Hospitals

  This has been a rough week for my "A" kiddos. Ahren got sick last Sunday and by Tuesday was struggling to breathe. Took him to the doctor and got new meds. He stayed home Wednesday but by Thursday was sounding really good so off he went. Then Friday he woke up coughing a little. By 11 am the nurse had called me twice and reported he was rapidly getting worse and two breathing treatments had not helped. So off we went back to the doctors office. His blood oxygen level was 92 and close to the level where he would have been admitted to the hospital. Another treatment and he came up to 96%. Better, but not normal. We decided to have him get a bonus of steroids and see if that helped. If not then he would be headed to the hospital for admission. Luckily the big shot in his derrière helped and he began to breathe easier within the hour. Now he is on oral steroids for 9 days. It really helps him breathe but it turns him into a mood-swinging monster.
  Today Ashley is in the hospital. She had been sick last week with a cold/infected throat but had been feeling better. Then today she woke up really feeling lousy with a massive headache and a really stiff neck. Off to the doc-in-a-box  to see what was up. They sent her straight to the medical center to have tests to check for meningitis, among other things. She has had all the usual blood and urine tests, plus a CT scan of head and neck. They attempted a spinal tap but couldn't get the needle in so right now they have her in radiology using x-Ray to guide the needle. I am sitting here staring at her blood on the sheets and my heart aches. The doctor thinks she may have viral meningitis, not bacterial, which is good. Much less dangerous. There is not treatment, just time to recover. It means several weeks of headaches, possibly, but not life threatening apparently. I am very impressed with this hospital and how fast they are moving. They took her back immediately when she arrived and within an hour had most of the tests complete. I barely got here (I am 70 min away) before they had whisked her to radiology. I will update later when we have all the results.
What a week........