Jay's 1st ER Visit - April 12-13

By the time that we got to Pizza Hut, all the kids were filthy. Jay was no exception and had used his dirty hands to rub his eyes. Sarah took him into the bathroom and washed out his eyes and hands hoping that would fix the problem. His right eye was covered by his eye patch for almost all of the day, but his left eye was very swollen by now. After dinner, we got back in the vans to head home. We stopped to get gas and noticed that Jay was struggling to breathe and his eye was more swollen. The gas station didn't have children's Benadryl so we rushed to the WalMart in Columbia which was still 45 minutes away. By the time we got there he was still worse. We dosed him with Benadryl and Lisa's MDI albuterol inhaler with a spacer then continued on our way home, hoping he would get better with the medicine. We got home around 1 am and gave Jay a shower to get all the grass out of his hair. By then he was only getting worse and you could see every one of his ribs when he tried to breathe (costal retractions). At first, James really was reticent to go in because he only trusts a couple of the ER doctors here, but after he listened to his lungs we decided it would be best to take him in.

Sarah was going to go with Jay since Lisa was gracious enough to offer to stay with the kids, but when she asked Jay if he wanted her to go he said, "No Mom, Daddy is a doctor. I just need him." Cute, but ouch. Sad to realize they grow out of needing their mommies. Thankfully, the ER doctor there was one of James' favorites and handled the situation very well. They gave him an oral steroid and albuterol nebulizer treatments. James tried to talk the Dr. out of the chest x-ray, but he felt better practicing defensive medicine. At least he was able to convince him to avoid an IV which frequently leads to IO (Intraosseous Infusion) in this ER. Jay's oxygen sats were in the low 90s and his respiratory rate was in the mid 30s so the ER Dr. really wanted to admit him, but said he figured that James could watch him and would know what to look for.
James and Jay got home around 3 am and we took Jay into bed with us. We dosed him with albuterol nebs every 4 hours, Benadryl, Clariton, and oral steroids. It took almost seven hours, but he finally started improving.

The next morning he was laying on the floor playing and Sarah laid down next to him. His breathing was still labored but not as bad. Sarah asked him how he was doing and if he felt any better. He smiled so sweetly and said, "Oh yes mommy, I am doing much better. Daddy is a good doctor." He said this while having to stop twice to breathe. Sad but sweet.

He is doing much better now, but it breaks our hearts to know that his parents have given him a gift that we never wanted him to receive. Thankfully, the medical community's ability to manage asthma has greatly improved since we were children. He will be fine especially since James knows the NIH asthma guidelines and will make sure he gets the best treatments available. Although for now, it doesn't help that our air conditioner is currently broken and all of our windows are open.

Jay LOVED rolling down the hill with his cousins.
We realized he has never really done this and so we didn't
know he was allergic to grass or something on the grass.

Jay so pleased with picking grass and throwing it at his parents.