Nolan's hospital stay

We spent last weekend with Nolan in the hospital. Nolan had the beginnings of a cold last week and Friday morning we noticed he was having difficulty breathing. We called our pediatrician and got an appointment first thing in the morning. David took Nolan in while I stayed home and watched Kaden (Evan was with Grandma Moby). David called me and said I should take Kaden over to his parents because Nolan was going to be going to the hospital (his oxygen level was at 88%). Nolan received a breathing treatment and steroid shot while in the office. When I called back to see what the plan was with David, we were told the doctor at the hospital didn't want to chance anything with traffic so Nolan was going to be transported by ambulance. I said bye to Kaden and Evan and headed up to the doctors office. As I was walking into the office I heard the ambulance sirens (worst feeling ever). I rode on the gurney with Nolan in the ambulance and we were able to see David behind us the whole time. On the way to the hospital they did not use the lights or sirens, but they did use the oxygen for Nolan.

When we got to the hospital they did 3 back to back breathing treatments and were still not happy with how fast he was breathing or how he sounded. We were told the next line of treatment was continuous breathing treatments but that they did not do them on the regular pediatric floor. He would need to be transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). We were transferred over there pretty quickly and they got an IV and the breathing treatments started for Nolan. He stayed overnight in the PICU and was transferred back to the normal peds floor Saturday morning. The doctors wanted to continue monitoring him Saturday night and Sunday morning, so he got another overnight hospital stay. Nolan definitely was feeling better Saturday evening and Sunday morning. He did not want to stay in his room and we did lots of walks circling the floor.

Nolan seems to be doing a lot better now and has finished his round of oral steroids (thank goodness) and will be on a preventative inhaler all through the fall and winter. I don't want to ever have to go through that again, but am so thankful for the support system we have. It was also so heartwarming seeing Nolan "talk" to his brothers on the phone while he was in the hospital and to see his brothers so excited to see him come home!

Nolan Saturday morning in the PICU



Nolan in his room on the regular peds floor (he had quite the view - ambulances, construction, and the life flight helipad)