Wednesday, December, 20th 2023
Initial Post by mama
We could use some prayer: Kyle and Richard are headed to the ER. Both Sidney and Richard have had a cough/congestion but Richard has also had a fever and his O2 sats were in the high 80s. Last time this happened (last year) he had RSV which turned into pneumonia. Thank you all and will keep you posted!
Updated info
Richard was desatting and requiring 3 ltr of O2. Papa grabbed the hospital go-bag and we hit the road. While in route to Seattle Children’s Hospital (our medical homebase) Richard started drifting further down in his numbers, so papa decided to stop at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. Mary Bridge in Tacoma, Wa is about the 1/2 way point between Seattle Children’s and our campground.
Richard has gotten some outpatient services there in 2019 and 2020 but that is it. What is interesting about Mary Bridge is that it is co-located in the same building as Tacoma General Hospital. The hospital is also very big truck unfriendly- our Handicap Parking Permit is saving us.
It is amazing how fast you jump the line when they ask why you are here with ‘he is in minor respiratory distress and desatting to mid 80s on O2.’ We had a room before the triage nurse was done with us.
The ER staff was very nice and we started the standard dance. Richard was assessed, swabs and blood work were taken and visit to x-ray was not as Kid friendly as either Seattle or Boston Children’s.
The x-ray came back with no signs of pneumonia but there was lots of ‘viral’ indications on the x-ray. After a aggressive breathing treatment the decision to have him admitted was made at about 2 AM.
Another ER staff ignored papa’s comment, that Richard is a ‘hard stick’ for IV placement and it always takes an Ultrasound to get it done. Poor Richard, after multiple attempts by the ER staff in both arms, finally they called the IV team who had a cool new toy. They had a handheld ultrasound and the veins still just kept rolling away.
