A Little Bit of Crazy: Sick Jack Jack

We had our very first trip to the ER this weekend! Jackson hadn't been feeling well and had been running a temp since Wednesday. Friday night I noticed him wheezing every now and then. By Saturday, he was growing weary and running a fever but with some motrin and tylenol, he seemed to be holding his own and playing in between fevers. We had company down so it was hard to keep Jackson quiet with a full house and every time Jackson would play hard, I could tell he was starting to labor his breathing. I was really hoping we could make it until Monday to see the Dr. but no cigar! I woke up Sunday to a wheezy, grunty, inconsolable, labor breathing little man. So I headed to the ER with Jackson where we cut to the front of the line to get triaged once the ER nurse took once glance at Jackson, then we got pushed through pretty quick to see the Dr. since Jackson's sats were in the low 90's. We actually didn't even finish getting triaged.

Once we got rushed to the back, things went pretty quick and there were a lot of people working on him; Jax got a chest xray, labs drawn, a nasal aspiration, a 12 lead EKG, constant heart rate and sat monitoring, and a breathing treatment. Whew! All of this happened in the first 30 minutes so for the rest of the 6 1/2 hours that we were there, we waited, waited, and waited with of course some concerned nurses, EMT students, and RTs checking on Jackson periodically. Of course they all adored him and kept saying how sweet he was! Jackson's sats came up to the high 90's right away, his labored breathing and retractions improved but did not totally disappear and his wheezing got about 50% better. We found out that Jackson has pneumonia (possibly from the flu even though his nasal aspiration was negative for the flu and RSV), got 2 shots of Rocephin for a jump start and then we had to wait out his fever with some tylenol since he was sitting at 38.5 C. (101.3 F) for about 2 hours. Once his fever broke, we gave him another breathing treatment and the Dr. came into talk to me a few times in between treatments discussing whether or not to admit him. Since I am an ICU nurse, the Dr. said that he would be pretty comfortable sending him home with me as soon as his fever went down and his breathing was more stable. So, after 7 hours in he ER, Jackson was discharged with breathing treatments every 4 hours, antibiotics and steroids for a total of 5 times a day! Overall, Jackson did a pretty good job in the ER considering we were there for 7 hours. He never tried to pull off any of his monitors - just touched his pretty sat probe a couple of times and would squeal when he was feeling better and couldn't walk too far with his monitors on.

Today, Jackson is feeling much better and he even ate a little cereal and sweet potatoes! He is still a little wheezy and had a low grade fever this morning, but has been playing off and on this morning with his toys and doesn't seem to get too worn out with his play. We are still keeping a close eye on him and if starts to have any high fevers or labored breathing in between treatments, we are under strict orders to bring him right back in - so far, so good! He fights his breathing treatments and Addy pats his back during them telling him it is going to be ok - it is so sweet!

Addy has been feeling much better and has been fever free since Thursday. She still has a little cough but is going back to daycare tomorrow. I think she is very bored with being at home for the past week! I think that means it is time to go back to daycare. Now, my big kid is sick too (I am referring to my husband)!