Our "Trip"

Okay, so here's the scoop about the fun we had last week-- you really don't need to read this incredibly long post, but I'm just writing down the whole story for my own sake.

Sunday (15th) Brennan had a fever of about 101. No other symptoms besides the fact that he had a broken leg. The fever came down fast with Motrin. Monday morning he woke up with 102.6 fever, again it came right down with Motrin. I called the orthopedic doctor to make an appointment to see if they wanted to cast his leg and asked if a fever was normal for a toddler after breaking a bone. They said a low grade fever was normal. I told them it was almost 103 and they said to call his pediatrician because they weren't sure.

I called our family doctors office and left a message with the nurse. An hour later she called back and said that they didn't know if that was normal or not and to call the orthopedist. Oh the fun of a run around. I figured I would just watch it and see how things went.

We were having a very lazy and relaxing day-- all still in our PJ's at 11 in the morning, reading stories on the couch. Brennan wasn't feeling very well at all so I thought he would enjoy watching a movie (a rare treat at our house) so I was finding one on Netflix (so convenient to have instant movies) when I looked up and Brennan was getting very pale.

I picked him up and he was so hot again, very lethargic and pale. So I carried him upstairs to make him a nice nest on my bed so he could be comfortable with his leg raised to watch a movie and take a nap. I laid him down and his head lolled to the side-- he fainted!! He was out for about 10 seconds, breathing so fast and shallow and his heart was beating so fast I could see it in his neck. He was ash gray and looked so bad.

Cade had followed me upstairs and I sent him for the thermometer and phone while I woke Brennan up and made him talk to me. He wouldn't open his eyes, but he would mumble to me one word answers to questions. His fever was back up to 101 in the middle of a dose of Motrin!

He wanted a drink of water so I ran downstairs and got a sippy cup, but he only took two or three little sips. Meanwhile I grabbed the laptop and found the phone number for the Taylorsville Instacare where I had taken him on Saturday. Brennan was still not very coherent. I talked to a nurse and explained what was going on-- her words "Two year olds do not faint. Take him to Primary Children's ER immediately!"

I called my mom and said "Brennan fainted! I'm taking him to Primary's" and she said she'd be right over to go with us and take care of the other kids.

I sent Cade to get dressed while I threw on clothes myself (Cade was an angel, just asking why Brennan was sick and why we had to go to the doctor, then ran and got all dressed and shoes on by himself, grabbed a book and toy, got me food and a spoon for EmmaRay, and jumped in the car.)

EmmaRay was napping at the time so I grabbed her and changed her, grabbed a bottle and blanket for her and put her in the car then went to grab Brennan who was a little less gray but not much and still didn't want to open his eyes. I buckled him in just as Mom got here (perfect timing!!) and we were off.

During this time Michael decided that there was no way he could concentrate at work while his little boy was having so much trouble, and his boss gave him permission to take the rest of the day off, so he took off to meet us at the ER.

The admissions nurse at the ER took us straight back- Brennan's fever was up to 102.7 again and his heart rate was over 160, respirations 30-40/min. (Normal is heart below 120 and breathing below 20 for children). They gave him a dose of Tylenol to try to break the fever then asked us to wait. Michael arrived during that time and took over cuddling Brennan so I could answer insurance questions.

We waited about 30 seconds for them to say "Let's get him to a room" and we were led back to room 8.... where we spent the next 5 or 6 hours. A doctor came in immediately (when does that ever happen?) and said "We're really concerned about Brennan, which is why we brought him back immediately." No one had any idea why he was so sick and why his heart was racing-- we didn't know if it was related to his leg or not.

The nurse (such a nice guy named Chris) came in and started an IV with a bag of saline to rehydrate Brennan. I held Brennan while he was putting in the IV and he was so sick and lethargic that he barely complained. The nurse took blood while putting in the IV so they could run the whole gammut of tests, and even took extra just in case the doctors decided to do more tests (which they did later, so Chris saved Brennan having to be poked again!)

His fever didn't come down with the tylenol, so they decided to give him another dose of Motrin. That didn't bring it down either. Then a nurse came in to do an EKG to make sure his heart was functioning normally. It's so sad to see your baby hooked up to an IV and about 25 wires on his chest! Then radiology came to take him for chest xrays to look at his heart and lungs-- they were thinking it might be pneumonia.

They had to take the heart monitor stickers off his chest for the chest xrays. The radiology techs found adhesive remover and each took charge of one sticker. One nurse soaked the sticker and then it just kindof fell off. The other nurse peeled the sticker off and rubbed the adhesive remover on the skin. Not helpful. From then on Brennan had a phobia of stickers because it hurt him.

Neither Michael or I could be in the room while Brennan was being xrayed, we had to watch from the doorway while they sat him on a little stool, took his arms and pulled them out to the sides, and then turned him sideways and raised his arms over his head. Poor little baby. I had tears in my eyes watching him be so sad.

Then we got to take him back to the room where Cade and Grandma and EmmaRay were patiently waiting. Brennan's fever didn't come down with the medicine or the IV, so they gave him more IV fluids and let him have apple juice.
Brennan potty trained the week before and has been doing so awesome. I had him in a pullup just because he had still been in his PJ's and he doesn't make it through the night about every 3 or 4 nights. Even as sick as he was he still did so great and asked to go potty. The first time was fine, but the second time, when he was pumped so full of fluid and attached to an IV and cords and we had to wait and wait for someone to come in and unhook him so I could take him to the bathroom... anyway, he soaked through the pullup and his pajamas and the sheets, and still went when we got to the bathroom. He was so upset that he had had an accident and I kept telling him it was okay he was such a big boy and it wasn't his fault!

The CNA changed the sheets and brought him some new PJ's with the tags still on and I got him dressed again, but he really really really wanted his own Thomas the Train pajamas on. It took him awhile to calm down from that.

And then the doctors wanted some blood to do another blood test so someone came in to prick his finger and milk it to fill a little tube. Problem: by this time Brennan was so exhausted but had a little bit of energy back and he was sick and tired of being poked, prodded, listened to.... that he screamed and screamed and screamed and clenched his fist so she couldn't get any blood. She was the only person at the hospital that we didn't like. Instead of trying to calm Brennan down or even soothe him at all she kind of snapped at him and said "If you just calm down and cooperate than I'll be done!" Umm, he's TWO! and he's been SO GOOD up to this point.

She called in another girl to help her, and meanwhile two doctors and our regular nurse came in and while Brennan was screaming the resident doctor who was given our case said "We're just going to talk to you and get the whole story so we can decide on his treatment." About this time EmmaRay started crying because it had been a LONG afternoon and there was way too much commotion, so Mom was bouncing her and walking her around. Cade, thank goodness, was trying to watch the movie that we had put in, but he kept saying "I can't hear it!" Michael at this point was gone to get us all some food because it was about 5pm and we hadn't really eaten lunch. I was sitting there holding my screaming and sick son who they couldn't figure out what was wrong with and all the tests were coming back normal and I was watching his heart monitor that was beeping because his heart rate was over 185 and I said "I can't hear you" to the doctors, so instead of waiting for the blood thing to be over with or anything they both took a step closer and started talking a little louder.

Finally the supervising doctor suggested to the girls who were still trying to milk blood out of Brennans poor little finger that they give him a little break and try his heel because he wouldn't be able to tense that enough to stop the blood flow, so they were able to finish and leave and Brennan, poor kid, finally calmed down.

The doctors said that they were definitely admitting Brennan to the hospital, but they were trying to decide where to put him because he was so sick and they couldn't figure out why. They were beginning to wonder if he had a bone infection, or if he had just been so dehydrated that pneumonia didn't show on the xrays, or if it was something entirely different. So far everything was normal. So, they decided to do a culture from his nose (let me tell you, Brennan did NOT enjoy having his sinuses suctioned), and they had a few more doctors come in to listen to his breathing and his heart and look at his chart. They also had a doctor from the ICU come down to assess whether he needed to be put there or not...

All the doctors had several conferences together (I'm sure we'll see a bill from every one of them-- I think there were 7 or 8 doctors by the end of this) and finally decided to put him up on the Medical floor instead of the ICU because he was finally starting to respond to the fluids and his fever was down a little (like 101 again), but they had a big note to watch this patient closely because he may need to go to the ICU. SCARY!!

During all of these conferences they gave Brennan IV antibiotics just in case it was pneumonia, and they finished off the bag of saline (an adult size bag by the way), and then they closed off the IV and left it in for later if needed.

We were taken upstairs to the medical floor (rm 3045) and officially admitted. We ordered dinner for Brennan (it was about 7pm). The blood tech came to do another of those lovely tests where they milk drops out of a finger poke and I told her to do it in his heel but she wouldn't. They never listen. It took awhile but she finally got enough blood. Poor Brennan had bandaids on two fingers now...

and then a little while later another blood tech showed up to do it again!! We said "What is going on!! Why? You just did this!" Apparently the doctor had forgotten to send the order down "officially" so it had to be redone because of the technicality. Poor little kid. Three fingers in bandaids.

Mom and Michael left about 8:45 to take Cade and EmmaRay home to bed (such little angels all day long!!) and EmmaRay lost her pacifier and screamed in the car most of the way... but then slept fairly well all night (I only say that because I wasn't there!) Michael brought me some pajamas and my toothbrush and sudafed because I had been sick with a horrible sinus headache for several days and a fever myself (it was confusing because Brennan and I had different symptoms, so the doctors didn't think we had the same thing, but it was a possibility).

Brennan finally dozed off while Michael was there (it was about 10pm) and Michael gave him a blessing while he was sleeping and then left so poor Mom could go home to her bed.

I don't know how they expect anyone to get better in the hospital because you don't get any sleep. We were told that they needed to come and do the same blood test again (checking his lactate levels and the oxygenation of his blood to make sure his heart and lungs were pumping the blood sufficiently) at midnight, so I thought to myself "Great, at least we can sleep for an hour" (it was 11pm and Brennan had already woken up again and fallen back asleep).... 11:05 the doctor comes in to tell me they are going to do blood work at midnight... old news. And they still didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was encouraging that Brennan's heart rate was at 145 while resting. Of course the light from the doorway woke Brennan up again, but I got him back to sleep in a few minutes. The doctor left and said "Ok, we'll leave you alone to rest... for 40 minutes or so."

Midnight the blood tech comes in again, does not say a word to me, grabs Brennan's sleepy hand, pokes it, he wakes up crying and squirming, blood goes everywhere, the tech gets what she needs while I hold him down, she wipes his bloody hand off and walks out the door. A few minutes later I have Brennan asleep again and the nurse comes in to get vitals and check his lungs... he wakes up again, this time I can't get him back to sleep for a long time. But, for the first time all day and night long he finally feels cool-- not just drugged cool, but really the fever had gone. Just as Brennan was dozing off the doctor walks in (1am) and says "The blood levels of the lactates keeps going down, so we won't have to do that test anymore unless he goes downhill again. And, we just got the results of his nasal secretions (what a nice way to put it)-- he tested positive for Influenza B. That's what is causing all of this-- fever, fast heart rate, etc."

They started Brennan on Tamiflu- the antiviral treatment for the flu. A medicine which tastes NASTY so Brennan gagged on it and then refused the next dose in the morning...

Anyway, after 1am Brennan was awake and wanted me to read him stories. At 2am the nurse came in to do vitals again and he seemed to be responding to the medicine. At 2:15 Brennan says to me "I'm hungry!" so I asked the nurse for graham crackers, peanut butter and juice. I finally got Brennan back to sleep at 3 in the morning. Luckily we were left alone until 8am so at least we both got a little sleep. Of course I woke up twice to make sure Brennan was doing okay, but he slept through. His sleeping heart rate was down to 110 and his breathing at 18-25. As soon as he woke up though his heart was at 135+.

The doctor came in at 8 and said that things were starting to look better, but they wanted to see Brennan's heart rate below 120 and his fever completely gone before they let us leave. Brennan ate a good breakfast of pancakes, but then the nurse and I had to tackle him down to give him the medicine, so he wasn't a happy camper after that. He kept asking to watch "Thomas" so I had to go on a hunt through the hospital in the hopes of finding a DVD for him (He was introduced to Thomas in the ER and was convinced that I just needed to go to that other room and get it out of the TV). I got very VERY tired of watching/listening to Thomas the Train, but it kept him happy for the most part.
All day long Brennan was so tired but I couldn't get him to calm down enough to take a nap or even lay down in the bed. The buttons that moved the bed were way fun to play with too!

Luckily just when Brennan had about had it with me reading books to him and watching Thomas the nurse brought in some toys to play with, so he played with dinosaurs and cars for the rest of the afternoon.
At 3:30 a doctor came in and examined Brennan again and even though his heart rate was still 140+ and he still had a low grade fever he said we could go home!! Hooray! He said they would have liked to give Brennan a second dose of the antibiotic for pneumonia, but it wasn't worth putting the IV in again (Brennan had started pulling it out in the night, I had called in a nurse who retaped it and bundled up his hand even more, but by morning the IV was completely out) and he didn't think there was pneumonia anyway.

So, we just waited for the hospital to send the discharge papers. By now, Brennan was DONE being in the bed, so I rocked him in a chair in a futile attempt to get him to sleep. I called Michael at work to tell him we would be released, and called my mom to pack up the other two kids and head over to pick us up.

Brennan had to wear a face mask on the way out of the hospital and he didn't like that at all, but did it after some coaxing. We left the hospital at 4:45 and got home at 6. That night I set my alarm for 3 and 6 am so I could go and check on Brennan to make sure his fever wasn't back, etc. There was no way I would have woken up on my own!

The next morning (Wednesday) I took the kids to Mom's house and left Cade and EmmaRay and then took Brennan to The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital to get his leg looked at. He did NOT like the idea of going to another hospital.

The doctor walked in and Brennan started crying. I told the doctor that he'd have to excuse Brennan- he'd had it with doctors and did a brief explanation why. The doctor was so nice and understanding. He showed me the xray of Brennan's leg. He has a "greenstick" fracture in his lower tibia, meaning a vertical break instead of horizontal. Put it in a cast for 5 weeks and it will be as good as new.

He called in an assistant to help hold Brennan's leg in the right position and I laid Brennan down on the bed. As soon as the doctor started taking off his splint Brennan started yelling... not screaming hysterically like I expected, he just started yelling protests. "Mommy don't let that doctor touch me! I don't like him! I don't like it I don't like it! Don't touch my leg! Let me go! No! No! I don't want it on! I don't want a new boot!" Etc. etc. The doctor had a little smile on his face the whole time and said later that that was the cutest thing ever. He asked Brennan in the middle of it if he thought a blue cast would be cool and Brennan yelled "NO! I DON"T WANT IT!" and the doctor chuckled and said "Well, at least he's answering questions!"

After the cast was on and hardened we were taken for xrays to make sure that the bone was straight in the cast. Brennan clung to me like "How could you do this to me again Mommy!" But we got the xrays and everything looked good so we could go. The doctor told me about 3 times "Thanks for helping with Brennan while I was casting him. That was really great. You helped a lot." What was I supposed to do? Leave him screaming on the table and go out of the room? No, of course I would cradle his head and tell him everything was okay and that the doctor was just going to make his owie leg all better.

The next day, Thursday, I took all the kids with me to our family doctor's office for a (hopefully) final checkup for Brennan to make sure his heart and lungs sounded good. I was trying to keep it a surprise where we were going so Brennan wouldn't panic, but Cade piped up and said "Are we going to the doctor mommy?" and Brennan started crying. Great. He screamed while the nurse took his temperature, screamed while they listened to his heart and lungs with a stethoscope, screamed while they checked his blood oxygen levels by putting a little light on his finger, screamed with his mouth closed when they tried to look down his throat, screamed with his eyes scrunched closed when they tried to look in his eyes, screamed and struggled when they tried to look in his ears. It was really a blast. Then just when he thought he was done I asked the nurse if they had adhesive remover to finally get the heart monitor stickers off his chest (they do NOT soak off in a bath). Brennan screamed and screamed while the nurse used alcohol and took off the stickers. A lollipop did wonders to calm him down and then we left the doctors office and hopefully will not have to go back for a long long LONG time!!!

I ended up having to use nail polish remover to get the last of the adhesive off of Brennan's skin. Poor little kid. It was quite the traumatic week for him.

All three kids were given the Tamiflu to get rid of and/or prevent them from getting the flu for 5 days. $47/bottle that the insurance did not cover at all. We went through 4 bottles in five days. Ouch. Michael said he's hoping for $4000 in hospital bills. I think that's a conservative estimate.... at least Brennan is over the flu and is doing fine with his cast. Only four more weeks....

Sorry again for the incredibly long post, you really don't have to read it. This is just the easiest way for me to write it all down for "posterity" I promise my next post will be a lot more fun and a whole lot shorter!