James first trip to the Hospital

If you ask almost anyone, they can probably tell you an incident or an accident where they almost died as a kid. I don't remember but my mom told me that I fell off the top of a slide when I was very little. I was holding on to the handles up top and waved, lost my balance, and fell. I stopped breathing and turned blue. My parents had to rush me to the hospital.

James has a similar story. But he is asthmatic. We didn't know how severe it was until last Sunday when we noticed he was breathing strangely during his nap. Then konked out at 7pm - so unusal for this little boy who fights off sleep.

I took him to the ER late Sunday night (last week) - verging Monday morning. His oxygen blood saturation was 88%, extremely low. The nurses hooked him up to oxygen right away for fear his organs would start shutting down.

It was difficult to see this little guy probed, poked, and scared. A hospital is a very scary thing for a small child. But like a good mom, I tried to make it as comfortable as possible. Before we left I just started grabbing stuff, like his blanket, snacks, books, a few toys, and of course his psp.

No one in the ER tells you anything. Not even the ER doctor. So you get there and don't know when you will leave or what's even wrong with you. So we waited. It's a really long wait when you are keeping your 2 year old from pulling out his oxygen tube.

But after while he was adjusting to it. He munched on cheezits, drank water, and watched movies on the hospital television. His nurse even brought him in a Toy Story board game. He totally flipped when he saw it. It was like Christmas morning, he was so excited.

And then there was the blood draw and IV drip. This was not fun to watch or be any part of. But my favorite are the little gowns he had to wear. They were so cute!

Moday he was finally off the oxygen and was still very tired. But the blood work and chest xray came back good. He had breathing treatments every 4 hours instead of every 20 minutes. Things were looking up.
By Tuesday we were ready to go home. James was a completely different person. He was practically bouncing off the walls. Whereas Monday he just layed in bed all day & watched movies.

When we were getting discharged we finally found out what happened. I didn't realize how bad his asthma was. He had RSV when he was a baby and cold air or getting a cold always seemed to trigger coughing and wheezing. Saturday he started getting a cold and because his lungs/airways were already restricted, mucus was clogging up the system. So he was working double duty just trying to get oxygen. So now he has to take preventative medication twice a day even when he isn't wheezing and albuterol as needed.

I still can't believe James had to go through all this, but he really was a trooper. It's amazing how fast little kids go down but they are equally resilient. All the nurses loved him! And just as a side note Cardon's Children Hospital has some amazing views!