Owen Update: A Day at the Hospital

Well today was, for the lack of better words A DRAG. Owen woke up around 4:00 am, gasping and wheezing for breathe. Tom and I had decided enough was enough. It was time to take him to the Emergency Room (not my favorite early morning activity).We got to the ER around 4:45 am. They listened to his lungs, and his cough, and sucked his nose clean, and ran a whole bunch of tests.  His Blood/Oxygen levels were staying between 87% and 91%. I guess they need to be above 90% for babies. So they did some chest x-rays, and tested him for RSV.  Turns out that he really does not have pneumonia, or RSV, but his Blood/Ox levels were so low that they admitted him anyway, and told us to plan on staying at least one day. I asked them what they thought it was, and they said they had no idea, so they called it "Respiratory Distress."

We were at the infant/toddle floor of Emanuel Children's Hospital. I had never been in an Infant wing of a hospital before, so I did not know quite what to expect. I don't know why, but, I was really surprised that everything is just like a regular hospital room, only for babies, right down to miniature hospital gowns (a baby bum hanging out of the back of a hospital gown is a lot cuter than an adult's back flapping free).  And the cribs there are just like real hospital beds with a cage around them. Owen thought that it was the coolest crib he had ever seen. Every time we put him in there, he played and laughed like it was the best playground ever.  His room was being pumped with pure Oxygen, which was really the only treatment they gave him.

We were put in a double room. The poor baby that we shared with had been there since last saturday, with the same symptoms as Owen. She spent 3 days in the NICU. It turns out she has an underdeveloped trachea, and has to have surgery one it tomorrow, poor baby.

Tom had his 9th quarter OSCE's today (which is a huge test that his school does to make sure they have learned enough to progress in the program; super stressful test). So after waking up at 4, and spending the morning with his sick boy at the hospital, he left around noon to go take this test. I hope he did ok, he sort of had a lot on his plate.Anyway, while Tom was gone, Owen's Blood/Ox levels started to increase. By 4:00 pm he was consistently Between 94% and 97%!!! They came in around 7:30 and said he was looking good, and asked if we would like to go home. Woo-whoo!!! So what started out looking like it was going to be a long couple of days, just turned into a one day adventure.