Update on Sam

Well, things were looking up Saturday morning, so I went into work for a couple of hours. When I got home to take my daughter to a football game I noticed Sam’s color was a little strange, kinda pale and gray looking. I checked to see if he had a fever but instead found him to be kinda cold and clammy. I checked his nail beds which had good coloring and overall he was in an okay mood. I also noticed he was sticking his tongue out quite a bit, please understand that Sam could easily be a replacement for Gene Simmons from KISS with the length of his tongue and I know when he projects it he probably has either a throat or airway situation. He was on his 3rd day of steroids which would normally turn him into the EverReady Bunny on crack and instead he was kinda quiet and lethargic. At one point he coughed and groaned, never a good sign. I asked him if it hurt when he coughed, but in true Sam fashion he told me he was “all better”. Sam is not fond of going to the doctor or hospitals, he has only asked to go to a hospital once in his life after he went into respiratory distress a second time in the same evening. After going through the respiratory distress episode on Wednesday night I decided I wasn’t up for another one of those nights. Soooo….called the Pediatrician who asked me what my gut feel was telling me, I told him I just wasn’t comfortable with these new developments although I felt maybe he was overly tired or could have added Ben’s cold on to his croup.

We don’t like to guess with Sam so we rushed off to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee. I want to share our experience especially for parents of children with immune system issues. Because Sam was not in distress and we knew we wanted a doctor to listen to him and probably do some X-Rays we approached the ER in a different manner. If you have ever been to the ER at Children’s you know it is always packed, I’m guessing there were at least 50 people there, 3 children actively throwing up and who knows what else was going on with all the others. My husband drops me off at the entrance and then stays in the truck with Sam. I register Sam, explaining what we are seeing and also letting them know that Sam is waiting outside because of his weak immune system. They always let me know that they have two rooms off the main waiting room that we could sit in, but when I ask them how many people have been in those rooms today they usually drop it and ask for my cell phone number. Sam is not a child that will sit nicely on a chair, he feels the need to explore, sit on the floor, talk with all the sick people and touch everything everywhere which causes me to want to dip him in GermX every 15 seconds. They called us in first to be examined by the nurse who suggested due to Sam’s history that we continue to wait to see a doctor. We were able to talk Sam through the weighing, temperature, blood pressure, checking of the ears and remarkably he even allowed them to check his oxygen with the pulse ox. We then had him return outside where we walked the parking lot for a while and then sat in the truck until they had an examination room ready for him. I had wonderful nurses, doctors and X-ray technicians whom all allowed me to talk Sam through the various procedures, we are so thankful for the hearing aid, what a wonderful difference. Now I’m not going to say that Sam didn’t feel the need to express his opinion rather loudly at times but I have come to realize that I would rather have him come in kicking and screaming than mysteriously quiet and lethargic.

Good news, no pneumonia and it did not look like his Croup was reoccurring. His lungs sounded good and we all went home feeling better about his overall condition. Today he is coughing a little more but his color looks better, the tongue is not coming out as much and he had more energy. We’ll just keep watching and praying!!!