the hospital

Henry has pneumonia. He and I spent this afternoon at the hospital.

The antibiotic has not seemed to be helping, his temp. has still been high and he has been coughing. The results from his urine sample turned out to be negative anyway. So today we went to the pediatrician again, and he sent us to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.

It goes without saying (but I will say it anyway) that today was not my favorite day of motherhood. Here are a few of the moments that threatened to make me FREAK OUT, except that I couldn't because then Henry would really be in trouble:

-In the triage area, when they put the little clip oxygen sensor on his finger- made me flash back to baby Henry in the NICU.

-When we first got settled in our ER room and I heard a child in another room start screaming "NO NO NO IT HURTS!" (I later found out that it was a girl whose teeth had been knocked out by a softball, and the doctor had to shove them back in!!!!!!) My personal hell would be to spend eternity in a children's hospital emergency room.

-When the doctor finally came to examine him, and Henry started telling him "I go to kindergarten Dr. Larsen. I do art and library and computer lab. I want to be a construction worker when I grow up."

-When the folks trying to take his blood and put in an IV said "whoa- look how big that vein is- that's a good one! Oh, wait, what happened? It collapsed. We'll have to try again buddy."

I had been needing to use the restroom for like an hour and a half, so decided to take that opportunity. I could hear Henry yelling all the way down the corridor: "please stop, please stop! You already checked my arm! My arm is ok! Please stop!"

When I got back to the room, the IV was in and taped to a splint on his wrist- another NICU flashback.
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They took an x-ray and found the pneumonia, although neither doctor had been able to hear it with the stethoscope. They gave him a dose of an intravenous antibiotic (I forget the name) and told me to continue the one at home also.

On one hand, I am relieved to finally know what exactly is wrong. We have a 7-year-old nephew who is a leukemia survivor, so Bill and I were imagining all kinds of awful things. But on the other hand, I am still very worried because our little guy is very sick. Please say a prayer or send some healthy vibes Henry's way. Thanks.