Another One of Those Long Days

Those who are Moms know about the long day.

Long day: The worry, stress, and exhaustion that accumulates over the sick child.

Little did I know when I put Hayden to bed last night I'd be in for a long night. He'd been sniffling, coughing, doing the usual minor cold stuff - nothing worrisome. I'd jokingly said to Mark that it might be a long night since when Hayden is stuffy he tends have trouble sleeping and generally wakes up a few times a night.

I had no idea my definition of a long night would change radically. Hayden woke up at 10pm screaming and after waiting a few minutes to see if he'd settle himself down I went in to check. He sounded very stuffy and I figured he was just having trouble breathing out of his nose.

I got him to lay down again and went to bed myself. Then he started screaming again, so I went back in to calm him down. This time I laid down with him and tried to get him to fall asleep. He'd fall asleep for a minute then wake up screaming. Soon he was inconsolable even with me there. I went back to bed wondering what to do, he was crying off and on, but couldn't be comforted. At this point he was still just sounding congested.

So my next thought was to put him in bed with me, since he was still crying. He would fall asleep for about 2-3 minutes then wake up crying. At this point I'm not sure what to do, we go back to his room and I just held him while he cried. Mark was working late and came home around this time 2am I believe.

We decided to do a breathing treatment because his breathing was getting shallow and he was doing a little cough on the exhale. Mark did the treatment and I went to bed exhausted. He stayed with Hayden for a couple hours. At 5 I was back up, hearing him screaming again.

Mark decided to just take a shower and head to work without sleeping. I went in Hayden's room and got him to fall asleep, I went back to bed around 6am. He slept about 20 minutes and then woke up screaming. So we did another breathing treatment and by this time he was wheezing and sounding horrible.

Since the breathing treatments weren't working, we needed to do something else. My options at 7am were the ER or wait for the doctor's office to open.

I called Mark to have him come home so I could deal with taking Hayden to the ER. While I was waiting for Mark to get home, I called the pediatrician's after hours line to get their opinion on the ER. My previous experience with this was that if his oxygen sat is below 88 they make them go to the hospital. I had no way of knowing what his was.

The doctor didn't call back until I was on my way to the hospital, but they said to bring him to the office and they could treat him there. Luckily his oxygen stats were only at 93. He got a long breathing treatment and oral steroids. We also got a prescription to give him oral steroids for the next 4 days. He still sounded horrible when we left, but they were assuring that it would get better with the oral steroid. Basically, they call this episode reactive airway disease or "we don't know why he's having this". Before age 6 they don't like to label kids as having "asthma". Also, Hayden's episodes are always preceded by a cold which induces the breathing problems.

He started breathing a bit better by this evening, only a slight wheeze. We just put him to bed. I hope he can get the rest he and we need. He did take a 3 hour nap this afternoon, which is a good sign. Of course after no sleep last night and being unable to breathe, I would expect him to be exhausted.

The not so fun side of this is the steroids are supposed to make him more "aggressive". Hehe, Hayden even more wild than he already is? Grrrreat. They also make him hyper. Oh joy.

We go back for a follow-up tomorrow (this time with Corbin too, since Mark can't take off) which is always fun. Hayden HATES doctors. His words when we stepped into the office (heck even the parking lot) No, no, no, no, no.

I'm hoping he'll be on the fast track to health soon. There are few things scarier than watching your child be unable to breathe.

Now I am going to pass out. How I made it through this day without snagging a soda or chocolate, I'll never know.

P.S. Quick requests for prayers for Hayden to recover by Monday so my friend can watch him while Corbin has his doctor appointment. Also, for that appointment, praying everything looks good (or no change) since we'll be doing a kidney ultrasound.