My aunt sent me an invite to my cousin, Molly's, Bat Mitzvah. No, I am not Jewish. When my aunt and my uncle married, my aunt converted so they could raise their kids in the Jewish faith. Also, did I mention that my aunt is the QUEEN of paper crafts? She made my cousin's super cool invites and centerpieces. Yeah, I'm jealous. Anywho, I booked my flight to good old Sky Harbor in Phoenix, AZ for January 15, 2008. I figured we (Ethan, myself and Claire was along for the ride in my belly) would spend a few days lounging with my MIL, and I'd get a chance to head out to Chandler to visit my great grandmother and my grandmother before the weekend festivities began. On January 13, Ethan produced a fever, a hacking cough, shortness of breath and paleness that persisted throughout the night, even through numerous doses of Motrin. I took him to the doctor on January 14. The visit was as follows:
Dr.: Ethan appears to have the beginnings of pnuemonia.
Me: OK. What do we do to treat this?
Dr.: We'll give him some amoxicillan, and and inhaler. The inhaler should be used as needed or every 6 hours. The amoxicillan should be taken every 4 hours.
Me: We're scheduled to fly out tomorrow on a trip to Arizona. Is this serious enough to call off the trip, or can we still go?
Dr.: Oh, the trip should be fine. Just make sure to take the inhaler on the flight and use if needed.
Me: Ok, sounds great. Thanks Dr.!
There was dinner at Bucca Di Beppo in Scottsdale. (That's my cousin, the Bat Mitzvah girl, making her thanks for coming rounds!)
Tamborine's to be played at the Bat Mitzvah!
Grandpa's to take pictures with!
And even a glow necklace (or five as we ended up with) to be worn as halo's!
Giraffe's are Ethan's favorite animal. He still talks about the time he got to feed one.
Me: OK. What do we do to treat this?
Dr.: We'll give him some amoxicillan, and and inhaler. The inhaler should be used as needed or every 6 hours. The amoxicillan should be taken every 4 hours.
Me: We're scheduled to fly out tomorrow on a trip to Arizona. Is this serious enough to call off the trip, or can we still go?
Dr.: Oh, the trip should be fine. Just make sure to take the inhaler on the flight and use if needed.
Me: Ok, sounds great. Thanks Dr.!
Fast forward to January 15. It's 5 hours after our landing at 3 PM. So, it's 8 PM. Ethan starts to wheeze. I give him inhaler. Ethan starts to cough. I give him inhaler. Ethan starts to turn purple, cough and wheeze. I grab him, my MIL grabs keys and we go to Urgent Care where this loviness ensues:
This was after they asked if he'd had x-rays on his lungs and been offered breathing treatments by the Doctor we saw the day before. We hadn't. He recieved the x-rays there, and the entire bottom portion and almost his whole left lung were cloudy with pneumonia! After being monitored until almost 11PM at Urgent Care and showing no signs of progress, they tell us he needs to be on oxygen, admitted to the hospital and transported by ambulance.
After being loaded up for the drive to PCH (Phoenix Children's Hospital) we arrived to be shuttled in the ambulance bay doors, where they removed the oxygen Ethan was supposed to be on, took us to triage, and left us for FOUR FREAKING HOURS after all of that hoopla! I complained I can't even tell you how many times.
When we finally were taken to a room with my super sick child, the docotor that came to see us was short, failed to look at his medical records that CLEARLY stated that he needed admittance and told me that she wasn't going to admit him because she just didn't have the room. She needed it for "sicker" people. I was LIVID. I took the medicine she prescribed and shot her a death glare. I doubted that she caught it, so I hoped that in her midst to be rude to other people, she tripped on something and bruised her shin.
But, after all of that, the trip got better.
This was after they asked if he'd had x-rays on his lungs and been offered breathing treatments by the Doctor we saw the day before. We hadn't. He recieved the x-rays there, and the entire bottom portion and almost his whole left lung were cloudy with pneumonia! After being monitored until almost 11PM at Urgent Care and showing no signs of progress, they tell us he needs to be on oxygen, admitted to the hospital and transported by ambulance.
After being loaded up for the drive to PCH (Phoenix Children's Hospital) we arrived to be shuttled in the ambulance bay doors, where they removed the oxygen Ethan was supposed to be on, took us to triage, and left us for FOUR FREAKING HOURS after all of that hoopla! I complained I can't even tell you how many times.
When we finally were taken to a room with my super sick child, the docotor that came to see us was short, failed to look at his medical records that CLEARLY stated that he needed admittance and told me that she wasn't going to admit him because she just didn't have the room. She needed it for "sicker" people. I was LIVID. I took the medicine she prescribed and shot her a death glare. I doubted that she caught it, so I hoped that in her midst to be rude to other people, she tripped on something and bruised her shin.But, after all of that, the trip got better.
There was dinner at Bucca Di Beppo in Scottsdale. (That's my cousin, the Bat Mitzvah girl, making her thanks for coming rounds!)
Tamborine's to be played at the Bat Mitzvah!
Grandpa's to take pictures with!
And even a glow necklace (or five as we ended up with) to be worn as halo's!We ended our trip on a fabulous note. We took Ethan to the World Wildlife Zoo and let him do this:
Giraffe's are Ethan's favorite animal. He still talks about the time he got to feed one.In total on this trip, I grabbed maybe 24 hours of sleep. TWENTY FOUR!! In seven days. I was exhausted when we got home. I was ready to collapse as soon as we walked in the door. I slept from the moment Ethan was in bed, until well into the next day. David got up with Ethan and did all the medications and breathing treatments while I rested. What a guy! I also had to shove seeing the rest of my family into two days at the end of my trip because I didn't want to expose my great grandmother to Ethan's illness before he had been taking his medication for at least a few days. She's stubborn about medication as it is, and I just didn't want to shove this illness on her and burden my grandma with those medication arguments. After all was said and done though, it really did turn into a very fun vacation, and I'm happy that I, and that Ethan was well enough to be part of my cousin's day!
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