Asthma Attack

Sunday night, March 2nd, I noticed Tyler had a runny nose. He got home from school on Monday coughing like a dog barking. I was putting him to bed that night and he started coughing so bad, he couldn't stop. It was an asthma attack. Marc wasn't home yet, I sent him a text asking him to say a prayer that Tyler could stop coughing. In the meantime, I put Tyler in the bathroom with the shower running at full heat to see if the steam would help. It managed to slow the coughing down a tiny bit so he could catch his breath in between coughing fits. Marc gave Tyler a blessing as soon as he got home and Tyler was able to stop coughing enough to go to sleep.

Tuesday morning, he woke up hacking his brains out, so we decided to keep him home from school. Since it was Lexi's birthday, we gave Bryce the option to go to school, or to stay home and go to the party with us. He chose to go to school, silly boy. Tyler did ok most of the day. He coughed here and there, but it was nothing terrible. Marc had to attend a meeting that night down in Boise. I started putting the kids in bed, and of course, Tyler got into a coughing fit. I gave him his inhaler, and immediately, the coughing got worse. He couldn't stop, and was wheezing really bad in between breaths. He had this panicked look in his eyes that scared me so bad. I didn't know what to do. I called Marc, but he had his phone off because of the meeting. I nearly called 911, but he could still walk and talk, so I got all the kids out of bed, loaded them in the car and drove to the nearest urgent care. It was closed.

It was this moment that Marc called. In his prayers, he had felt like the medicine we were using was expired and that's the reason it wasn't helping. He encouraged me to wait just a little bit outside the emergency room to see if the coughing would slow down until he was able to meet us there. If things took a turn, then I'd be right there to rush him in. As I sat there listening to my little boy, I felt so helpless. It was so frustrating. I spoke with a nurse on the phone, and she recommended going into the ER. Our insurance plan is one that we pay everything out of pocket until we reach $3,000/individual or $6,000/family. I knew the cost of an ER visit would be astronomical. If there was no other option, we could handle it. We have the money in savings, and that's life. But if we could hold off until the morning when I could get him into his doctor, that would be ideal. Marc finally arrived at the hospital. I was a mess, but he was able to settle me down and think rationally. We decided the coughing was slowing down enough that we felt like we could go home, have a neighbor come over to help administer a blessing, and if we needed to come back after that, then we would come back.

Tyler was given a blessing of healing. He stopped coughing enough to go to sleep. I can't describe my relief. The rescue inhaler we had was indeed expired. I guess that's what happens when you only use it a handful of times in a year. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt for not being on top of it and for giving my son expired medicine. We were able to get an appointment with the pediatrician on Wednesday. He put Tyler on prednisone to help the inflammation of the lungs, wrote new prescriptions for the rescue inhaler, and an every day steroid inhaler. We got an extra air-chamber for school and then we were sent next door to the hospital to get a chest x-ray, just to confirm there was no sign of pneumonia. By the time we got the prescriptions filled, it made for an exhausting day.

He was really looking forward to going to school, so I let him go on Thursday morning. I stopped by the school at about 11 to drop off the air chamber and inhaler with the nurse. I peeked in on Tyler, and asked how he was doing and he gave me a thumbs down sign. We went together to the nurse's office so he could take the inhaler. He wasn't coughing as much, but seemed weak and tired. I ended up taking him home with me, though we had to go to the YMCA so I could work. The rest of the day was spent resting.

He was feeling much better on Friday, so I sent him to school, and they called me at 8:45 to come get him. Ugh. I reached out to the facebook community. By that afternoon, I had oils to rub on his feet and chest, a nebulizer machine  to administer a liquid version of the medicine he takes, and a slew of information to learn how to better help him. We kept him on the nebulizer for weekend. I felt like it made a huge difference. On Sunday, he started coughing during Sacrament Meeting. Marc took him out in the hall and challenged him not to cough any more during church. He made it through church. Then it became a game, not to cough the whole rest of the day, the night, and at school. By Monday when he returned to school, he had not coughed once, and that continued the rest of the week.

Oh, what an ordeal. Several things stood out to me during this experience. I had failed to recognize the severity of asthma and how life-threatening it can be. I have a whole new understanding of it. The power of the priesthood is real, immediate, and needs to be the first place I turn. We feel blessed and watched over, and resolved to never be so unprepared for an asthma attack.