Emergency Room :(

I had my first experience taking a child to the emergency room this morning. I imagined Ammon would be the first to go with some sort of injury from jumping off something, but I was wrong. I woke up to a sound that sounded like the dog barking and a weak cry at 3:30 this morning. Ryan was making both noises as well as snorting and gagging on junk running down his throat. When I went to pick him up, he felt really hot. We all got a yucky cold, and he started having the same symptoms yesterday, but I was worried with how hot and weak he was. I checked his temp and the armpit reading was 102.6! After giving him Tylenol and feeding him, I checked it again and it was still 101.5. So, I packed him in his carseat and headed to the ER. I was hoping they would tell me to just give him more fluids and Tylenol, but they were as concerned as I was, especially since the rectal temperature was 103.4 after having Tylenol in his system. The poor little guy went through quite an ordeal. In just a couple hours, he had a thermometer stuck up his bum several times, a "pee bag" taped to him, two pokes for an IV, 240 mL saline pumped through his IV, snot sucked from his sinuses twice, a lumbar puncture, chest X-rays, and an arm bar to keep his IV from coming out. After all that, the doctor was still concerned about him because he wasn't putting up much of a fight and he was acting too sick to send home. So, Ryan and I got a lovely ambulance ride up to Primary Childrens Hospital. He got checked out by the pediatrician and they gave him a steroid to reduce the inflamation in his throat and an antibiotic. We're still waiting on the results from the cultures to see if he has a bacterial infection, but for the meantime, they're treating it like croup. We were able to take him home (the nurse told us we're really lucky, they hardly ever send babies home the same day after having a fever that high), we just have to take him back in the morning to the doctor to be looked over again and get his second round of antibiotics. He has been so sleepy, but a real sweety for how bad he feels and everything he's been through today. I'm so grateful for the hospital staff we worked with today, they were awesome! I think I handle emergency situations and times like this pretty well, but they made it even easier to stay relaxed and help Ryan be as comfortable as possible.