We're home! It was a much longer adventure than we planned on. Dallin says that while he once thought being in the hospital would be kind of cool, now he knows it's boring, boring, boring, and he never wants to go there again.
Yesterday we were told that his doctor wanted to keep him until around 9:00 pm just to see if the croup would come back once evening hit. He did great all day. The nurses were saying that surely he would go home. But about 6:30 Sunday evening, he started coughing. A nurse was in the hallway and rushed in, saying, "Was that him coughing like that?" He didn't cough very often, but it was enough that they began to get concerned. The respiratory therapist thought it sounded croupy, and then when he listened with his stethascope told us the unfortunate news that he could hear stridor in his breathing. He told us then and there that if this were his child, he would keep them for the night. And he called our doctor and recommended just that. So we were stuck for the night. Of course an hour later, after Dallin had another breathing treatment, the therapist pronounced things "100% better", but we still had to stay.
So we thought he'd go home first thing in the morning. We were shocked when the doctor said he wanted to keep him until evening again, just to be sure that the croup wouldn't return once evening came. Dallin had to sit in his bed for another day, feeling just fine. He handled it very well. He was bored out of his skull, but he didn't complain... too much. He got to watch tons of TV and play video games all day. I had Sariah with me at the hospital for a good part of the day, and she entertained herself by climbing on a trash container to continually douse her hands with hand sanitizer (ick!), which she called "hanbitizer". She had fun putting on the disposable gloves (ick! again) and playing doctor, and playing in the little bathroom off of Dallin's room. We discovered that having Daddy work at the hospital is both good and bad. Good because all the nurses and assistants know him and treated Dallin extra special. Bad because Daddy couldn't really take a day off from work, so he was there but not there. Dallin was tired but determined not to go to sleep. And he didn't want to go on another walk because he was afraid he'd start coughing and have to stay another night.
Luckily he was allowed to go home, after we got a long lecture on what to watch out for and when to bring him back in. He can't go to school quite yet, and has to go see the doctor tomorrow.
I don't know what to think of all this. On the one hand, I'm glad for a thorough doctor who wouldn't take any chances. But on the other hand, I kept thinking what a waste, to keep a child there for two days who didn't really need to be there. Or did he? I don't know. I'm glad we won't have to pay for it (a huge benefit of being family of an employee). But still. Maybe I've been reading too much about modern childbirth and how so much "care" is unnecessary, not evidence-based, and more about a doctor's fear of malpractice than what is actually good and needed for women. I thought about those things alot to day and wondered how much those same kinds of fears and politics played into Dallin's experience. I know he absolutely needed to be there Saturday night, and probably most of Sunday, and maybe even staying Sunday night could have been justified. But all day today? Just because he might possibly have a croup attack (even though he'd had a number of breathing treatments and been on a steroid)? I just don't know...
Yesterday we were told that his doctor wanted to keep him until around 9:00 pm just to see if the croup would come back once evening hit. He did great all day. The nurses were saying that surely he would go home. But about 6:30 Sunday evening, he started coughing. A nurse was in the hallway and rushed in, saying, "Was that him coughing like that?" He didn't cough very often, but it was enough that they began to get concerned. The respiratory therapist thought it sounded croupy, and then when he listened with his stethascope told us the unfortunate news that he could hear stridor in his breathing. He told us then and there that if this were his child, he would keep them for the night. And he called our doctor and recommended just that. So we were stuck for the night. Of course an hour later, after Dallin had another breathing treatment, the therapist pronounced things "100% better", but we still had to stay.
So we thought he'd go home first thing in the morning. We were shocked when the doctor said he wanted to keep him until evening again, just to be sure that the croup wouldn't return once evening came. Dallin had to sit in his bed for another day, feeling just fine. He handled it very well. He was bored out of his skull, but he didn't complain... too much. He got to watch tons of TV and play video games all day. I had Sariah with me at the hospital for a good part of the day, and she entertained herself by climbing on a trash container to continually douse her hands with hand sanitizer (ick!), which she called "hanbitizer". She had fun putting on the disposable gloves (ick! again) and playing doctor, and playing in the little bathroom off of Dallin's room. We discovered that having Daddy work at the hospital is both good and bad. Good because all the nurses and assistants know him and treated Dallin extra special. Bad because Daddy couldn't really take a day off from work, so he was there but not there. Dallin was tired but determined not to go to sleep. And he didn't want to go on another walk because he was afraid he'd start coughing and have to stay another night.
Luckily he was allowed to go home, after we got a long lecture on what to watch out for and when to bring him back in. He can't go to school quite yet, and has to go see the doctor tomorrow.
I don't know what to think of all this. On the one hand, I'm glad for a thorough doctor who wouldn't take any chances. But on the other hand, I kept thinking what a waste, to keep a child there for two days who didn't really need to be there. Or did he? I don't know. I'm glad we won't have to pay for it (a huge benefit of being family of an employee). But still. Maybe I've been reading too much about modern childbirth and how so much "care" is unnecessary, not evidence-based, and more about a doctor's fear of malpractice than what is actually good and needed for women. I thought about those things alot to day and wondered how much those same kinds of fears and politics played into Dallin's experience. I know he absolutely needed to be there Saturday night, and probably most of Sunday, and maybe even staying Sunday night could have been justified. But all day today? Just because he might possibly have a croup attack (even though he'd had a number of breathing treatments and been on a steroid)? I just don't know...
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