Bryce Gets Admitted.

This blog entry will likely be without my usual sense of humor as I've had little sleep and am sitting in a hospital room with my sick baby.

Bryce got sick this weekend, he ran a temp and was not eating and just basically miserable. As he's on a pretty heavy-duty antibiotic for his c. diff infection, we knew whatever he had was viral. By Monday AM he was still running a temp, still not eating and just very lethargic. I called the pediatrician's office & got him an appointment.

At the office, we had to sit in the lobby due to suspected H1N1. In the lobby, I noticed Bryce was getting hives. (insert your choice of explicative here). Back in the exam room, the hives were spreading, he was frantically clawing at his face, neck, ears, nose and mouth. He was screaming. I realized his lips were swelling and he was having an allergic reaction.

The Dr came in as I was giving him Benadryl. Then I had to give him his epi-pen. The Dr did a quick check of him, checked his O2 sats and called ahead to the U of M ER for us. When you give Epi, you have to be followed up in the ER.

I should add that I had a combination tantrum/nervous breakdown/throwdown with the pediatrician. Bryce's reaction can ONLY BE from something airborne. As he's not eaten since Friday night, it couldn't be a latent reaction to something he ate. As he was in his stroller at the Dr's office, he didn't touch anything. This means he inhaled something, likely peanuts. I had tried, unsuccessfully, about 6 months ago to get the ped's office to be a food-free zone. The Dr had the gall to tell me that "the real world has peanuts". That was the wrong thing to say to me. If you know me at all, you know that I really don't take lightly to that type of statement. The Dr got an earful from me, and in the end, she aquiesed and agreed that maybe she'd talk to the office manager about this.

At the ER, we were checked in and placed directly in a single room. They were initially going to place us in a shared room with another "flu-peanut allergy" child, but the c. diff means we get a private PANDEMIC room. It's crazy to hear the staff talk about pandemic cleaning, pandemic this, pandemic that. Bryce got a modified pandemic room b/c the c. diff requires different cleaning protocols than the pandemic ones.

They drew blood, started an IV, gave him the typical anaphylaxis cocktail of steroids, Benadryl, Zantac and saline. His dehydration was severe and his blood sugar was extrememly low, so he was given more fluids plus some sugar water and he was admitted. They did take his H1N1 nose swab before he was admitted.

They poked and prodded, I gave his history to about 5 gazillion people and he went to sleep by 8PM. It's nice that they have a "couch" for the parent to sleep on, but there's really no sleep in a hospital.

From a food allergy standpoint, this hasn't been easy. I'll not go into specifics, but honestly, I don't trust giving Bryce a food that I can't first read the label. So the nurse has brought me an assortment of jarred babyfood (which I know is safe) and I'll order him some meats & french fries and give him babyfood. He's had 2 bottles, so that's good.

As of right now, we're waiting on this morning's labwork to come back. The H1N1 swab should be back this afternoon. The U of M is running them twice per day instead of sending them out to the Mayo Clinic.

My little guy is asleep. He's really not happy about any of this. This is the right place to be for a sick little one, for certain.