A Hospital Stay

Last week, Hewitt woke up with a “cold”. He had been perfectly healthy the night before. He was having rapid, shallow breathing and was lethargic. Those were his only symptoms. No coughing, no fever. By midafternoon there was no improvement. I didn’t like the way he was acting, so I made an appointment to bring him to the doctor.

At the office, the nurse practitioner opened the door to the room, took one look at Hewitt and said, “Take him to the ER, now.” I think she thought I’d start to panic, because she then started to calmly (in that “don’t faint on me, mom” tone) explain that his heart could give out from him having to work that hard to breathe and she didn’t want it happening in her office. But I was perfectly calm and proceeded to put him back in the stroller and start to push the stroller toward the ER.

We arrived at the ER (they were expecting us) and he was put on oxygen and breathing treatments. They then took two chest x-rays which showed double pneumonia! I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea that pneumonia could develop so quickly. He was admitted to the hospital and spent 3 days there before he could keep his oxygen levels up enough on his own without the added oxygen.

I learned some valuable lessons during our hospital stay:

A three year old can and will watch the movie Cars 12 times during 3 days if you let him.

When taking a shower in your son’s hospital room, make sure you have towels before getting wet.
The promise of a blue ice pop will get your 3 year old to take his nasty tasting liquid medicine when the threat of having his iv put back in will not.
When your son tells you his nose fell off, he means the oxygen tube fell out, not his actual nose.
It is possible (although not recommended) to sleep in a single bed with a three year old.
If you want a visit from your doctor, just arrange to have a family member call you on the phone.
Be prepared for every new nurse at every shift change to ask you, “Do you really have 8 children?”
Dad would rather be in the hospital with the one sick child than at home caring for all the others without mom’s help.
A double room to yourselves is still very crowded when the whole family comes for a visit.