In the past forty eight hours, I have gotten less than three hours of interrupted (not to be confused with uninterrupted) sleep, visited two hospitals, ridden in an ambulance for a second time (the first was when my brain nearly exploded four years ago, but that story is for another day) and watched TV. I suppose I should provide a little more detail since I am not one for short and sweet.
The interrupted sleep was not good. Honestly, it seems like no sleep at all would be better than the little sleep I got last night and the night before. It is definitely like sleep is teasing me lately. Two nights ago AJ was up all night. Then last night each time I would settle down and doze off a hospital employee or medical machine would wake me up. I have determined that I hate the default alarm setting on Pulse Oxygen machines. They are set to alarm at 90, but no one so much as looks at them unless they go below 85. What this means for patients and their parents here is that we get to listen to the alarm at least ten times an hour for at least five minutes each time and the best news of all is that it is a very annoying alarm sound that does wake me even from a sound sleep each time it goes off! I am not sure who is at fault for this, but honestly it is probably best that I don't.
The ambulance ride was uneventful. I kind of wished they would fire up the sirens just to spice things up a bit, but apparently there is a rule about turning them on if the situation is not of a certain severity. I wish AJ had been awake and feeling better so he could have enjoyed the ride because he LOVES firetrucks and ambulances. I suppose if he had been up for a joy ride, then we would not have been riding in an ambulance at one in the morning in the first place.
We did visit two hospitals before we made our selection. We had to shop around for the best waiting time and then we waited for about two hours to be seen at the second hospital only to end up transferred back to the first hospital, Devos, in the end. Irony sure is fun!
The TV watching has all taken place in the past twenty four hours and all of it has taken place at the Devos Children's Hospital. And we have been at the hospital with AJ since about seven last night. Since this was fairly unexpected, my absence has not been spent as I planned to spend it, cleaning. No the house has not been disinfected, the laundry and the dishes are not done (unless my mother is working her magic and cleaning while she cares for Hazel and Kara) and the house probably looks much as it did last time I wrote on here and that is to say completely messy and full of various medications and kleenex and worst of all germs.
AJ has RSV (a nasty upper respiratory virus). Normally it doesn't land kids in the hospital. However, when we checked in at the hospital he had a temperature of 102.4, was severely dehydrated and could not keep fluids down. Tonight he is hungry and keeping everything he eats down. He has no fever at all and he hydration levels are getting better. Hopefully we will get to go home tomorrow. The only good to come of this experience (well of course other than Aven getting better that is the best part of all this!) is that I got to watch Wheel of Fortune tonight, but I didn't solve any puzzles. I am definitely a little rusty.
Vern Out
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