18 November 2008

My little hero

So these are the days that really make your heart ache when it comes to children.

Aidan had a bout with, well, let's call them the 'squirts' on the weekend. We switched up his diet, made sure he stayed hydrated and by Sunday it seemed that he was fine. Add to this lovely thing the fact that he's had a cold and was congested and was constantly coughing, it was quite the weekend for him.

So yesterday after he woke up and downed his bottle of formula, we got dressed and went to school. When I dropped him off I talked the staff through what happened on the weekend and what sort of diet we wanted him on for at least the first two days of this week. He was happy and glad to be back to school. He was back to normal. Or so we thought...

Around 2:10, I got a call from the Director, Linda that Aidan was inconsolable. He just wanted to be held and never let down. When they tried to lay him down, he cried and after every time he coughed, he cried. Add to this, that the 'squirts' were back and with a vengence.

My Lord, what was my son going through? I thought we had it licked but maybe all of the coughing from the weekend hurt his throat or even his ribs? I mean, if Sammy Sosa can throw out his back when sneezing, well, surely Aidan can hurt his ribs from coughing non-stop.

I got to the school and he seemed happy to see me but he looked like absolute Hell. I hadn't seen him this bad EVER in his 11.5 months and the look of desperation on his face was gut-wrenching. He was in this stasis where he just looked like he wanted to be put out of his misery.

We got home and I knew that I had to get him to get to sleep so that his little body could just rest for awhile. I took his temp and it was 101.4, so I shot him a dose of Children's Tylenol and he seemed more than happy to take it. So we got down to a diaper and t-shirt and I rocked him for 20 minutes. He fell asleep in my arms.

I got him into the crib and immediately called the Doctor and asked for an emergency appointment and unfortunately I got the last one of the day which was 7:30pm (which honestly is GREAT that they stay open that late). He slept for about 2.5 hours and then woke up. I brought him downstairs and we played a little game where Daddy cuts up a banana and we played the sharing game (giving pieces to each other to eat). He seemed happy with it, but he clearly was off kilter.

We got to the Doctors office and met Mommy there. He had lost a pound through all of this which is 1/20th of his weight, so that's kind of scary. After a quick exam, we found out he had hit the child sickness lottery. Here's what he has:
  • double ear infections
  • double eye infections (conjunctivitis)
  • flu with bad congestion
  • and well, still the squirts

He won "sickest kid of the day" for the office, which, being the last appointment meant he was the ultimate "river card".

So three prescriptions: Antibiotics for the ear infection, medicated drops for the eye infection, nebulizer breathing treatment for the congestion and coughs and continued fluids and bland foods diet for the squirts. Thank GOD for insurance.

Anyone who says that having insurance, free, for every child in America is a waste or socialist behavior should just piss off and die. This stuff would have cost us a FORTUNE or we would have tried to find some sort of community health care area where we might have gotten generics, etc. I'm sorry, but if we cannot do this for our own country but we can do it for Iraq, etc., than our priorities are totally bass ackwards in this country. Or just take $4 billion from the $700 billion we're using to bail out the banks (and possibly Automakers).

Anyway, we got home and got him dosed up and it's almost like he knew "help is on the way" as he started smiling and laughing and getting back to the little guy we know. At this moment, he's slept for about 6 hours through the night and is likely feeling better.

Sorry for being totally self-indulgent, but hey, it's MY blog and I'll do with it as I want.

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