My First Real Life ER Experience

No, nothing serious, but just annoying enough to send us to the hospital instead of a regular doctor's office. I'll just say it was an icky night!

It all started when Cameron started throwing up yesterday. He hadn't been sick since one little puky episode on Tuesday night (just once). So I thought he was okay. He'd been going to school and seemed fine, except for a lingering cough. But yesterday the kid couldn't keep ANYTHING down! I was at my mom's house for the majority of the day, and after picking up my husband from work and heading home (with a grocery bag in Cam's hands just in case) we heard Cam whine that all he wanted was to sleep. Once we got home, his whining got worse. He never really "cried," but just kind of whimpered. He complained that his stomach hurt.

Now, when we had gone to see the geneticist in Salt Lake the last time, he told us to take Cam in to a doctor immediately if he complained of abdominal pain that keeps him awake.

He had also had a slight fever earlier, and when I went to treat THAT with some Tylenol, it instantly came back up. (I hope I'm not making anyone sick with this story...) Anyway, I had thought that maybe he was having something worse happen to him, (mostly I was worried it was appendicitis) so Steve and I took him to the emergency room, just in case.

We got to the emergency room, and the place was packed!! I'd never really been to the emergency room before (other than when my younger brother burned himself many, many years ago) and didn't really know what to expect. They got us checked in quickly, and moved us up on the list since we told them about Cam's NF1. When the geneticist told us to take Cam to the doctor with this kind of pain, he also told us that most doctors and nurses were familiar with the term...not in my town!! At every turn we had to explain what it was, and why we were REALLY there. While we were there Cam still was throwing up, and getting paler, and more listless as we sat.

Finally we went back to a room where we had to take off Cam's shirt and put him into one of those fancy hospital gowns. (Why do those gowns only have one arm hole!?) Anyway, we got him settled on the bed, covered with the warm blanket, and he kept moaning and grabbing his side in pain. I felt so helpless. He was hurting and I couldn't do anything for him! The nurse came and checked him out...asking more questions, and set off to find a doctor. After a while the PA came in and checked him out...poking his tummy, checking his throat, taking swabs and making tears come to Cam's eyes. He told us that he'd like to get some blood work done and start a saline IV on the boy (he was getting very dehydrated) and give him some anti-nausea medicine. We thought that sounded good and sat back to wait.

Since Steve had JUST gotten off work, he was starving, so once they started the IV and meds he left to get some dinner before the fast food places closed (it was about 11:30 at this time!) Cam cried just a little when they initially poked him, he cried a little for his daddy, but after that he was fine, maybe whining about the tape on his hand. The nurse was very nice to him, and told him that the IV was a "mosquito," and since the "mean mosquito" had bit him, she would get the "mosquito" back...poking it in the butt! She was very nice and very sweet! Eventually we convinced Cam to fall back to sleep, and once he did, we just sat and waited.

Finally about 1:00 (yes, this was in the AM!) they came with the results. The swab came back negative for strep (phew), and the blood work looked normal. He most likely had caught a bug that's going around. I was relieved! The stomach pain was probably from bowel problems or from coughing too hard. He was fine! We thanked the doctors and asked if we should worry about his pain coming back. They said that if it did, bring him back. Thankfully, he's been fine all day!

We had left home for the hospital around 9:30, with Cam worried that the "hop-sital" would break him. We came back home at 1:30 with a much happier Cameron...who was very ready for bed!

I hope to NEVER see him that miserable again. That's a hope that I'm sure won't come true, but here's to hoping!