A Not So Fun First

Last week, we experienced Ryan's first (and hopefully last) overnight stay in the hospital. Ryan is doing fine now, and I'm not sure he really needed to stay there so long, but I appreciate the doctors being overcautious.

On Thursday night, Ryan and I got home from daycare and I noticed that he was wheezing pretty loudly. He didn't seem to be distressed in any way, but I called the doctor's office anyway just to be safe. I was fairly certain they would just tell me to schedule an appointment in the morning, but instead they told me to take him to the emergency room. So the three of us took a trip to Winchester Hospital and were seen right away by the triage nurse. She said he sounded fine but didn't know if the brief time in the cold air had opened his airways so we still needed to be seen by a pediatrician. We barely settled in the waiting room when we were brought to an exam room and seen by the resident. He didn't seem all that concerned, so I was pretty sure the doctor would take a look and send us home shaking her head at the overprotective first-time parents. Instead, she took one look at him and told us he was struggling to breathe. He didn't seem like he was struggling, but she showed us how to tell by examining his neck and belly. She also said he sounded very wheezy in his lungs and needed treatment.

We were told Ryan would get 2-3 nebulizer treatments to open his airways and a dose of prednisone to help with the inflammation. She gave us a 50-50 chance of going home that night. After the treatments, Ryan was still wheezy, so we were admitted to the hospital. It took some time for them to get us a room because they needed to find us a baby cage big enough for Ryan. We finally got to the room around 1 am and although there was a perfectly nice cot for me to sleep on, Ryan insisted I sleep with him in the baby cage. Not comfortable at all. We tried to sleep on and off until around 4 am when I buzzed the nurse to get me the hell out of there. I've never really been claustrophobic, but that cage was a little much.

Justin came back in the morning and we saw the pediatrician around 9 am. Again, since Ryan seemed fine, I expected the new doctor to let us go. But instead she listened to his lungs, examined him, and told us he needed more treatments and MAYBE we could go home in the evening. Ugh. Ryan was getting nebulizer treatments ever 2 hours and the only way we could go home is if he could make it to every 4 hours. So Ryan and I got to hang in the hospital all day long. For the local people reading this, it's worth mentioning that Winchester Hospital is pretty nice. The nurses and staff are caring, the rooms were clean, and we even had a "child life specialist" come in several times a day to make sure Ryan had enough toys, books, and dvds to keep him happy. The only problem was the pediatrician only rounds twice a day, so if the morning doc didn't discharge us, we had to wait until 9 pm for the evening doc.

Josh, Rachel, and Zach came to visit in the afternoon and Ryan really perked up then and started breathing better. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but I think he's pretty social and likes to be around other people. He seemed happy to have company to play with (I was too exhausted). A third pediatrician showed up around 9 pm and on initial assessment, told us Ryan wasn't ready to go home. He then listened to his lungs, talked to us for awhile presumably assessing our intelligence and ability to give treatments at home, and changed his mind. Yippee! Apparently Ryan's lungs sounded much better than he anticipated, and we passed the "smart parents" test. We were discharged at 10 pm with the condition that we continue his treatments every 4 hours and see our pediatrician first thing the next day.

We saw the Saturday pediatrician the next day and he said Ryan sounded fine and we could withhold nebulizer treatment until he needed it. Right now he's getting one every 6-8 hours while we wait for the prednisone to do its job. The doctor also said that one incident of wheezing does not necessarily mean asthma, and there's no reason now to treat him any differently. He's probably pre-disposed to asthma and has a higher chance of having it, but if and when that comes, we'll deal with it. Right now we're just happy to be home!