Never a dull moment

Life around here is full of firsts.  Today was not our first trip to the emergency room.  In fact, I think it was our eighth.  But it was the first trip to two ERs in the same day, and it was definitely the first to which we were transported via ambulance.

So, yesterday we had a nice family bike ride over to the playground at Travis Elementary and back.  Once we got back, Charlie's asthma started acting up and he began coughing.  We tried to get it under control, but by Sunday morning decided we should take him in for a breathing treatment.  In an effort to avoid the long wait at Texas Children's Hospital, and since we knew exactly what he needed, we decided to take him to Memorial Hermann Northwest, which is the nearest hospital to our house.  Cort took him around 8:30am, right after Sunday morning waffles.

According to Cort, it seemed to be going relatively quickly.  Charlie got his breathing treatment, but then they checked his oxygen saturation levels and they weren't sufficiently high to let him go home.  Another breathing treatment.  Sat levels still too low.  Some oral steroids, an hour on oxygen, and another breathing treatment.  Still too low.  At this point, they start talking about admitting him to the hospital.  And that to be admitted he needs to go to Texas Children's.  And he has to get there by ambulance.

Cort is with him, and tells me that Charlie looks, acts, feels, and is breathing just fine.  We call the pediatrician's office, but the doctor who calls back is not going to second-guess the ER physician.   So off they go.  And, because by this time Cort's iphone is almost dead, I have to load up the rest of the kids--during naptime, by the way--and bring him an iphone charger before they leave.  As a result, the whole family got to see him off in the ambulance!

Joe posing with Charlie in the ambulance

At Texas Children's, they still say they "won't fault" the ER physician for his decisions.  But, apparently, when you give a child albuterol breathing treatments to treat his asthma, that causes oxygen saturation levels to be lower.  So, in a nutshell, he was fine.  He was discharged from the Texas Children's ER at 3:30pm without having to be admitted.  I loaded everyone up again and went to pick them up (Cort's car was at the first hospital, remember).  

Then we came home, and they went swimming.