After the swimming lesson, I was playing with Oskar while Wolfram was showering. Oskar was coughing again - as he did for a few days now, especially at night - and I noticed a wheezing sound when he was breathing. I thought that maybe it was from the walk from the bus stop. The wheezing did not stop and after checking the working hours of our pediatrician I decided to take Oskar to her. He sounded like an asthmatic person and I was pretty sure the doctor would tell me that it is a cold and there is nothing we can do. Just wait. That's the answer we get in majority of the visits. I just did not like the sound I was hearing. And better be safe than sorry...
It was 11:25. Doctor's hours were until 12pm. I left Thomas with Wolfram still wet from the shower, called a taxi and Oskar and I rushed to the doctor. We arrived there at 11:50 and were lucky enough to be accepted. Of course we were the last ones or as good as and had to wait one and a half hour until we saw the doctor. By then the wheezing sound from Oskar could be heard from a meter away.
It did not take long for the pediatrician to decide that this was bad enough to justify hospitalization. She spoke of 3-4 days and while I was trying to recover from the shock, we were rushed into a treatment room for nebulization. In no time the nurse had the nebulizer ready and I had to figure out how to get Oskar to sit still for 10-15min. Once again, Tchoupi came in handy and we watched two episodes.
As I calmed down I wondered why Oskar would need to be hospitalized for so long. If it's about doing nebulization every so often, we can do it at home. If anything it's less traumatizing than in a hospital environment. I asked the nurse but she did not know. She called the pediatrician back so I could talk to her. I think she was surprised by my reluctance to get Oskar hospitalized. I explained that in Europe people tend to stay away from hospitals and in winter time nebulization share done in almost every house with a child going to day care. She insisted for at least one day and pending how Oskar reacts to the treatment we would go home or stay longer. End of negotiation.
The rest of the day was basically getting admitted, explaining to the nurses that Oskar does not sleep in a cot anymore, negotiating a single room so we are not disturbed, calling Aggie on her day off so she could watch Thomas and save us from taking him back and forth between home and hospital, getting nebulizations every 1-2 hours, getting a blood test, rushing back and forth between home and hospital with what Oskar and Wolfram would need for the night. In my memory it is one big stretch and it's only around 8pm once I was home and had put Thomas down that I sat down, realized I had no food yet since morning pretty much, and was trying to process that my son was spending the night in the hospital.
Luckily Oskar reacted very well to the treatment and pediatrician released him at lunch time the next day. We went home with a nebulizer to continue nebulizations, medication and directive for tapping his back to get the flegm to go.
24 hours after this nightmare started, we were home, relieved. Now let's hope that Oskar does fully recover and can go back to school soon.
We survived the first hospitalization. It was an easy one with no major procedures or surgery, but still it was hospital.
And it only costed us 3000$... A five stars resort would have been cheaper and nicer to stay at.
No comments:
Post a Comment