Nebulizer

So we were supposed to go away today. We were supposed to be in a car wending our way from Boston to Montpelier. Instead we found ourselves in the Emergency Room with our little girl strapped to a nebulizer. So the morning began with an unhappy girl who wasn't feeling well. It was our last day of work before we got on a plane and kicked of Christmas vacation so were sent her to school anyway, assuring her that I would pick her up before her nap. When I picked her up, she was breathing very quick, shallow breaths and her stomach was pumping in and out. Took her to the doc. Doc said either pneumonia or asthma and sent us to emergency. In the ER, the lovely Dr. Dillulo sent us for a chest x-ray which terrified our little cub. Back in the ER, we sat stranded. No food. The Doc tied up with people with less important ailments like heart attacks. We took turns nipping outside to get cell phone service to see what our options were for rearranging our trip. I came back in from one such trip to find Schuyler on liz's lap with her little gas mask on, unhappily taking in her ventolin. She'd already had an antibiotic and steroids. You never want to see a three year old stuffed with so many drugs but right then and there all you want is for her to feel better. before the ventolin, schuyler had been lethargic and dull eyed. After the ventolin and the other drugs, it was like interviewing a cocaine addict as she just burst into a single, sixteen minute long sentence... I doubt there was even a comma.

So the Doc tells us she thinks it is essentially asthma, although clinically it still seemed like pneumonia, and that she wanted to keep our cub overnight and reassess in the morning... Oh, and she added, if you aren't staying, you should get out now because the hospital is going into lock down since a gang shooting victim is being brought in. So Liz and Charlie were essentially kicked out. Sky and I spent the next three hours with no phone service, some lousy food, sitting across from a guy who keeps peeing on the floor, and in the room next to the shooting victim. Sly fell asleep finally, like a cold cut on the wax paper of the examining room. I sat and watched her as I listening to the shooting victim (who cannot have been badly wounded from the sound of it) drop f bomb after f bomb and call the nurses curses that were at once horrific and inventive. I think I will feel a little bit less pity next time I hear about one of these gang shootings.

We get admitted around 11pm after another nebulizer and accompanying screaming and finally I can talk to schuylers very worried mother who has been without any news for three hours. I think sky and I were relieved to get some sleep. Morning came and we wonder the halls and played with the other kids stuck in the hospital for Christmas. Hospitals have a way of making you appreciate how healthy you are. There is always a six month old baby with a heart problem or a three year old with a cast and an iv to make your situation seem like a holiday.

Mummy arrived after dropping off Charlie. The flights and rental car were all rearranged. And we all spent the day hanging out at the hospital. By mid morning, Schuyler was literally racing up and down the halls so we were pretty confident of an early release for rambunctious behavior. The nurse handed us an armful of prescriptions and were cleared to go. Christmas was given permission to begin.