Never a dull moment!

Spring break has not gotten off to a good start so far. Friday the kids were out of school and Zach had his regular day off so we ran errands, worked in the yard and enjoyed the sunshine. Well not Cody. His cough was not getting any better so he layed around on the couch most of the day. Zach also got called in for a safety briefing in the afternoon. As I was grocery shopping I ran into someone from church and asked if she knew about an after hours clinich. She told me all about it so I decided to take Cody in to see if they could give me something stronger for his cough. Our plan all along was to do easter on Saturday since Zach works Sundays. He also wanted to go fishing on Fort Dix. So the plan was for Zach to take Tyler and Ryan fishing while I took Cody into the clinic first thing that morning. We would meet them at the lake hopefully with some meds that would help Cody feel better and maybe fish a little.

At the clinic they took a chest x-ray and informed me that Cody had pneumonia. I was shocked since I just thought he had a bad cough! I was then told to take him to the nearest ER which was about 5 minutes away. Unfortunately they do not have a pediactric unit becuase it is a heart and lung hospital. I asked why I couldn't take him to a different one and he said I had to go to the closest first and then they would transport him by ambulance to the hospital that had care for him. So the chaos began!

I stopped by the lake and let Zach know what was going on. He doesn't have a cell phone and after this I sure wish he did! I took Cody to Deborah and they got us right in. I had the chest xray so they knew right off they couldn't keep him. They set up transport and went ahead with blood work so it would speed things up at the next hospital. The transport too much longer than anticpated and I asked if I could just take him myself. The doctor said because he has a history of seizures they couldn't allow that. His oxygen levels were too low so if his airways closed up completely then we would have bigger issues.

Finally we were put in an ambulance and taken to Virtua Memorial about 30 minutes away. They were the closest with a peds unit. Once there the new doctors and nurses picked up where the others left off. The doctor said we would have to stay at least one night, maybe two because Cody's oxygen was too low. They started breathing treatments and Zach came out with the other boys. I went home to grab clothes and have my neighbor take me to get the van at the other hospital. By the time I got back Cody was settled in a room upstairs and doing a little better. Zach had to work Sunday so I had talked to our neighbor about keeping an eye on the other boys for me. We were hoping work would hear the situation then send Zach home, but that was not the case.

Saturday night Cody had breathing treatments every two hours and had to stay on oxygen. The goal was Sunday to get him off the oxygen and then that night see how he did sleeping. If he passed then they would send us home Monday. Again Zach had to work so luckily the same person from church who gave me the after hours clinic offered to take the boys for the day. Monday we were discharged after getting a nebulizer machine. One doctor thinks Cody might have asthma, but with no prior history and no family history we don't know for sure. He said some people only have seasonal asthma and this is a prime time of year. So we had to wait on the nebulizer machine in case we have more problems. I am doing breathing treatments this week since that left lung is not clearing, but after that it will be as needed.

The doctors and nurses were all great and made the stay more pleasant. The easter bunny left a basket for Cody Sunday morning. He didn't care about it until Sunday night when he finally perked up and wanted to be up more. He was able to play in the playroom which included a Wii! That was perfect for him and it was good for him to be up and around. Now I am working on recovering from being gone! Zach wasn't able to clean or anything since he works long days. He also isn't used to thinking about things like laundry so the load I had put on Saturday morning was still in the washer. I did think to ask him to run the dishwasher on Sunday for me. We have two more days of spring break so I will get everything caught up before working Thurs and Fri.

We hope everyone had a great Easter!