A Bad Scare

We spent the day yesterday in the Emergency Room of the hospital with Jack. It was very scary and made me appreciate my little guy even more than I thought I already did.

He started getting sick on Thursday with what I thought was the flu. He didn't have much of an appetite, but had horrible diarrhea and threw up a couple of times - all over his bed and then mine. Then Friday he seemed to be doing better - just a little diarrhea, but no throwing up. He still didn't have much of an appetite and probably didn't drink as much as he usually does despite my efforts to get some pedialite in him. He took a few drinks of that and said, "I just want water!" That night he had a little bit of pizza for dinner. He wandered into my room in the middle of the night and I lifted him on the bed to sleep. The next morning he woke up around 7:00 and said, "Time to get up Mommy!" I told him to go back to sleep and after a while of him talking and being his silly self, he actually quieted down and went back to sleep. Around 8:00, I got up while he was still asleep. I fed Makele some breakfast. I mentioned to Jeff that I thought it was odd that Jack had gone back to sleep - he very rarely does that. We just thought it was because he had been sick and was still recovering. A little while later I went in to find him sitting up with his eyes closed - he looked like he was sleeping sitting up. I stood there for a minute watching him when he opened his eyes, saw me and started screaming. I thought he was having a nightmare and that I scared him by all the sudden being there. I went and tried to soothe him, but he just kept screaming. Jeff came in and took over because I was starting to get really worried. It wasn't normal because he kept kind-of going in and out - he would scream, then almost fall asleep then start screaming again. Jeff got him quieted down and back to sleep then decided to call the pediatrician on call. He told us to check his temperature - it was 94.9. I really thought there was something wrong with the thermometer because I had never seen it that low. Jack never woke up while I took it which was really abnormal. The pediatrician told us to get him to the ER right away. We took Makele to Taryn's - thank heavens she was available to watch her - then sped to the hospital. I climbed into the back seat with Jack because he looked so cold with goose bumps on his legs and was totally out of it - he never woke up. When we arrived at the ER, they got him back there immediately and started working on him. There were lots of people running around hooking him up to an IV, oxygen, blood pressure and heart monitors. I felt so helpless as I watched my little baby laying on the table totally unresponsive through all of this - even with the IV going in his arm his eyes never even opened. It was honestly all I could do to hold it together - I never thought this would happen.

Finally after what seemed like forever, but was probably only five minutes or so, I heard one of the nurses say, "Oh there he is!" He had finally opened his eyes and was looking around. I went to his side where he was looking around with a sleepy expression. After a minute, he looked down at his arm where his hospital bracelet was and said, "Get this off." I could have laughed and cried from relief. He then looked over at his other arm wrapped in and ace bandage to keep the IV from coming out and said, "Get this off." When I told him it was helping him get better and that we could take it out in a little while he said, "I wanna go home!" So glad to hear those words.

The doctor explained to us that his blood sugar had dropped to critical levels. It was 15 mg/dL where the normal range is somewhere between 60-100 mg/dL. It is a potentially fatal condition. He wanted to run some tests to make sure there wasn't anything else going on like diabetes. He also wanted Jack to stay for a few hours under observation to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

The nurses were so good to him - they brought him books and stickers. When I showed him the books and asked which one he wanted me to read, he said, "I want a pirate book." One of the nurses heard that and immediately set off to find one. She found Pirates of the Carribean that had a few pictures from the movie in the middle of it. I read the captions of those pictures over and over to him until I almost had them memorized!

He did really well with staying down on the bed and keeping the oxygen in his nose which I was really surpised. Around lunch time, he ate two big popsicles and some gram crackers. When he drifted off to sleep, the nurse checked his blood sugar and it was normal.

His regular pediatrician was doing rounds in the hospital, so he came down to check on him. He told us it was really an odd thing that had happened and wants to follow up with him.

We finally got the go ahead to take him home. As the nurses unhooked him from everything, they gave him another popsicle which kept his mind off the needle coming out and the electrodes being pulled off his chest and back.

I was just so happy to take him home. He was a little tired which the doctor told us was normal after the ordeal he went through. I am just so grateful that we got him in there when we did and that he was okay. It was such a scary experience - feeling so helpless - I can't even put it into words.

He's back to his old tricks today - running around and playing with his pirates. So glad to have him back to normal. I didn't even mind when he got into the dirty laundry by the washer. He piled it on top of himself and said, "Look at me Mommy!" from underneath the clothes. And believe me, I stopped and looked at him for a long time!