CraBlogged

Saturday morning Holden woke up with the type of shortness of breath that makes one think "hospital", and that is where we went. What a way to open up an entry, huh?

The healthcare in Canada is such that mostly everything is free. You walk in, you get treated, you get medication if needed, and you walk out the door without a hole in your pocket. There are exceptions, and oddly we keep running into them - perhaps there's more loopholes in the "everything's free!" than one expects... for example, anything that is classified as a "luxury" isn't free. Makes sense! But those luxuries include epipens (Holden is allergic to peanuts, and this is something you have on hand in case of accidental contact (classified luxury because if he's allergic, one would assume one would keep him away, but, any conscientious parent would have one anyway)), and even inhalers have a cost associated with them. But why am I talking about costs? I suppose that means that everything turned out ok in the end!

This has happened half a year ago as well. What happens is when he gets a cold, and it happens to be rainy outside, there's a chance he picks up some asthma and needs to relax. But last time his breathing was a bit labored, so we went in, got some oxygen, and were sent home relatively shortly after that. This time however, they told us he should stay overnight for observation and frequent oxygen masks. And IV for antibiotics. Suddenly a fun trip to the hospital filled with nurses clucking over a cute smiling boy turned into something quite nasty for Holden, just as that first needle went into his arm. Now, he's officially afraid of hospitals and very wary of nurses. Nurses pretend to be nice and talk nicely but they poke and draw out blood for testing, and stick wires up arms and make everything sad, all while smiling. It was dismal!

We were admitted into a room, and the saving grace was that the room was big and just for us. It had a dvd/vcr player, a fun bed that moved up and down, chairs that folded into beds, a big bin full of cars and truck toys, a nearby playroom filled to the brim of movies to watch and books to read; it really wasn't that bad at all! We decided to make a camping trip vacation of the whole ordeal and everyone's spirits were relatively high, by which I mean we all were at least above huddling and crying together in sadness.

Food came and went, nurses came and went, oxygen masks came and went, X-rays came and went, IV lines were replenished, movies were watched and went, games were played and went, and eventually night time finally came, but did not went. The chair that folded into a bed SEEMED like it was comfortable, and for a chair-bed it did it's job. But the frequent nurses coming in every hour to check his oxygen saturation really spoiled a good night's rest! :P Especially for poor Holden, who normally sleeps through the loudest cracks of thunder and lightning. At one point a few nurses came in and made the executive decision to hook up oxygen tubes right into his poor little nose. This woke up Holden with a fright - can you imagine sleeping peacefully and then all of a sudden two sets of hands are holding you down and sticking tubes up your nose? He was a brave pumpkin.

Sunday morning, the nurse came in and said something to the effect, "If Holden goes home today, I'll eat my shirt!" What a thing to say, you know? We were telling Holden all Saturday that it would be just one night, but what an assumption to be wrong on. The doctor came in for 5 minutes and said, "He was on oxygen all night? He's still in oxygen? Another night." then tromped right out. Around this time, I wished I had showered the day before. Thankfully Maryl's mum came in for an hour or two, and we had a chance to get home and change and get things for Holden.

On the way home, my car's engine caught on fire. It was an odd experience, seeing clouds of smoke billowing from underneath the hood. What can you do? We got everything we needed, and drove it back to the hospital. Probably not the best thing to do - but what, take a taxi? All right, it wasn't really a FIRE, just tendrils of smoke. Maybe I ran over an exploding squirrel? When we got back to the hospital, thankfully a short trip, I opened up the hood, couldn't see any more smoke, but noticed a lot of lime-green lime-yellow lime-lime fluid pooling up near my feet. A quick check underneath the car showed that my oilpan was leaking - or was it just stuff leaking around it? Heh.

Holden didn't like being in bed for an entire day and was very antsy. It was hard to keep him calm cool and collector's edition. He was tired of having stuff plugged into his wrist, and oxygen masks on his nose, but at least after a bath/shower there he was all clean, and with a freshly made bed!

Maryl had about 7 hours of work to do that night after Holden went to sleep, and I tried to stay up playing final fantasy on the gameboy but zonked out fairly quickly. In the morning, the doctor came in and assessed Holden as mostly all better and ready to go home. 97% oxygen saturation without a mask! I guess that's good? We got our meds, paid a bunch for inhalers which is odd because why are daily doses of inhalers, prescribed by a doctor, a "luxury"? I guess breathing IS a luxury.

We're home, everything's fine. It was quite an adventure though. I need a new car. Holden looks like a big grape from all the IV. He looks pregnant really, a lot of water retention and frequent tinkle accidents at night. It's really weird to see. He's normally skinny and lithe but now he looks like he ate mcdonald's for the last few months. However he's already looking more healthy and back to his normality.

At least now he believes me when I tell him drinking bath water is gross and might make him sick! :P