Holidays and Hospitals

Thanksgiving

In the hospital still in Husky gear.

This has been an eventful holiday season so far with two trips to the emergency room.  The first was a post Thanksgiving treat.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Maple Valley.  We spent it with Erin's dad, her family, and my sister (though we were a bit disappointed she didn't bring her latest beau).  It was a nice holiday as usual.  It was  followed up on Friday by a trip for me and my dad to Husky Stadium to see the Dawgs win yet another Apple Cup.

However, shortly after we arrived at home is when the "emergency" occurred.  Erin's dad has a sizable yoga ball, and Erin and Nathan were playing with it rolling it back and forth and the like.  Nathan figured out it was just the right size to plop down on and sort of bounce off.  That turned out to be great fun until instead of landing on his feet or bouncing off the ball again, he took one bounce and landing chin first on the hardwood floor.

Nathan was all smiles even after the stiches.

Instantly, blood was gushing out, Erin asked for help and both I and her dad sort of brushed it off, that was until I saw the cut and knew we would need to go get stitches.  It was pretty wide and wasn't going to close up easy.  Plus, we had to superglue so we'd have to see a professional.

Nathan was a trooper, after the initial cry, he was a tough little guy.  We put some ice on it and he never made a peep all the way through the stitches.  We headed on over to the local ER in Covington, where unlike every other ER in the country there was not any wait at all.  We walked in told them what happened and they walked us right back to the room where Nathan promptly received 4 stitches.

I have to say it was probably the most pleasant and quick trip to the ER that I have ever experienced.

Christmas

The final product. Only 2 of the four
were still in when the Dr. went to
remove them.  

The second incident was not nearly as pleasant or benign.  We had decided that in order to get to know our neighbors better we would invite them all over for a small Christmas party.  Since we only knew a few names and had just small chats with only a few of them, and this was completely outside our comfort zone, Erin and I were both quite nervous over our little party.  We (ok Erin did almost all the work) printed up invitations, planned a menu, walked around dropping off invites, cleaned the house, made a bunch of cookies, and broke our oven in the process.  

Once the big day was here we put out all types of snacks and goodies and just waited to see how many of our neighbors would come.  One of our snacks was a simple bowl of mixed nuts; we put them out and Erin offered Nathan a cashew, almond and coconut.  About 20 minutes later we noticed Nathan breaking out in hives and getting quite lethargic.  This was also at the same time the party was set to begin.  So as Erin called the doctor on a Sunday afternoon, I greeted our guests and welcomed them in.  

Nathan, the ever cautious child, took a long time to decide
if he wanted to eat the popsicle or not.  Once he did, he
enjoyed it.  Hopefully, we can convince him to eat another.

The Doctor recommended getting some children's Benadryl, so off I went to the store with Nathan who was actually perking up and walking around the store almost good as new.  We got home gave him some of the Benadryl and hoped all would be ok.  We made small talk and kept our eye on the little man who mostly seemed to need extra cuddles and holding.  The hives seemed to be disappearing and Nathan appeared on the road to recovery.

After a couple hours the party was wrapping up, but Nathan was taking a turn for the worse.  He was very, very lethargic.  At one point he plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor and just wouldn't move.  Quick call to the doctor and although we were not positive it was needed we decided we better head to the ER.  The house was a mess from the party but we thought better safe than sorry.  

As we drove to the ER, which is a good 20 minutes away, Nathan just got worse and worse.  At first we thought maybe the Benadryl was making him extra tired, but this was extreme.  We stopped at one point and had to shake him to get he to move at all.  It was pretty scary and Erin and I were certainly glad we were on our way to the hospital.  Once we arrived and found the ER to have a ridiculously small parking lot, I dropped Erin and Nathan off at the door, where Nathan proceeded to vomit three times.  This really scared Erin as the doctor on the phone had specifically said this was a bad and a sign that his body was really rejecting something and possibly shutting down.  

Hanging out taking our time eating the popsicle.  Between the
popsicle, and stickers Nathan is starting to like these trips.

Once inside the waiting room, Nathan passed out on the ground, the admittance line was quickly bypassed and they scooped Nathan up and got him quickly into the pediatric ER where they prepared for any and all contingencies.  Luckily, "only" an Epi-pen was needed.  Once they gave him the shot, which was the only time he cried in all of this mess, he quickly showed signs of recovery.  

We had to stay in the emergency room for two hours for monitoring, but Nathan was looking pretty good right away.  The staff was great, they brought Nathan lots of books to read, a stuffed Dalmatian to keep him company and even a popsicle that he actually ate.  

Once the immediate concern over Nathan's well being subsided we quickly turned to asking, "What does it look like to be the parent of a kid with a nut allergy?"  We are pretty sure it is just tree nuts as he has had peanuts before and not had any issue.  We have an appointment with an allergist that will do some testing to determine exactly what he is allergic to the first week of the new year.  We were quickly given prescriptions to Epi-pens, and now have to ensure one is never too far away.  We will have to teach Nathan what he can and can't eat, and it is just hard to fathom that there are certain things he will never get to eat.  Of course, there is a part of us that will always be a bit worried for his well being, but he should be fine, right?  

Our new companions that we must always have close.

Now just wish us luck for an uneventful Christmas and New Years.  

Update: Well we did not luck out after all.  Sunday the 29th, the day we celebrated Christmas with the Davolt side of the family we ended up in the ER yet again.  This one was much less stressful and perhaps too precautionary.  Andrew had a nasty cold for about a week and his breathing was getting quite labored.  You could see his ribs working extra hard to breath and could hear a nasty wheeze whenever he breathed. We had been stalling but after Nathan's hospital trip for lack of oxygen we thought we should be cautious and finally called the Dr.  The Dr. of course wanted to be extra cautious and asked us to go to the ER just in case, so off we went.  Once we went through triage and saw that Andrew had plenty of oxygen getting into his bloodstream Erin and I felt pretty confident it would be a short trip.  As it turns out we should have just left after triage and saved us the $100 copay.  Andrew did receive an Albuterol treatment, but most of the trip was spent with nurses and doctors telling us how cute Andrew was and that he clearly was too happy to be very sick.