Our Stay at the Hospital

We've been back to our normal lives for a week now.  So far, Everett has survived going back to daycare after being sick and he seems to be getting back to his normal self.

There was so much that happened while we were at the hospital and I've barely had time to reflect on it all since we jumped right back into work.  I may attempt to do a small series on different things we experienced while staying at the hospital in Korea.

I'll preface all of this by saying that in the beginning the whole thing was very scary.  When you become a mom it's like you're instantly given all these amazingly deep emotions, and it seems that E being sick gave me the opportunity to stretch out those emotions!  I can't even describe what a helpless feeling it is to see your child being sick and there is nothing you can do about it.   I don't know if I've ever prayed for anything more consistently and more passionately than for the health of our baby boy.

The journey to the hospital started with what we thought was Everett just having his first cold.  He didn't have a fever (and never got one) but he just seemed to be more tired and stuffed up than normal.  We noticed his breathing was a bit labored so on Saturday we took him to the doctor.  He was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, given an antibiotic, and told to return in 3 days.  After two days of him not improving we took him back to the local doctor and he said he thought E's lungs were sounding worse.  He prescribed a whole bunch of medications, which wouldn't happen in the States, so we took him to our school nurse to get her opinion on everything.  She took one look at Everett and said we needed to take him to the hospital and get another opinion.  This is when I really started to freak out.  Our school nurse is awesome and usually is very calm about things.  To see her worried and insistent that we leave for the hospital got me FREAKED OUT.

Here's Tom giving E a breathing treatment at the doctor's office by our apartment.

We arrived at the hospital and the international clinic at Samsung Medical Center had people waiting to help us through the process in the ER.  I'm so thankful for this because the ER was overwhelming.  (Keep in mind that Seoul is one of the top five biggest cities in the world.) There were people stuck with IV's EVERYWHERE.  I'm not kidding. It was like wall to wall people with IV's waiting to be seen.  It felt like we were in a war zone.  We went back to the pediatrics area in the ER that was basically this little hallway with a few rooms.  There was hardly any room to sit so I sat on a coffee table while I tried to nurse Everett in the midst of the madness.  The doctor we saw at the ER was quality.  She confirmed that he had bronchiolitis and they called in a pediatric lung specialist to evaluate Everett.  The doctors all agreed he needed to be admitted and started on breathing treatments.

Then we waited in that cramped ER for six hours.

SIX HOURS!

The doctor ordered x-rays, and said it would be quicker to get it done in the ER. Since we saw the doctor so quickly we thought our wait would be short, but right after we found a place to sit in the tiny hallway there was a big emergency where for at least an hour doctors were running in and out of a child's room with alarms going off, etc.  It was a scary sight to see.  After that chaos died down we continued to wait and wait and wait. Finally they told us they couldn't find a room for us and were searching for a place to put us in the hospital.  In the mean time, they hooked Everett up to an oxygen censor and then oxygen when they realized his oxygen levels were low.  They gave him a series of tests where Tom and I had to literally hold him down while they stuck him with needles and swabbed his nose.  They also gave him an IV, which took forever to get because they couldn't find a good vain to put it in.  Everett doesn't really cry but he WAILED while all this was happening.  We literally were holding him down with tears streaming down our faces.   I'll never forget the pained look on Everett's face while he was getting stuck and prodded.

This is the IV in his hand.  They put a little paddle under his hand and wrapped everything in tape to try to keep Everett from pulling the IV out.  Everett loves putting his hands on his head and in his mouth so he whacked himself in the head with his paddle hand a few times...poor guy!

 Long story short, we got to the hospital at 1:30pm and didn't get to a room until after 7pm.  It was such a long, hard day.  I feel like the medical care we got at the ER/hospital was top notch, but I've never witnessed anything like being in that ER for so long.

Next up on the blogging series: Everett's hospital roommates.  Get ready for short term memory loss and night terrors!