E.R.

A week ago we spent our first experience in the ER with Levi.

We had decided to go visit Mike's parents for the weekend. We traveled up Friday night, arriving around 9pm. When we got there, we noticed that Levi was wheezing a little, which seemed very sudden. 2 weeks prior, we had to take him to medplus for the same thing. He had bronchitis, they sent us home with amoxicillin, and he finished those meds on Thursday. The theory now is that the amoxicillin just didn't do what we needed it to.

Friday night was awful. He couldn't sleep, He was gasping after every breath. We made it through the night, and in the morning, after no improvement, we decided we should probably take him in. The only option was the ER in little old Lakeview, so off we trekked.

We were blessed to basically walk in and get help immediately. They almost instantly gave him a breathing treatment, and then the dr. came in. He thought that perhaps he had pneumonia. They did another breathing treatment, and then we waited for a chest x-ray. True to the drs word, he had what they called "blotchy" pneumonia. He had 2 breathing treatments, the xray, 2 liquid antibiotics, and 2 shots, and he was finally breathing easier.

The dr. wanted to admit him, but strangely the tiny little hospital we were at didn't admit children. The hospital it part of spectrum health as an overall system, so the only way he could admit him was to take Levi by ambluance to Devos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids which is a little over an hour away from where we were.

Thankfully, the dr. understood we were from out of town, and I think determined that we were responsible parents, and we weren't going to do anything foolish. He did encourage us to come back to Jackson that evening in case he got worse. We decided to stay in Lakeview, by the time we got home from the hospital it was 5. Mike had to go pick up some prescriptions, and nothing in podunky Lakeview was open. He had to drive a 1\2 hour one way, wait a 1\2 hour, and come back, so he didn't get back to his parents until 6:30. oy. We were so exhausted, we decided to stay put for the night. The ER dr. told us, if we did stay, and he got worse, to come back immediately, and he'd have us in an ambulance faster than we thought possible, so with trust in the system, we stayed. Thankfully, he made drastic improvement and slept most of the night on Saturday.

We saw our pediatrician as a follow up this week, and they are starting to wonder if he has asthma. I'm going to fight them on that as long as I can. They seem to think that because everytime he gets sick, the cold goes straight to his chest, he has asthma, but e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. in my family who gets sick has the same thing happen, none of us have asthma, and I'm not going to label him asthmatic at 2. It just seems crazy to me.

Anyway, that was our crazy experience, and one we'd rather not repeat. We're so thankful he's okay, and glad we were able to get the help we needed while we were gone away. If you think of it, say a prayer for him in regards to this asthma thing, it's not really a road I want to have to travel down, or fight traveling down if we don't have to.