Ezra’s 2nd Hospitalization

If there is one thing that I’ve learned in this parenting gig, it’s that kids are unpredictable.

We had our first one and I *thought* I had it all figured out until the second one came along. By the time I was starting to get my stride with two, I was feeling confident enough to know that no two kids are the same. I figured that since no two kids were the same, and I already had two, surely the third would be something like either the 1st or the 2nd? Right? Right?

Wrong.

Ezra has been a surprise since the moment I got a positive pregnancy test. His entire pregnancy was difficult for me, his labor was long and hard, and when he was bored I almost fell off the bed from shock that I had birthed a 9+ lb baby. For those of you who don’t know me in real life, I’m 5’4″ and not too much over 100 lbs myself. My first two babies were both full term 6 pounders. But what was fantastic about Ezra’s sturdy birth weight is that he did a fabulous job developing and gaining weight.

Right up until he caught RSV at 5 weeks old and was hospitalized on Dec 30, 2018. He was in the hospital for five days and was discharged on January 4, 2019. That was a very scary week for us. Since Ezra was so little, the RSV hit him really hard and he had to be hooked up to a lot of things and received a lot of help for breathing, eating and staying hydrated. It was an incredibly stressful and traumatic time for our family. We were thankful when he recovered and we were able to take him home. I figured that we had moved past the worst and our relationship with Dayton Children’s would be at arms length from then on. HA! That was not to be the case.

On Thursday, January 2nd Ezra woke up with a runny nose and cold. We were not concerned. He’s a kid and kids get colds. He wasn’t too affected by it, although I was chasing him around almost all day with a Kleenex. We put him to bed that night and didn’t think much of it. The next morning, Friday, January 3rd, he woke up with a raspy crackle in his breathing. I figured he was just congested, since kids always wake up more congested than they went to sleep. Theo had to head off to work and I was nervous about taking care of sick kids, but that is life.

About 20 minutes after Theo left for work, I started to get really concerned. Ezra’s breathing was very labored, and still crackly. He fell asleep on my chest and his little stomach was working so hard to breathe that it was pushing against my own stomach. I took a video and sent it to my BIL (a doctor) who said to go ahead and take him to Children’s immediatly.

Meanwhile, at work, Theo was called on a hostage/shots fired at police situation. Theo raced off to that and wasn’t able to answer his phone. I texted two of my friends and told them I needed help. Even though they knew my two big kids weren’t feeling well, they still dropped everything to come over and watch them while I took Ezra to the Children’s ER.

I arrived at the ER around 2pm, and I felt a little silly about it. Ezra was perky, alert and acting like his normal self. His breathing crackled and was ragged, but he honestly didn’t *look* like he was in distress. I wondered if the nurses would send me home, thinking I was silly.

I got into the waiting area and there was not a single person waiting! Hallelujah! They took me straight back and got us settled into an ER room. We went through the whole ringer with seeing nurses, getting his snot sucked, getting swabbed for flu and RSV, taking his temperature and being asked a million and one questions. Since the police standoff was still going on, Theo was relieved of his position for a more senior officer to take over. Theo was put on patrol and since all of the senior officers were at the standoff, Theo and just a few other officers were in charge of covering the entire city. Since the hospital is right in Theo’s jurisdiction, he was able to swing by for just a few minutes and then had to leave again. I didn’t see him again until after 9pm!

After spending several hours in the ER, they did a breathing treatment and got an IV started. Ezra HATED the breathing treatment even more than the IV. At this point, I was surprised at how well I was holding up. Having to hold my child down for those procedures is hard. It’s one of the things that I had to step out of the room for last time Ezra was hospitalized. But this time, it was just me and there was no stepping out.

Ezra started to respond quickly to both the breathing treatment and the IV medication + fluids. He perked up, but crashed hard again.

At this point, Ezra and I were both starving and hadn’t had anything to eat (Ezra had lunch, but nothing else, and I hadn’t had anything since breakfast). Thankfully, a friend stopped by really quickly and brought some Panera so we both got a little to eat!

Finally, after 4 hours in the ER, they got us a room and started to get us settled in the for the night. I was able to meet the nurses, order Ezra some food and sit down, finally. However, Ezra was having NONE of me putting him down. He did not want to be placed in the hospital crib and he did not want any nurse or doctor or respiratory therapist touching him.

After he received a breathing treatment, he would be climbing the walls. Apparently albuterol can make kiddos feel really hyper and then crash really hard. Indeed, that was exactly how Ezra was. After the breathing treatment, he would be completely fine and then within a hour or so, his breathing would become ragged again.

Theo was finally able to get off work at 9pm, and he drove over immediately. I gathered up my stuff and headed home to be with the big kids while Theo slept the night at the hospital. Meanwhile, at home, the big kids had come down with the cold/virus and I don’t believe that I slept a wink that night! Of course, Theo and Ezra had it worse off, where they were woken up every few hours by a nurse or staff member checking on them.

Ezra did so well in the night, that they started to talk about discharge the next morning! We were so pleasantly surprised that they allowed him to go home by 2pm. Less than 24 hours in the hospital!

At this point, they let us know that we are looking at a kiddo who will probably have every respiratory virus go straight to his lungs and cause breathing problems. In the rest of us, a cold is merely a yucky inconvenience, but for Ezra it can be a nasty difficulty breathing. We will have to continually watch him and if he continues to struggle with breathing problems, we will begin pursuing specialists and further treatment. For now, we just sit tight and wait and make sure to watch him extra closely when he gets a cold!

Finally, one week later….we are mostly on the mend. Ezra is almost completely recovered and is back to his completely normal self! Tera and Kiah are still working to get better, especially Tera, who seems to have been struck with a particularly awful secondary virus.

This time was not as severe and dangerous as last time, but for some reason it hit me really hard. I wasn’t expecting Ezra to need to go to the hospital and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be admitted! It also didn’t help that Theo was stuck at work and Tera and Kiah were at home sick. I felt like I had to do it all, and that is just not physically possible.

One thing I’ve noticed after I’ve had a baby hospitalized is how hard it is for me to recover AFTER the baby is home and fully recovered. I literally feel like I’ve been knocked down and sucker punched and its hard to get back up again! For a few days after Ezra came home, I did a lot of walking around crying and just feeling awful about life in general. It’s like since I had to be strong at the hospital, I was, but once we get home and I don’t have to be strong anymore, I’m just not. Not strong. Not one bit.

I’m so thankful that Ezra is doing well and that he is going to be just fine. I’m SO thankful for the level of care that we can receive here in America. I’m SO thankful for insurance that will help us cover the costs of the healthcare (although I’m not looking forward to those bills). I’m so thankful that Ezra got a room by himself in the hospital. In so many places around the world, hospital rooms are shared with multiple other people! I’m so thankful for other friends who were willing to watch my kids for me so I didn’t have to take all of them to the hospital with me. Indeed, there is a lot to be thankful for.