It was a very crazy weekend. My parents flew into SLC late Friday night so the kids and I waited for them and drove with them to Pocatello (Jonathan had to stay back and work). The plan was to get up early and drive to Driggs the next morning but that did not quite happen. In the middle of the night Ryan woke up screaming which is not uncommon for him to do especially when he is sleeping in the Pack in Play but I decided to get him and just bring him in bed with me at about 3 am. I could tell that something was not quite right. He was breathing really heavy like he could not get enough air and his whole body was shaking. It was almost as if he had the hiccups everytime he took a breath. When I would lay him down he would wake up crying but if I held his head up he would fall asleep. It was a very long night and I was not sure what to do.
In the morning, I showed my parents and they could tell something was not right either but they were not sure what it was or what to do. I tried to feed him some breakfast but he just threw up what I fed him. We were starting to get ready to drive to Driggs and I decided I better take him to an Urgent Care because it was getting scary watching him try and get his breath. I found a place online that was open on a Saturday and left the girls with my parents.
At Urgent Care they took his oxygen level and I cannot remember all the details now but it was way below what it was supposed to be and they quickly gave him a breathing treatment which he actually loved. He was super fussy until we blew the air into his face and he just calmed right down and eventually fell asleep. The doctor listened to his chest and said that it sounded super "crackly" and not good so they ordered a chest x-ray. I woke him up and had to get him to hold his hands above his head while they took the x-rays. They came back and said that he had pneumonia in his left lung and was having an asthmatic response (he also had double ear infections!). His oxygen levels were still not good so they gave him another breathing treatment which helped a little bit. The doctor was not very happy that I was going out of town for the rest of the weekend because he was still pretty nervous but he told me that if his breathing seemed to get worse I needed to take him to the ER in Driggs. He sent me with a bunch of prescriptions and I headed to Wal-mart to get them filled.
My parents met me at the store and we finally headed to Driggs around noon. Ryan slept almost the entire way there but I could tell that he was still breathing pretty heavy. Once we finally got to Driggs (about a 2 hour drive) his breathing was really bad again and his whole stomach was going in and out. He seemed happier and was more alert but I was really nervous. I decided to go to my niece's baptism and then head to the ER to just see what they said. I know it is bad but I was really worried how much it was going to cost and since he seemed to be happier and acting better I thought that maybe he was okay.
My dad and I went to the ER and I asked if the nurse would just look at him before they admitted him to see what they thought and she agreed to check his oxygen level. Of course it was really low and they said the doctor needed to see him immediately. So they admitted him and hooked him up to the breathing machine. The doctor decided to give him an IV since he was not responding as well to the breathing treatment as they hoped. This was the worst part of it all. He was super dehydrated and has tiny veins (like his mom) so they could not get the IV going. I had to hold him down while they tried 5 times! Yes, they stuck a needle in my poor sick baby 5 times only to have it not work! It was torture for me and listening to him scream and cry made me cry more then I would like to admit. It was awful! They asked everyone in the hospital and no one could get it and I finally asked the doctor to stop which he agreed to. They did give him a shot of some medicine and a few more breathing treatments and thankfully, by then his levels were much better. They decided to send me home with a breathing machine which I was supposed to do every 2 hours all night long. They finally let us go home and poor Ryan was so tired from screaming that he fell asleep before I left the parking lot. I was pretty exhausted myself but luckily Ryan slept great that night and was much better the next day and continued to get better as the steroids and antibiotics kicked in.
When we got back home I took Ryan to the doctor for a check-up and she ordered me to buy a breathing machine which I had to use on him every few hours for a week even if he seemed fine. We were heading to Orlando the next day so my poor mom who was staying with my kids had the job to give him the treatments and they both did great. It was a long crazy weekend but I am so glad that he is okay. They were afraid that he was going to have asthma but as long as it does not happen again he should be fine. I love him so much and watching him in pain was one of the hardest things I have done. I hope I don't have to do it again!
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| Ryan with Papa getting his breathing treatment. This was the only picture I took because I was thinking of lots of other things but I wanted to at least document the experience! |
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| It was so sad seeing him with the mask on. He hated it and would continuously rip it off! |
