Almost 4 weeks ago, on March 23, Ezekiel came home from school coughing a little. He had been getting breathing treatments for a few days, but he had been responding well. Daniel gave him treatments at home, and he seemed to be all right for a about an hour. After that time, his breathing became very labored. It had been over a year and a half since he had had an asthma attack, and we were concerned that he wasn't responding well to treatments. We took him to urgent care as soon as they opened. I had just gotten home from work. We hadn't had dinner yet. We were hoping it would be a short appointment, and it turned out it went pretty quickly. Z's oxygen levels were not as high as we would have liked. They were hanging around 92-93.The doctor gave him a treatment and sent us on our way with a few prescriptions. I asked if he needed a shot of a steroid, the dr. assured me that he would be fine. She seemed to also think that the machine was malfunctioning, and that his blood-oxygen levels couldn't really be that low. Because, apparently, I don't know my kid as well as she does :(
We went to dinner and picked up Z's meds. After being home for a few minutes, we realized Z's breathing was not much better and was getting worse by the moment. Thankfully, my parents were home. They were happy to take care of Malachi so we could take Z to the ER. Malachi knew that we were going to leave him right before bed, and he knew Z needed to go, again. We sat down, as a family, and prayed for Z before we left. When I looked up, Malachi was crying. How much he loves his brother, and God blessed him with such a tender heart! After looking at Carolina's Medical wait times, we decided to make the 25-30 minute drive to the children's ER at Levine Children's Hospital and CMC main. They had a short wait time and had taken good care of Z during his mri, earlier.
Once we arrived at the ER, Z was back to a room within 25 minutes. He was soooo tired. It was late. They quickly got him on a continuous nebulizer treatment. He rebounded for about an hour, then was able to sleep. After being on the continuous neb for several hours and not having much lung function improvement, they decided to admit him. We move
d up to a room around 2am. They kept him on the continuous neb, got him on a round of 3 shots to open up airways, an IV with another medicine to open up something else in the airways. It was a loooooooooong night all ready, and poor Z had to be poked, shot, and a mask on his face for hours. The doctor even said that she didn't hear any wheezing because his airways were so closed off and restricted. We were definitely wise to take him to the hospital or the effects could have been much worse.
Daniel went home around 9am and returned a little after noon with items for me to get a shower, lunch, and Malachi. As soon as Malachi walked in the room and saw Z in the hospital bed, he began to cry a little, again. Malachi hadn't slept well that night. He w
ent to bed around 11 that night, was up for a little while at 3am, and was up for good around 6am. Malachi is not good with change.
Z was on a liquid diet, and was able to eat a popsicle and a little more. His levels didn't stay up while he was eating, but he began to pick up his spirits. We were visited by the children's pastor Andrew and his son, Garrett. The 3 boys played a few games on the hospital bed, and Z was starting to feel much better and talk a lot more.
By late evening, he was able to come off the continuous neb. He had been on it for about 17 hours, total. He ate all his servings of his liquid diet. After that, he began to say he was hungry. Doctor and nurses said he was doing well enough to eat real food. So, he ate crackers and goldfish. He was visited by Grammy & Grandpa (who let us get a quick bite while staying in the room with the boys), Maw-Maw Carol, Nana, Uncle Nathan, Ivey, and Bryson. Z was ready for bed by then.
He stayed off oxygen all night and let me sleep in the bed by myself instead of IN his bed! I kept expecting to wake up and see his oxygen levels down, but God was healing him and giving doctors wisdom. That boy was ready to go home less than 48 hours later! His previous 2 stays had been 5 days.
Sunday afternoon, April 25th at 1pm, we were on our way home!!! God loves us soooo much! I was able to get a sub for Monday. It was so nice to just sleep and rest. I had to catch up from all the events and lack of sleep from the weekend. Z needed to continue to rest, and we needed to keep a close eye on him. It was hard to go back to work on Tuesday, but I managed. Z was at home that day. We still weren't confident he was ready for a day of school. He did return on Wednesday to school, and he did just fine!
He now gets 2 puffs of the Q-var inhaler 2 times a day, a spray of flonase up his nose once a day, and we still continue the 1 tsp. of children's zyrtec daily. The cause of Z's asthma attack---high levels of pollen. We had a mild and wet winter. The zyrtec that he takes daily could no longer hold off all the pollen that his body was taking in. He will be on the Q-var inhaler "forever." He'll continue the regimen until he is cured of asthma. I'm ok with that. We were blessed to be at a great hospital with great nurses with knowledgeable doctors and a spacious room and a nice cafeteria. We had a short stay. We are blessed!
