August Vacation: Part Trois

Except that never happened.

Maybe it did in an alternate universe where, like, Spock has a goatee and is evil.

But in this one, Mikey got really sick.

As I was sitting there with him in the hotel room, his breathing began to sound labored and his respiratory rate increased.  Tell tale signs that things were about to get nasty.

As I said, I didn't have a thermometer and I also didn't have the pulse oximeter.

That's the thing that I use to measure the kids blood oxygen level.

If it dips too low, we're in trouble.

I remembered reading that Disneyland (and Disney World for that matter) has a nursing staff and can send someone to your room to check you out.

So, I called the Front Desk.  They transferred me to Security, who handles all their medical issues.

The Disney security man said, "Sure.  I can send one of our nursing staff up there to check him out.  But......now, don't freak out on me......."

That is never a good thing to say to an already nervous mom.

"....because you are saying that he is have breathing issues, I gotta call the paramedics to come check him out.  It's just something I gotta do.  Are you okay with that?  Okay.  Don't freak out now and don't hang up.  Hold on while I connect you to emergency services...."

And so, about 10 minutes later, two Disney security guys (one of which looked like my dad) knocked on my door and propped it open for the paramedics on the way.

Next came the Disney Nurse and her assistant.  They began to evaluate Mikey and ask me questions.

Last, but definitely not least, about 4 or 5 paramedics showed up.

I lost count 'cause there were so many people in the room.

And then, Katie and Huzbend walked through the door right in the middle of the episode of ER happening in our hotel room.

Katie freaked out and began to cry.  I'm not sure what happened.  Afterwards she said she hit herself in the eye.  But, I woulda been freaked out too with the amount of people in our room.

After everyone checked out Mikey, who by the way, was really calm through this whole thing, they powwowed in the little hallway leading to our hotel door.

His temp was fine.  His breathing sounded okay - no signs of struggle, wheezing or pops that you hear with pneumonia.  His SpO2 was also at an okay level.

They gave us the choice of:

A)  Taking him to the hospital where they can check him out further.

B)  Keeping an eye on him at the hotel and calling if anything got worse.

Sigh.

We were leaving the next day and it was already after 4pm.

We chose Option B.

The paramedics rolled out.

The nurse stayed to give us a pamphlet with nearby pharmacies and hospitals in case we needed to go.  She patted me on the arm before she left assuring us that we weren't the only ones to have this happen on our Disneyland vacation.

The security guys shut the door.

We collectively sat down on the beds and quietly stared at the walls.

I believe at this point, Huzbend decided to head out to a nearby pharmacy to try to find a pulse oximeter and to get some kind of cold medication.

Katie hung out on the other bed.  She busied herself with our video camera and I could tell that she was feeling very neglected.

About 20 minutes after the medical crew left, Mikey threw up.

And then he threw up again.

I caught it in a small Mickey wastebasket and washed it out in the shower.

We needed to go to the hospital.

We've learned from multiple past experiences that when the "burpies" start in addition to super cold symptoms, it's time to go to the hospital.  It's just the way Mikey rolls.

Huzbend returned and I told him we needed to go.

For some reason, we didn't call 911 and decided to head down to the lobby to catch a cab to the local children's hospital which we picked off of the nifty pamphlet Disney Nurse gave me.

Thank you Disney Nurse.

I tried to say goodbye to Katie.

She wouldn't give me a kiss goodbye.

I think she was angry that I had to go with Mikey.

Whatever it was, it broke my heart.

I put together a bag and picked up Mikey.

Huzbend escorted me down the hallway to the elevator.

He looked at me, trying to lighten the mood and said,

"Happiest place on earth!!"

And then I broke down in tears.

He tried, I'll give him that.

We ran through the lobby (Mikey was still iffy stomach wise) and Huzbend asked bell services to help get a cab.

The cast member ran over and opened the door of a minivan cab for us.

We got Mikey situated and I kissed Huzbend goodbye.

Off we went to Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).

Mikey threw up once in the cab.

Don't worry.

I had brought a plastic shopping bag for him to barf in.

There wasn't too much traffic and we made it in about 15 minutes.

He dropped us off at the ER.

I walked up to the desk carrying very-sick Mikey and gave my information.

The guy asked our address.

As soon as I gave it he looked at me with pity in his eyes and said, 

"Disneyland, right?"

Turns out LOTS of people get sick/injured at Disneyland.

We'd hear this for the rest of our stay at CHOC.

And so, we spent most of the night in the ER.

They had TV.  I think it was Disney Channel.

When we got there Mikey's SpO2 levels were 90 and below.

They gave him duo-neb albuterol a bunch of times to no avail and he kept puking.

Red popsicle was all over that Wolverine shirt he was wearing.

At about 8 pm that night, they inserted an IV to get meds and sustenance in him and told us we would stay the night....somewhere.
He was not recovering as he should.

They inserted the nasal canula with a high flow of oxygen and a continuous flow of albuterol to hold his lungs open and assist with his breathing.

Even with all this help, he couldn't keep his O2 levels up and his respiratory rate was way too high.

It was decided that he be put into ICU.

No Blue Bayou.  No Fantasmic.
Darn it.

After we left the hotel, Huzbend had to find something for dinner.
He called Disney to cancel our reservations for Blue Bayou and they helped him make reservations at Goofy's Kitchen that night for dinner.

Katie loved it.

Not only was there a bunch of food that she could (and did!) eat.

There were characters giving big 'ole hugs.

After dinner, they headed to Disneyland one last time to hit some of the rides we missed.

The Matterhorn was closed due to Technical Difficulties.  Bummer.

But they did Nemo's Subs.

And Autopia during fireworks.

They got back to the hotel about 10pm or so, exhausted.

Someone else was exhausted too.

The high flow O2, even though it's blowing your lungs open, is such a high rate of flow that your body tries to breath against it.  It's, like, too much air.

I'm not sure if that makes sense.

All I know is that he was afraid to go to sleep because he thought he would stop breathing.

Mikey did not improve at all overnight.

He was still on continuous albuterol and high flow oxygen.

His respiratory rate was super high, his heart rate was scary fast (in part due to the albuterol) AND his chest x-ray showed no pneumonia but some collapsing of his lungs.

Even with all the breathing help that he was getting, his SpO2 levels were at 90 or below.

Sigh.

Seemed like we would not make our flight that day at 6.

Huzbend cancelled our tickets home.

Katie and him would still leave that day.

They also said they would come visit us.

He still had to feed Katie something for breakfast.

Back to Goofy's Kitchen they went.

Katie was not as impressed with their breakfast offerings as she was dinner.

But, she still had fun.

Usually, when we are admitted to Seattle Children's for respiratory stuff, the kids are put into isolation.

That means that any staff that comes into the room has to glove, gown and mask up to protect themselves (and others) from germs.

They did not do that at this hospital.

Guess different hospitals have different rules.

One such rule was that I wasn't allowed to eat in Mikey's ICU room.  I had to eat in the cafeteria.

Our first ICU room also did not have it's own bathroom.

I had to go down the hall to use the Ronald McDonald House family bathroom and shower.

Huh.  Weird.

Because Mikey was not in isolation he was able to have visitors!

Not only were Huzbend and Katie able to come visit, a dog name BluBear was able to say hi too.

The plan was to wean his albuterol and oxygen throughout the day and try to get him home by Monday or Tuesday.

When Huzbend and Katie came, they not only brought me toothbrushes and stuff like that, they smuggled me two of these!

But, alas, they had to leave to head back to the hotel to get ready to leave.

Mikey was sad to see them go.

Really sad.

One last Disney hurrah before leaving.

Katie purchased some Halloween Mickey ears.

Ate some lunch and took some last photos for me.

Off to the airport they went.

And thus began the Lego Batman/Big Hero 6 Marathon.

We watched these two movies again.  And again.  And again.

Almost every night we were at the hospital.

I think the movies reminded Mikey of home somehow.

Watching Baymax was like getting a virtual hug.

We needed a real Baymax.

"Hello.  I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Huzbend and Katie made it home to no power.

There was a huge wind storm that same day that knocked down trees and caused all sorts of destruction.

The contents of our whole fridge were toast.

Down in California, it was sunny out the window.

We moved rooms.

Nothing to get too excited about.

It was just another ICU wing with a view of the loading docks and a daycare center AND my own bathroom!

On this new floor, we got a new doctor.

She didn't like Mikey's high respiratory rate and turned off the continuous albuterol.

She also put him on low flow O2.

Because he didn't have 100mph winds (that's a guess, not the real speed) whipping down his throat, he could eat.

At this hospital, they had room service!  You would call a number and order off a menu that had all sorts of things and they brought it to your room.

Whenever.  You.  Wanted.

(ok, so not at 3am, but still....)

You want pretzels and apple juice - done!

You want grilled cheese - done!

You want an Oreo Shake - done!

(It was really yummy - Mikey didn't like it, so I got to drink it)

So, for his first meal on Sunday, he chose blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

He hadn't eaten since lunch on Friday.

That same day, we found out that Mikey had picked up MSRA from somewhere.

That meant that he was officially put in "isolation".

Everyone coming in had to gown up.

The MSRA was having no effect on him.  It seems that he was just a carrier.

We'd have to tell people about it anytime he was hospitalized from here on out.

And mention it to Katie's doctors.

Since Mikey was off of continuous albuterol and high flow O2, he was able to walk around the room a bit.

I remember him sitting on the toilet looking at me like he was going to die.

He whispered that he couldn't breath and was panicked.

 Turns out he was having a bit of a backslide.

His SpO2 levels dropped.

Back on the high flow he went and received more aggressive albuterol treatments spaced 2 hours apart.

Bummer.  That meant at least another day in ICU.

But, since they had allowed him to have food, they didn't take that away.

He was happy about that, but not happy about much else.

Early on Monday morning, they took another chest x-ray.

Pneumonia made a guest appearance.
"Helllllloooo, ladies and germs!  I just flew in from the left lung and BOY are my arms tired!  HA!"

He was put on steroids and antibiotics.

A pulmonologist also came in to talk to me.

She suggested blood tests to check on his allergies to see if they were playing a part in this nightmare.

When the results came back, his allergy levels were off the charts.

Something to look into when we got home.

At least they had video games AND movies.

No one said you couldn't do them together.

That Monday night, Mikey sat up and ate dinner.

The first time he sat on his own since we came to the hospital.

He was also wearing Darth Vader pajama pants which were very appropriate considering that he sounded like him.

"NOT funny, Mommy."

Tuesday dawned to much of the same.

We were still in the same place dealing with the same issues.

Back at home, they finally got the power back on!

Yep.  It was 3 whole days without power.

In sunny Cali., I was officially sick of wearing smelly clothes.

Mikey was out of pajamas too.

We were at the tail end of our vacation when all of this drama happened and well, I really didn't have that many clothes left that were clean.

Off to the mall I went.
It was within walking distance.

Snapped a pic of where we were for nostalgias sake.

I bought clothes and chocolate.

Lots of chocolate.

Wednesday came.

The first day of school.

Here are the neighborhood kids getting ready to hop on the bus....

For Mikey, Wednesday brought a battery of tests.

Another chest x-ray (lungs were clearing), an echocardiogram to rule out heart issues (there were none) and a cystic fibrosis test to rule that out as well (it was negative).

Oh, and, just for the record, he was not one bit upset about missing the first day of school.

His breathing was much improved by Wednesday afternoon.

So much so that he was playing Wii sports out of his bed.

It was fun to watch him play the boxing game in his hospital jammies that were way too big with all the wires hanging off him.

Katie loved her first day of school.

Huzbend said that she was so excited when she got home and talked all about it.

He was glad to be there to hear it firsthand.

Mikey and I settled in that night for another viewing of Big Hero 6.

Things were looking up and we might be able to get out of ICU tomorrow.

Maybe one more night?

Mikey had made a huge improvement on Wednesday and by Thursday morning the docs and nurses took him off all monitors and disconnected his IV.

Being optimistic, I booked a flight home for that evening.

We were outta there!

With just a little pressure on the hospital staff (I told them I booked the flights), we were discharged Thursday afternoon.

We hopped in a cab and headed to the airport.

Mikey was super happy.

What made it even better?

He was able to eat dinner at his favorite restaurant.

It's in the background.

Our flight didn't get in until about 10:30 that night.

Mikey fell asleep on the plane.

We were SO happy to be home.

No more hospital food.

On a side note, I have figured out that I have gained an average of 5 pounds per child per hospital stay.

It's those damn pudding cups.

I just can't resist them.

And at CHOC they were double size with, like, layers of crushed oreos and whipped cream in between the pudding.........

Katie rolled with the punches.

She really deserves credit for dealing with all of the craziness that the hospitalization brought.

Our Disneyland portion of the vacation was mostly a bust.

We had one good day park touring as a family.  The rest was spent split apart.

The vacation is now remembered as a weird mix of really happy moments intermixed with sad.

Our house had power when we got home.  No trees had fallen on it.

Our beds were soft and comfy and calling.

Ralph was home and waiting, excited to say hi to us.

Although he did look like a zombie dog with all his hot spots.....

But, Mikey was okay.  And that was what mattered most.

And, we had this waiting for us when we got off the escalator at the airport.

It doesn't get much better than that.