And yet another trip to the ER

Some of you may remember that Tyler was diagnosed with Asthma a couple of years ago. Right before we left Cincinnati (Jan 09'), I refilled his inhaler medication. He only uses it when he's really congested and it helps him breathe better, so it has lasted us all the way to now. Our new Dr. in Boise did not want to prescribe him another inhaler until he had a chance to re-evaluate Tyler and assess his needs since he's quite a bit older now. Essentially, we had to wait for another asthma attack before he could get more medicine, which is fine.....but you can't predict when an asthma attack is going to happen, and more often than not, it doesn't conveniently fit into the M-F, 9-5 time schedule.

We woke up to Tyler coughing his brains out 3:00 am Sunday morning. We had left the windows open, so figured that had most to do with it. He was having a really hard time going back to sleep, so I went in to lay down with him, and noticed he was wheezing a bit. To our luck, the inhaler was empty so we couldn't do anything to help ease his labored breathing. He finally got back to sleep, and in the morning said he was feeling fine. Still had a cough, but he really wanted to sing in his Primary Program, so we let him go to church. He was really going downhill after the program, so he went home with Dad to rest while the rest of us stayed the next 2 hours.

I got home at 12:15 and he had a fever of 102, and the wheezing was quite a bit worse. I called our Dr, talked with the on-call nurse, and they recommended the ER. Ugh! I didn't really want to take him into the ER, but after talking to some of the urgent cares, that was our "safest" option because of the kids' coverage. We have to select a physician, and if we go to a dr. that is not that physician or if they haven't referred us over to someone else we are not guaranteed that medicaid will pay for it, and I have to sign a document that acknowledges this. So, it seems to be that we either see our Primary Physician, or the ER. Nice choices huh? This is a great way to eliminate cost, I'm telling you!

Anyway.....we decided to take Tyler in, and I took him to the St. Al's Emergency in Eagle. They got him right back, and in no time he was in a gown wearing a bracelet and loving every bit of special attention he was receiving. The ER Dr. was worried about pneumonia, so he ordered a chest x-ray. Tyler got to ride in his bed over to the radiology room, had a delightful time as the camera took pictures of his chest. He was given a breathing treatment with a nebulizer and he even got a popsicle as we waited for the Dr. to read the x-ray. No pneumonia, just an upper respiratory infection (Cold). So long story short, we were finally able to get the new inhaler...I think I'll be calling our Dr. today to request a refill so we don't have to go through that all over again, good grief! At least our little boy is better now, and can't stop talking about how cool the hospital is.