News from Camp Thompson

Yesterday as I was getting in my car to go the grocery store Elijah's school called. They said he might need a change of clothes as he was in the bathroom for a long time. I rushed back into the house to get new clothes and leave behind the other 2 boys. When I got to the school Lij was in the nurses office laying on the cot - his clothes were fine but he was coughing and could not seem to catch his breath. I signed him out and we started walking to the car; half way he had to stop and rest before continuing. Upon further investigation I noticed that his stomach was caving in with every straigned breath that he took. My first thought was to get him to the doctor's office, however they are closed between 12 and 1, so I took him home and called. In the 15 minutes it took to get home his breathing got worse and the office told me to bring him right in. In the 20 minutes back to Sarver he could not even get out a sentence without grunting and stopping to try and breath. (He also was not keeping his eyes open which freaked me out more.) Elijah tried to stand up and walk but told me he was too weak to do it, so I carried him in and they put him into a room right away. With-in minutes they started him on a breathing treatment and we were blessed to actually have his PCP in the Sarver office at the time. However, after 3 rounds of Albuteral and 2 doses of a Steriod he was not much better. Dr. Kepple admitted him to the hospital and ordered a breathing treatment every hour for 4 hours and then every 2 hours through the night. He is now down to every 4 hours and is supposed to be coming home later today. We do not know what exactly triggered this, but praise God he is breathing almost normal now. This was our first official hospital stay for any of the boys and I will be much happier when it is all over. For now, I think I will go take a nap - I have never experianced such a noisey hospital floor and my head is pounding from worry, lack of sleep and cafine and all the coughing, hacking, screaming, crying and machine alarms all night long.