Emergency Room

I’ve made it my entire life without visiting the emergency room.  Todd went once when he was about 8.  Put his head through the springs on a neighbor’s trampoline and ripped his ear off.

This spring we became regulars at the Owensboro Emergency Room.

Todd woke me up one morning and told me, jokingly, that he thought he was having a stroke because one side of his face was oddly numb and tingly.  WHAT?  I perked right up and started asking him questions.  He’d been to work out, but it was weird and a little painful and didn’t seem to be going away.

Of course I did what any logical person would do and I got on WebMD.  I told him that he needed to go to the emergency room, stat. After much nagging, he finally agreed…but he needed to shower first.

No. No way.  Cause if you are having a stroke, YOU ARE HAVING A STROKE!  Every minute counts!  I shoved him out the door and got the girls off to school.  I took Charlotte and Carver to Jade’s house and went to be by my dying husband’s side. 

After a bunch of costly medical tests, the professionals concluded that it was an acute migraine presenting itself in his face.  Probably stressed induced. 

Todd wanted to get out of there and head to work, but I made him stay home and sleep it off.  If you go to the hospital thinking you’re having a stroke and they tell you it is stress, you have earned a nap.

Then, a month or so later, I went upstairs to bed and Todd was pacing around our bedroom.  When I questioned his odd behavior, he said he was having sharp pain in the left side of his chest.  He was walking around trying to determine if he was short of breath.

Genius.  This time he did the Google search and had himself all paranoid. 

Chest pain? Check?

Radiating down the arm? Check.

Shortness of breath? Maybe. 

Google said he was having a heart attack.  I said I was going to bed.

He drove himself to the E.R. and they ran all their expensive tests again, determining that it must have just been a muscle spasm or something.  Probably due to stress.  He came home about one a.m. and got up at 6 to go to work.  (He did take it easy by not working out at 5.)

THEN, as if two visits weren’t enough, Macie also had to go.

One afternoon right before school got out I received a call from the school nurse informing me that Macie had been in with a sore throat. She didn’t’ have a temperature, but the nurse did notice a little white spot on her throat and wanted to let me know. When Mace got off the bus I checked her throat, but I couldn’t see anything.  Macie said she was tired and went upstairs and fell asleep on her bed.  Let me say that again – Macie, who goes to bed wide awake and wakes up ready to run a marathon every morning, fell asleep mid-day.  I knew something was wrong.  I made an appointment with the pediatrician and went upstairs to get her.  Before I woke her, I put my hand on her back and noticed that her heart seemed to be beating a million times a minute.  Weird.

I explained to the pediatrician that she had a sore throat, was tired, and that the school nurse noticed the white spot.  The pediatrician took her temp and listened to her chest.  Then she paused and listened to her chest again. Then she got the pulse/ oxygen finger monitor thingy and did that.  Then she did it again.  Then she said Macie needed to go to the emergency room because her oxygen was so low, her heart rate was over 140 beats per minute, and she was taking over thirty breaths a minute. 

WHaaaaat??  Huh? Macie was just sitting there.  Looking normal.  I thought maybe she had strep throat or something.

The pediatrician said that maybe with an in-office breathing treatment and steroid she could get everything into acceptable ranges.  Long story short, t worked.  She sent me off with a prescription for more steroids, instructions for the nebulizer, specific directions to call in the morning with her stats, and an overwhelming feeling of guilt for not knowing my daughter was crazy ill. 

WE headed off to pick up the other kids from the Orton’s house.  On the way home Macie started throwing up.  Of course at this point is was about ten after five, so no one was answering at the pediatrician’s office.  I called our across the street neighbor and friend who is also a pediatrician at the office and told him what had happened and that Macie was puking. He said that was a normal side effect, but that he wanted to come check her out as soon as we got home. 

He was walking across the street, stethoscope in hand, as we pulled into the driveway. 

He listened to her breathe a few times and said that if anyone with her numbers came into his office, he would have immediately sent him/her to the emergency room.  Huh? Whaaat?

So do I need to take her?

He explained that they would basically do what I was going to do, but they would monitor her all night.

In the end, he said I should take her in if her heart rate got above 135 again, if she was taking more than 30 breaths a minute, or if she showed any other sign of distress. 

Then he just kind of showed a lot of concern and disbelief at how sick she was.  Like, “Macie, you are one sick girl.  I can’t believe it.  You really are sick, sweetie.”

All while she sat on the couch all normal and fine looking. 

He told us to call if we needed anything and he was on his way. 

I did Macie’s inhaler and gave her the medicine and she went to bed.  She fell asleep quickly and I checked her breathing and heart rate.  Both were above the numbers Dr. Mason (our neighbor) had told me, but she was comfortable and asleep, so, while it worried me, it didn’t worry me enough to wake her up and drag her to the hospital.   

Sooo at ten o’clock, like any other normal mother would do, I made a quick run to Kohl’s.

Really, I had a coupon that expired that day, and I knew exactly what I needed.  I was maybe gone for 25 minutes. 

I got home and Riley was in the living room sobbing that she didn’t want Macie to have to go to the hospital.  Macie was sitting on the couch, awake.  Todd explained that when she woke up he had noticed her heart racing and that she was taking a lot of breaths, and that he pretty much panicked.  He called Dr. Mason and explained in these very generic terms that “Macie’s heart was beating really, really fast and that she was breathing really, really fast.”

Dr. Mason said that if we were worried we should take her to the hospital. 

UGH.  Less than thirty minutes was all it took for complete pandemonium to break out!  Once Todd had woke the neighbors I almost felt an obligation to take her to the E.R.

I did not feel like she was any worse off than before, but figured it was best at that point. 

They got her in right away, gave her oxygen and steroids, did more nebulizer treatments, and some chest x-rays.  Turns out she had viral pneumonia.  After a few hours we were on our way home. 

She continued with her steroids and did the nebulizer for four more days and was totally fine.

So, it was all due to allergies.  Oddly enough, at almost this exact same time last year, Macie had to get chest x-rays and an inhaler.  She used it for about three days and we never even thought of it after that.  There must be something in the Kentucky air that really triggers something this time of year.

Now, there is a silver lining.  Macie is pretty much horrified of doctors and hospitals, but she felt her E.R. visit was pretty special.  She got lots of attention and she got to be in control of the television remote.  So it wasn’t that bad of a deal.