The Tale of Two Preemies: A Trip to the ER

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Trip to the ER

It's been a loooong week and it's only Wednesday. I'm exhausted. Tate still isn't sleeping any better at night. Last night I bottled him water when he woke up and that seemed to work. Cole had a pretty rotten night last night. Yesterday he woke up at 6:30 very whiny. I checked and sure enough he had a little fever. I gave him some ibuprofen and he was fine the rest of the day. About 5 last night he started in with the whining and crying again, and sure enough, the fever made a comeback. More meds and he was back running. He ate a good supper and was off to bed by 8. At about 10 I heard some whimpering from upstairs, so I went to check. Cole had a temp of 105! Aaack! Grandma came to stay with Tate and Pat and I headed to the ER with Cole. I know, some of you are thinking that was an overreaction, and maybe it was, but keep in mind we have never had a kid with a fever that high and Cole has only ever been sick a handful of times in his entire life. We are new at this sick thing. Anywho, so we get to the ER and the first thing they do is... nothing. They hooked him up to a pulse oximeter, but didn't turn it on. It was about 10 minutes later, after they gave him some Tylenol that they finally checked his temp, which was down to 103. We heard the nurse giving the Dr. the run down on patients and heard this "There is a 2 and a half year old with a high fever and they haven't bothered to give him anything since 5." Excuse me?!? It pretty clearly states on the label that ibuprofen is given every 6 hours. I wasn't aware you could mix Tylenol and Motrin and when we left the house it had only be 5 hours since he'd had anything. So yes, my bad, but don't you dare accuse me of not bothering with my child. Grrr. The hospital will be receiving a complaint about that nurse in the very near future. Go ahead and make snide remarks, but do it out of earshot of the patient please. I understand that nursing is a pretty high stress job, but so is being a mom and when my child is sick, the last thing I need is someone making snotty comments on my ability as a parent.

Anywhoozzle, Cole is doing much better today. He's been getting meds every 3 hours and so far the fever has been kept at bay. I'm hoping he'll be fine by tomorrow and we can actually make it to the last swimming lesson. Then he gets to go down the slide, and Daddy is planning on coming! Tate has thus far remained healthy. He can be a bear the way it is. I can't imagine what he'd be like if he wasn't feeling good.

Monday I was super productive. I got the house mostly cleaned. I put trim up in the play room, and got the boys coat hooks hung, that Pat made. Cole very proudly points to his and says "spells Coley's." Close enough.

Monday night we had an Easter egg hunt at school. Cole was still pretty interested in the gym equipment, but he did manage to pick up a few eggs.

I took a little nap this afternoon instead of accomplishing some of the 50 billion things I need to do this week. It wasn't a terribly restful nap. We are having Easter here on Sunday with Pat's parents and grandparents. We also have an Easter egg hunt at church on Saturday that I have to make cookies for and help with. Well, I better go. I need to drug my oldest again and find some new clothes for my youngest since he managed to leak through his clothes during nap time. Lovely.

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.