Brooks goes to the ER

God is truly looking over our little Brooks. 

Earlier in the week Madelyn and Murphy came down with the worst sounding coughs. By Monday March 4 Brooks was pretty cruddy. He was congested had a tiny cough, had a runny nose and his little eyes were draining. I took him to our pediatrician where he listened to his lungs and tested him for RSV. He was perfectly fine...just has the cruds. Dr. Godfrey wanted me to call in two days to give him an update. 

On Friday Brooks got to the point where he would have coughing spells. It would be like 8-9 coughs at one time. During the coughs he wouldn't inhale but just continue with each cough while emptying his lungs.  Then at the very end take a deep breath. It sounded awful! By the time the spell was over he usually was the brightest red from all the work! 

On Saturday morning I could tell he was really working hard during the coughing spells. He would boa up his back and thrash his little arms in aggravation! That night we went to Joe and Malindas to eat dinner. During a coughing spell Nino jumped up to his aid. By the look on her face I could tell she didn't like the sound of it at all... 

I went home that night and started researching his symptoms and texting my sisters about what was going on. Everything was pointing to Pertusis also known as "Whooping Cough". Very serious stuff. I immediately called Dr. Godfrey (our pediatrician) a little before midnight. He told me to go ahead and take him to the ER at Vanderbuilt Children's Hospital. 

 

As soon as we got there we were put into a "holding room" because Brooks is still a newborn. This holding room was a meeting room and on the dry erase board was written a bible verse. I was so shaken up because I knew that we could have a very sick baby. This verse eased me and let me know that everything will be just fine and to put my worrying into God's hands. I felt immediate comfort.

(Brooks waiting in the holding room)

We were taken to an er room pretty quickly. This was around 1:45am. They immediately started asking what all was going on with our little fella, running test, blood pressure, listening to his heart and lungs and getting pulse oxygen. They also ordered a chest X-ray. They also did a major cleaning and suctioning out of his nasal cavity...which really did an amazing job! He did not care for it at all but could breath MUCH better afterwards! His chest X-ray came back clear. They noticed on his pulse ox that he dipped down pretty low during his coughing spells... At around 4:30a. they decided he needed to be admitted. We then moved to the 8th floor in a huge room. 

On the ride up to the room they had to bring his pulse ox machine and oxygen. As soon as we got into the room they did a nasal swab and blood to test for viruses. 

After seeing Dr. Godfrey much later that day we were released to go home. 

As a precaution Dr. Grodfrey instructed ALL five of us to be put on and antibiotic. We were pretty much quarantined to our house for the first 24hrs after starting the antibiotics.  We're happy  to report that Brooks is doing well!