On the other side...

On Wednesday, December 21st, Weston was admitted to Kentucky Children's Hospital with what we would later find to be RSV.  Now, I've been a Pediatric resident here for two-and-a-half years, but it doesn't really count when I've only been a mom for 12 months.  Weston started getting sick on Sunday with cough and fevers.  Then the next day he still had low grade temp, but not so bad that I thought I should keep him home from school, so I gave him a dose of Motrin, took him to school and then went to work.  This month I'm working inpatient on the Pediatric Wards at the Children's Hospital.  We have been admitting plenty of sick kids with everything from respiratory viruses to renal failure.  This is actually my first Winter ward month because last year I was out on maternity leave and the year before that I was working in the ER (totally different kind of crazy).  Anyways, it's busy to say the least.

Back to Weston...he wasn't at school a whole day before he had a temp of 103 and the teachers were calling Rolland saying he was "lethargic" and to come and pick him up.  So, after a little schedule re-arranging, I was able to stay home with Weston on Tuesday...he didn't eat, cough got worse and he started wheezing a little (which is what he usually does every time he gets sick).  Then Wednesday morning he woke up with a big fever again, so Rolland stayed home with him all day while I was on call.  "On call" means I go in at 7am and I'm at the hospital until 11am the next day (28 hour shift).  Weston kept a fever all day and wouldn't really eat, then he stopped drinking and peeing as the afternoon went on.  Late in the evening he was breathing harder, he got the chills and was shivering and then I got the call:  "Is it normal if he is shivering?  Well, the pediatrician in me says, "sure, when you shiver, your temp goes up, your immune system fights bugs".  So I was like, Oh, I'll call my attending and run it by her.  Then Rolland called me to tell me that Weston had started vomiting...nice!  So he had already decided that they were coming in to the ER before I even got back to him.

At the Peds ER things were a little crazy, but I must say that the boys got taken care of pretty quickly.  Weston was wheezing, so he got nebbed up and some steroids, but he still wouldn't drink, even when his temperature came down, so they gave him a bolus of IV fluids....meanwhile, I was working upstairs in the Children's Hospital, admitting everyone elses' kids, so I made a couple trips down to see the boys, but it was looking more and more like Weston might be our next patient.  It wasn't long before I got the call from the ER resident who said Weston needed some oxygen and he still wouldn't drink, so after a little scrambling, my shift was over.  I went down to the ER and picked up my boy and brought him up to the hospital : (  sad day. 

Staying in the hospital is so not ideal...I don't know how these crazy parents do it...and sometimes they try to stay and milk it for all they can.  I mean, 2 adults sleeping on a single cot is not ideal.  The "food cart" is like a little buffet that comes to the hospital floor 3 times a day that has things like "potato smiles" for dinner.  No thanks.  So we've been eating takeout a little too much.  Not to mention we have to go home about twice a day to let the dog out and feed the animals, so we just shower and get a change of clothes when we're there. 

On Thursday we found out that Weston had RSV...which is probably the most common thing we're seeing right now anyway, but there are a couple of kids here who are confirmed Flu positive.  RSV is Respiratory Syncytial Virus...it's a nasty virus that causes kids to have buckets and buckets of snot...not just in their nose, but in their little airways in the lungs, so that's why it's especially bad for kids who have little lung reserve like tiny babies and kids with chronic lung problems (like our little wheezer).  You really can't do much for RSV except use lots of nasal saline and suction when needed and give oxygen or breathing treatments if they need it and it actually helps.  Weston is already on Flovent twice a day for asthma anyway, so we scheduled his breathing treatments and just had to roll with it. 

It's weird being on the other side of this hospital room door...I see my team out the window rounding on my patients and working harder because I'm stuck in here (I know this is where I'm supposed to be with my sick boy).  Rolland keeps asking me what I'd do about this and that, but I plead the 5th...I'm not Weston's doctor...I'm his mom.  So, until he doesn't need oxygen, doesn't need IV fluids, and is looking a little better, we're here...on the other side.