E.R. Visit act 1

I must begin by saying that parents of sick children deserve a nobel prize or lottery jackpot or possibly both. I spent fifteen hours in emergency last night and they were definitely among the worst fifteen hours of my life. I can't imagine what parents of chronically sick children, especially babies must go through. So this may not be a harrowing tale but it is our story.

Scene 1: To go or not to go, that is the question
You may think that for a nurse this would be an easy decision, it is my job after all. However, my area of expertise is geriatrics, so not very relevant, and also it is very difficult to be objective when dealing with your own child. So I pondered this question all afternoon as the number of diarrheas he had (sorry to be graphic) rose steadily  from five to ten to fifteen. I told myself that he had had his vaccines a few days ago and that this was just a side effect. I became a lot more concerned when his bowel movements started to show traces of blood and mucous (again sorry for the details) just before supper time. I was suppose to work that night so I considered taking him to the clinic in the morning. I put him on the sofa while I made supper. Now anyone who knows my son knows that he cannot stay still for more that 3 seconds at a time. He laid quietly with his blankie for twenty minutes on the sofa. I was starting to be concerned so I decided to call Info-Santé and let them make the decision for me, it is there job after all. The nurse I spoke to was adamant that I take him to the E.R right away, so I put away supper, uneaten, called in sick to work (which I can ill afford to do), packed a diaper bag and we were off.

Scene 2 Patients is a virtue
I decided to go to the hospital that was closest to our house and to Chris' work so he could meet us there after his shift. That was my first mistake. They are renowned for their long wait times but I figured that with a baby we would get in quick enough. So we got there around 7:00pm. We saw the triage nurse who took his temperature, it was 39.8, very respectable. My thermometer at home read 36.7 (note to self: buy new thermometer). He was given tylenol and shipped out to the noisy and very brightly lit waiting room. I was lucky and he was being fairly good, sitting on my lap, not squirming to much but not falling asleep. At 9:00 his temperature was taken again, 37.8,  and he was returned to the waiting room. By now the tylenol had taken effect and he really wanted down to crawl around. I tried to reason with him, telling him the floor of the ER was not somewhere he wanted his hands to be, but he wasn't having it. So we waited and waited and waited somewhere around 10:15 he started to doze and fell asleep for about half an hour but was woken up as I tried to move because of an intolerable pain in my back. Chris arrived around 12:15 taking some of the burden of my back and we continued to wait, baby refusing to sleep. Finally, FINALLY at 1:30am, 6 1/2 hours after I arrived we were called in, in front of many people who had been waiting much longer (I did not make friends that night).

Scene 3 Shock and awe

The Doctor came and spent a grand total of 90 seconds with Finnegan. She quickly declared that he would spend the night, receive IV fluids, get blood tests and a lung x-ray (because of the cold he also had) and left the room. We were speechless. I must admit this is not what I expected. I was expecting something along the lines of ''give him pedialyte and if he isn't keeping anything down in the next few days or if his fever returns, come back.''  A few minutes later two nurses came in to put in Finn's IV. This, for me, had to be the worst part. Holding him down while they stuck him with the needle and he let out a god awful scream, was horrible. I wanted to cry. I held it together though and luckily the nurse was good and only needed the one try to get his blood and insert the IV. We were then quickly whisked of to radiology where I had to again restrain my poor dear boy who was so tired and confused by this point. You could see the ''why are you doing this to me mommy?"  look in his eyes. We were then settled in a bed and bassinet in observation bed 7 (lucky number 7!) By this time is was approaching 3:30am. It took a lot of coaxing but I managed to convince Finn to go to sleep. He slept fitfully on and off through beeping  IV machines and the constant hum of the ER. He woke up around 6 and I brought him into bed with me and we cuddled and played, and occasionally cried (him or me, it was unclear by this point) until 9am. We did not see another Dr till 9am. He also whisked in quickly, informed us that the blood work was ok, that Finn should eat and if he didn't throw up we could go home. So Finn ate a solid breakfast, I had the left overs (bear in mind we had not eaten since lunch the day before) and it seemed to go ok so after removing his IV we were on our way.

Scene 4 All is well that ends well
We got home around 11:30am and we all took a good long nap, had a good solid lunch and I think we are all on the mend. Finn had 5 or 6 diarrhea today but he was pushing his kart around the floor this afternoon so I think he is improving. With a very active little boy I am sure this is just the first of many trips to the emergency room on this crazy adventure of ours but I keep my fingers crossed that it will be the longest.

Now my friends, it is 9pm and I am more than ready for a nice long bath followed by bed.

PS I would like to sincerely thank blankie for all his help and support through this endeavour. Without you this would not have been possible.