An ambulance ride for Benjamin

feeling better once at the hospital

A visit to the pediatrician's office this morning turned into a nightmare today. I took Ben to the pediatrician's office for cold-like symptoms, but his breathing was very fast and his oxygen levels were very low. The pediatrician gave him a abuterol nebulizer treatment to try to improve his breathing, and his stats got much worse.

We could hear a crackly sound when he breathed and he didn't want to wake up. The pediatrician got even more concerned and gave him oxygen, which didn't really seem to help how he was feeling, but it did improbe his stats. She was afraid he might start turning blue, so they called the ambulance to take him to the hospital. Talk about one of the scariest moments of my life.

I can honestly say I have always been a bit curious about the inside of an ambulance, but NEVER wanted to have that curiosity satisfied. Oh well. They strapped him into a little child seat in the ambulance and sat next to him holding the oxygen mask on the whole way.

Clay followed the ambulance in his car, and has been at the hospital with me all afternoon. A chest x-ray revealed no pneumonia, and a different nebulizer treatment seemed to stabilize his breathing. His oxygen levels have returned to normal. I'd forgotten how S-L-O-W-L-Y everything moves at a hospital: from the ordering of x-rays to the relaying of info to the letting us know what the doctor wants to do.

We finally saw a hospital pediatricianand she confirmed that they want to keep him over night for observation. She thinks his reflux + his floppy larynx + a whatever virus he has combined into a bad situation and the first nebulizer treatment made things worse (apparently some kids just react poorly to abuterol).

So.... basically Ben is probably fine (other than a cold or some other virus), but given the scary situation earlier, he's going to be "under observation" over night. I think that's a good idea... I just don't relish the idea of sleeping on a chair-bed tonight. Maybe it won't be as bad as I think.

Anyway, the important thing is that Ben seems to be back to his old hammy self, chewing on everything and desperately wanting to crawl on the dirty hospital floor.