Coming home from Nebraska, Eli still had a cough. The whole family was dealing with something, but I just didn't like the way it kept hanging onto Eli, for well over 3 weeks. We left Omaha on Saturday morning, and every cough I heard, I kept saying to Nick, "Please take him to the dr on Monday. I don't like how he sounds." On Sunday, we had planned to go visit baby Austin and let the kids meet him for the first time.
Instead, Eli had a fever and we spent the day at home. He was extremely tired all day, and we were SURE that he would have to go to the dr on Monday. His nose was running like crazy and the cough was persistent.
On Mondays, Nick stays home with the kids. I went to work and called at about 9 to check in. Nick said Eli seemed to be doing better, so he hadn't called the office yet. I begged for him to call anyway. Momma-intuition said something just wasn't right. Nick took him to the pediatrician, who sent them for a chest X-ray. Eli tested negative for RSV and flu, but his blood oxygen levels were lower than Dr. Hanson would like to see. She sent the boys home with a nebulizer.
By the time I got home in the afternoon, Eli had several treatments, and he was making raspy sounds with his quick short breaths. Nick and I both thought that this was normal behavior for a nebulizer. The dr called and said that the chest X-rays came back negative for pneumonia.
On Tuesday, I went to school (Nick stays home on Tuesdays with the kids as well and I had to run a meeting at school) and had a chance to talk to our Health Related Occupations teacher, Angel. I knew the dr saw Eli the day before, but still, something just wasn't sitting right with me. I talked with Angel about my concerns and what I should do. She told me what to look for in his breathing and what a red flag would look like and when I should call the dr again.
That afternoon, Eli took an extra long nap. When he woke up, I just didn't like how fast he was breathing or how loud his breathing was. I decided I would rather be "that mom" who is viewed as annoying and high maintenance than to just spend the entire not wondering. Luckily the office was open later in the evening than normal. However, they were about to close, and I had to hurry. I called and talked to the nurse and asked if it was normal for Eli to be breathing as quickly as he was since he was on the nebulizer. She said no, not really and asked me to count his breaths. I don't know how to do that, so I just held up the phone. I really didn't like her response when she said, "Um....why don't you go ahead and bring him in."
Nick was working at this point, so I hustled up both kids and got them in the car. This dr visit turned out to be terrifying for me. The first nurse came in and checked Eli's vitals. She checked his blood oxygen level twice, then called in another nurse. "Hmmm...." was the response from the 2nd nurse when she checked his levels again. She gave Eli a breathing treatment and called in a 3rd nurse. At this point, I was thinking, "Well, that's odd. Why do they keep checking? We've never had 3 nurses help us before." Soon 2 nurses left and were talking in the hallway saying, "Where is Dr. Dunn?" "Room 4 with a patient." "Go ahead and get her. We need her here." Say wha???? My fears were being confirmed. The 3 nurses weren't just there to be helpful. Something was wrong with Eli. I tried to push this fear down, way down, far away from my conscious brain, because I had some things to do. I had a 4 year old who was scared and needed some reassurance about what was happening and a baby who was kicking the blood ox reader off his foot and screaming during his breathing treatment.
Dr. Dunn came in immediately and looked at the levels and put Eli on higher levels of oxygen. She took SUCH good care of us. She was so nurturing to Eli while she carefully explained to me what would happen. She said that there just wasn't enough oxygen in his blood. He would need to go to a hospital. I was envisioning maybe going to an ER for a few hours. I was already telling myself, "Okay, you can't cry while you take him there. Be calm. Just a few hours." But I asked how long we'd be there, worried about Ella getting to bed on time. Dr. Dunn's face softened as she told me that we'd likely be in the hospital for at least 48 hours. Okay.....keep it together......then came the hardest news. I wasn't going to be able to drive Eli to the hospital, an ambulance would have to take us. What???? How could this be that he is in SUCH bad shape that we not only have to go to a hospital, but to get there in an ambulance? Worse, Ella wouldn't be able to ride with us, so what was I going to do with her? One nurse took Ella to the waiting room with a coloring sheet (Thank you for getting her out so I could cry without her seeing!). Another pulled the car seats out of my car (Thank you!). The last nurse stayed with me while Dr. Dunn called the hospital and the ambulance (thank you ladies!).
I tried calling Nick, but couldn't get ahold of him. Through my tears, I called Kristin saying, "I need you. You have to get here. You have to come get Ella. An ambulance is taking me & Eli to the hospital." Thank you Kristin for getting there immediately, no questions asked. Thank you for keeping Ella calm for the whole time we were away from her. I thought Ella would think it was neat that her brother got to ride in an ambulance, but as it turns out....nope. It totally freaked her out instead.
I rode in the ambulance to Progress West Hospital. Nick met us there and we waited in the ER for a few hours for the drs and nurses to monitor Eli's breathing and his oxygen levels.
We waited and waited......Eli didn't like the breathing mask, but really did little to stop it. He was SO tired. He slept most of the time, which scared me even more. Nick & I did a pretty decent job holding it together at this point, but I could tell how scared he was too when we talked. So we spent a decent amount of time not talking about what was happening.
After several hours, we were admitted into the hospital and got to go upstairs for the night. The next day, Eli began to regain SOME of his strength. He was starting to get really mad about the breathing mask. We had to put him on a breathing tube. He hated this worse, and tried ripping it off many times, but it was securely taped down.
Memaw Johnson came to visit and brought some toys. Eli couldn't stay awake long, but when he was awake, he wanted to play.
These pictures were taken on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We had settled ourselves in for a long stay. The nurses said that we could HOPE to get out on Friday. We sent out texts to our friends and family asking them to pray for healing for Eli.
On Thursday morning, we had much to be thankful for. A dr woke us up in the morning saying that Eli had made it through the night without needing any oxygen and we would get to go home on Thanksgiving. What? This is what we had hoped for, but the last thing we expected. We were overjoyed.
We picked Ella up and went home. And stayed there for awhile in our own little Johnson family bubble. Family members came over and dropped off Thanksgiving leftovers so we could eat with little effort for a few days, but we pretty much just stayed inside, scared to go somewhere with germs that could infect Eli. He didn't leave the house for a week.
It sounds
incredibly cheesy to say, (I am completely aware of that), but I changed as a parent during those few days in the hospital. Eli developed pneumonia in less than 24 hours between dr visits. I decided that from now on, I don't care if I'm the overbearing, high maintenance mom who keeps calling the dr. If that's what it takes to put my mind at ease and not second-guess every decision, then that's what I would do. I won't second guess myself next time, but I feel like I will do a better job of seeing when something is really wrong with my kids. I saw how fast prayer can work too. And on Thanksgiving, we all might say how happy we are for our families to be in good health, but this year, we realized how blessed we really are. Eli was in the hospital for a few days, but he was better. We are so fortunate.
Love you little man! We are so happy you are back to your normal, ornery Dennis-the-Menace self. <3
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