A Trip to the ER

(Back-dated for archiving sake)

It all began about 3 weeks ago, when Scott and I, went away to a church planting conference in Barrie and decided to get a hotel and stay overnight. We figured that with a new baby coming, it would be our last getaway for a while! We got home extremely early on Wednesday morning. That Friday, Scott took Keona away to a youth conference in Barrie. That same day, all of my kids decided to get sick. Not one or two, all seven of them. Poor Keona, had to sit out of several activities (including her favourite- dodgeball) because her cough was so bad that it was triggering her asthma. Back at home, I was sitting in my bed at about 1am watching a movie on my laptop. Jeddy walked out into the hall and through his laboured breathes said, “I… love you… Mom…” and went right back to his room. The way he was breathing worried me a bit, and his face looked a little odd. I figured that it was just from him sleeping, but decided to go check on him anyways. When I went in to check on him, he was gasping for each breath and his face, arms, and legs were all swollen with hives. I brought him into my room to keep an eye on him, but his gasping and coughing continued and the swelling was scaring me a bit. I called my Mom to come over since Scott was 3 hours away, and headed to the ER with him. There was no wait, they took him straight to the back when they saw his breathing and put him on oxygen. We stayed there for the next 6 hours. Breathing treatment, oxygen, repeat…

The RT came in to see him, and asked him a few questions to see how his breathing was while he carried a conversation. (Not to mention that his heart rate was in the 120’s due to the breathing treatments!) He told her right out of the blue, “The Bible is the most important thing. It’s God’s Word, you know!” She told him that he was right, and asked him about school. He continued to tell her, that He was in kindergarten and that he could spell “cat” and “Polhamus” and that Mom was his teacher, and that there were 7 kids in our house, and that Mom was having another baby in 3 weeks… Needless to say, he didn’t have a problem talking at this point! He also asked her if he was going to get a needle. When she told him “No, I don’t think you’ll need one.”

He said, “Well, you can give me one if you want to!”

I think he may have been slightly delirious at this point!

She commented on how I looked like I was ready to have the baby, and she would keep an eye out for me. At 34 weeks pregnant, let’s just say that the little plastic hospital chairs were slightly less than comfortable. She suggested that I hop into bed with Jeddy, and we both try to get some sleep.

Jed, insisted that I was NOT allowed to sleep at the hospital. He told me that he would have the nurse wake me up and send me home. When I explained to him that I wouldn’t leave him there alone, he replied, “But you need to sleep Mom. I’m fine. The doctors and  my nurse will watch me!”

We slept together for about an hour, and then a nurse came in to check on Jed and I woke up. Jed’s nurse was a 6 foot 5 inch, 250lb, black man. He lifted my hulk of a son, like he weighed nothing. It was quite entertaining to watch. He also called him “Jedi” all night. I don’t know if he thought that’s what I was calling him, or if he just made it up himself for fun. Either way, Jed seemed to like it!

Thankfully at 7am, his O2 levels were back up into the high 90’s and we were able to head home with a brand new puffer.

I’d love to say that was the end of all the sickness in our house, but it continued for the next 2 weeks! And little did we know, how right that RT was about me being back very soon to have the baby!

34 weeks