Lori was going about 70 miles per hour to get me there. What is usually about a 15 minute ride to urgent care took us only about 7. Even though it was only 7 minutes, it felt like an hour! I was so worried. I didn't want my boy to be all alone in the ambulance. 

We got to urgent care just as the ambulance arrived. By that point Lucas was crying for mommy. Lori took Macie back to our house, fed her dinner and watched her until Grandma Johnson came to relieve her. Thank goodness for Aunt Lori. She is truly the best! It was easy leaving Macie so that we could be with Lucas knowing that Macie was in such great hands. Lori even sent me a picture of Macie knowing that I was thinking of her. 

Back to the adventure. At that point I was able to calm Lucas down a bit, but he was very lethargic and was saying his head hurt. The firefighters said that we could either take the ambulance or drive him ourselves to the ER, but they really suggested we take the ambulance. Oh, in the midst of panic and trying to calm Lucas down, I may have said, "Lucas look at all of the handsome firefighters who are taking care of you!" I will never live this down. But I don't care. I was doing and saying anything to calm down my little boy who was scared. 

So we got in the ambulance and Matt followed us the whole way to TMC. The paramedics were wonderful. They took really good care of Lucas while we were in the ambulance. Lucas was still having a hard time breathing and was very sleepy. They gave Lucas some oxygen and even let him draw on their computer to keep him awake. We were doing everything possible. We counted by 10's to 100. We said our alphabet. We talked about who was snack helper and line leader at school. We named all of the kids in his class. It was really hard to keep him awake. I was super worried at that point. His pulse ox was anywhere from 85-98 with oxygen. Also, let me tell you riding sideways in a truck, worried, you tend to get a little nauseous. 

We made it to the ER and the paramedics transfered him to his bed and the nurse came in and hooked him up to the monitors. By then his pulse ox was around 95. This is way better. He was still really sleepy. One of the most unexpected moments is when the paramedics had left and came back with a coloring book and a pack of race cars for Lucas. Really! How great are they! Definitely brought tears to my eyes.

We were really lucky that night. The ER was slow and we had our own nurse to ourselves. She was with us the whole time we were in there. Poor lady did have her work cut out for her though. Since Lucas' pulse ox was doing well and his breathing was getting better, we let him sleep. We figured by then he was really tired from all of the things going on. Lucas was sound asleep when she came in to give him some Tylenol and he had to be held down by about 3 people, not including Matt and me, to get it into him. This happened again, when she needed to put in the IV. In fact we had to wrap him in a sheet and secure his arms so he couldn't fight it. Poor guy! Poor nurse. Poor Mommy and Daddy! We gave him extra love and kisses!

Since Lucas was complaining about his back hurting and his head hurting the doctor ordered for a CT scan, xrays and blood work. Lucas was perfect for the CT scan and xrays. He laid perfectly still, in fact, at one point he was sound asleep. He wasn't so perfect about the blood being drawn, but you can't blame him. Everyone during the CT scan was so nice and the lady taking the xrays was very funny which is what I needed. She helped to ease the scariness.

Once Lucas was done with the CT scans, xrays and blood work, he had breathing treatments galore. I believe the respiratory therapist was in every 30 minutes to an hour giving him breathing treatments. Poor Matt still hadn't eaten any dinner and we had gotten the first results of the CT scan and those came back clear. So Matt took off to get some dinner and some Tylenol for me. I had the worst migraine. Matt came back during I think Lucas' third breathing treatment, handed me the Tylenol and I passed off the albuterol to Matt. I took the medicine and then threw it up immediately. The poor therapist quickly got a mask and put it right on. I think that all stemmed from the ride in the ambulance, the nerves and the migraine. Once it was out, I was perfectly fine!

Lucas playing Tiger Woods golf while getting a breathing treatment.

After we got the preliminary results of the xrays which showed a small virus (possibly walking pneumonia) we were taken up to our room in the children's section. At that point we told Lucas were staying at the doctor hotel in room 236. Lucas LOVES hotels and we wanted to make it less scary. So we just called it the doctor hotel. Once we got into the room, we were visited by our nighttime doctors. They said in order for Lucas to go home the next day, he needed to be on breathing treatments every 4 hours and eating. Keep in mind Lucas hadn't eaten since lunch. Poor guy. After getting settled into our room and getting the blood work results back showing nothing scary, Matt decided to head home to be with Macie for the night. Grandma Johnson was there and was spending the night, but just in case Macie woke up in the middle of the night, then Daddy would be there.

Hanging out in his hospital bed!

Lucas and I slept in the hospital bed. I wasn't about to let him sleep alone! Too scary. We had a pretty good night of sleep. Of course the nurses and respiratory therapist were in every 2 hours to monitor him. At 5 am, I texted Matt and they said Lucas was now on treatments every 3 hours. YAY! We were getting closer to going home. Around 7 am the daytime doctors (about 3 of them) came in and said that Lucas didn't have walking pneumonia, but a virus. So the combination of the virus (sinusitas) with the asthma attack is what happened. Around 9 am, the had rounds where about 10 doctors were in the room talking about Lucas' case. They said that Lucas could be on breathing treatments every 4 hours and hopefully we could go home around 4 pm. Lucas just needed to eat, get his fever down and take the prednisone.

Trying to break his fever with some cold wash clothes.

He has wash clothes under his armpits.

Finally feeling better!

Trying to hide his smile! But you can see it in his eyes!

Prednisone has always been a battle until last December. Dr. Riordan prescribed a dissolvable tablet and that works perfectly. Unfortunately, they don't carry those in the pharmacy. Sad. The nurse even tried to mix it with chocolate syrup. NO GO! He knew better. Matt almost went home to get the tablet. We never did get him to take the prednisone at the hospital. We promised the doctors that we would give him the dissolvable tablet as soon as we got home. So at 4 pm they started processing the paperwork for us to go home with about 4 medications to give Lucas. One of them he has to take 3 times a day for 3 weeks. The one that we had to force down his throat. Not fun!

Finally at 5:30 pm we were set free. Lucas was so happy. All he wanted to do was go home! I was so happy. All I wanted to do was to go home and have my boy at home! Even though we couldn't wait to go home, we were very happy with the care Lucas got! All of the doctors, the nurses, the therapists and techs were wonderful! The Children's center at the Doctor Hotel were wonderful! They had a toy room that we spent some time in (once his fever was down). It really was like a hotel. As close to one you can get considering it is a hospital. We can't thank everyone enough.

Now that we are home, Lucas is doing great. We are done with the albuterol every 4 hours and are just on the preventative medicine twice a day. We have been able to trick Lucas into taking the "pink medicine" by putting it in yogurt smoothies and berry applesauce. Plus it doesn't hurt that we have a treasure box filled with toys and once he finishes a smoothie or applesauce he gets to pick out a new toy. What ever works at this point! Lucas is even acting like his normal self. Playing basketball, golf and baseball with his new baseball bat that he got for being such a brave boy!

It is moments like this that make you really appreciate your health and especially the health of your children! We love this little boy so much and we are glad to be home and that he is doing great! Lucas is the best kid in all of the world! Love him with all of my heart!