Croupy Croup Continuation

Remember back sometime ago I posted on things to never tell my children like plans for a vacation, picture dates, etc.  Well, we have a new one to add to Sarah's list.  Never tell(or type in this case) that Sarah is doing better when sick until she is completely well, she might find out and set out to prove you WRONG!!  By midnight Sunday I knew Sarah was not better.  She was breathing very rapidly, shallow, and retracting with breathing.  She was very gunky(is that a real word?) sounding and maybe wheezing a bit, hard to tell with all of that gunk.  After the steam and freeze did not work, I headed to the ER for the second time in a little over 24 hours.  Doug stayed home with Elijah, no since exposing him to the fine assortment of germs in the ER.  We get there and get escorted straight back.  Nothing like a good barking cough and hard breath in to get wide eyed response from the barely out of nursing school triage nurse.  We bypassed admissions and was sent straight to jail a urgent care room.  We had 3 nurses in our room hooking up Sarah and giving her deep suction for the gunky gunk coming from her nose.  The resident made an immediate appearance and ordered steroids.  I explained that we had just received some on Saturday, so he retracted his order for the time.  We were sent to x-ray to rule out pneumonia and then a higher up resident came by to see our pretty princess.  Her O2 sat's were 93-95, but no wheezing.  The x-ray showed mucous areas, but no pneumonia.  Sarah fell asleep during this time and dropped her O2 sat's to the 80's, oh great now we get to be an inpatient in our jail cell wonderfully spacious well equipped urgent care room because someone else had the nerve to take the last room ahead of us  there were so many sick princesses and princes.  About 11 am they moved us to the observations rooms, which of the 3 rooms we had during our stay I must vote as my favorite.  We were one of 3 down this hall, there was no nurses desk, no utility room, nothing, except a few rooms.  We closed our door and turned off the lights after Sarah threw her lunch all over the new room.  We both fell asleep on the quiet peaceful hall.  There were no interruptions, in fact if the nurse had not told me she was our nurse I probably would not have known that we had a nurse(she was very sweet and took care of us, just did not bother us every minute of our time with her!).  We were then awakened and move to a more spacious fish bowl of a room.  Yep, we got stuck in PCCU.  Not a good place to be.  Why do they have rooms with the hall wall completely glass and the 2 side wall completely glass with a thin useless drape to cover them?  I understand the hall glass doors, not the doors to the other rooms on each side.  Sarah kept wanting me to turn the lights off, when we had none on.  Poor baby, she just wanted it dark enough to sleep.  Our fun was taken to a new adventure.  Both kiddos on each side took turns crying so we got to hear crying all night.   Then I realized there was not a bathroom in our room.  What?!?!? I asked and was told that this was an overflow area that they tried to only use for children who were not potty trained.  No one asked me if Sarah was potty trained or not.  I now have a reason to potty train ASAP.  Why would you use this for un-potty trained kids,   Typically kids under 2?  Why would you use this except for children who are catherized?  Kids under 2 are not at an ideal age to leave and go to the other side of the unit to pee.  Doug had to stay home with Elijah so I was there alone.  Sarah was very clingy and would scream if I peeled us apart long enough to take a breath.  Have you ever peed with a child on your lap?  Have you ever had to convince a nurse to unhook your child with breathing difficulty on oxygen and monitors so you could run down the hall turn right, then left then left again so you could pee before you explode?  Neither went over too well.  After we got moved, Doug came and brought me a few things and Elijah and I went down and ate.  I peed before they left, so I did not have to ask for the above until about midnight.  Our nurse was a bit over dramatic and very young, with no kids of her own, and it showed.  Sarah would not have anything to do with her.  There was no way I was going to ask her to watch Sarah for me, no telling what I would come back too.  Plus when a child is sick and has been poked and proded, that is not a good time to leave them with a total stranger in a strange place.  I would have thought someone else would have thought about that before me.   Then I get Sarah to sleep and she is awakened 3 times.  Not good.  She is back to sleep and the nurse comes back in and wants me to get Sarah to drink some more.  The ER did not weigh her 2 saturated diapers during the day and the 1 she had in the PCCU did not weigh enough to offset her intake for the day, go figure.  So the nurse wanted her to drink more so she would pee more.  I refused.  Not going to happen.  She then threaten me with an IV.  I pulled out the I have been a nurse since before you were born card and called her on it.  You can not even consider any intake prior to the first weighed diaper if you do not count the other diapers.  You only need one wet diaper every 6 hours, and we had 6 hours to get one.  I don't think I am her favorite parent for all eternity.  The night was still young.  Before the shift ended Sarah gave them another diaper and the nurse sent in the resident to talk about an IV.  He left and let the nurse know that he agreed with me that Sarah did not need an IV.  That nurse did not tell us bye, wonder why?  Day shift went much better.  Sarah liked this nurse and so I was able to pee without her sitting on my lap.  Doug came by that morning with breakfast and caffeine intake for a few hours and I took a pee break.  At lunch, Sarah was whiney and clingy so I asked about getting food delivered to our fish bowl at my cost and was informed that they do not have that.  I could go down and bring up lunch, then problem with that was that Sarah was hooked up to monitors still(O2 was off to see how she would do), did not even try to convince her to unhook Sarah so I could run to get lunch.  Glad Sarah refused part of her lunch.  We were finally discharge at supper-time and headed home.  Not really sure about how we got discharged since I was told that morning she could not go home until she was 24 hours without the O2 with sat's above 90.  We did not meet either criteria.  Guess the hospital had sicker kids?  Sarah is really much better and was so glad to be home.  I will sleep with her tonight to be safe.  We will see our ped in a few days.  She is not coughing and her breathing is not labored.  I am not convinced that she kept her O2 sat's above 90 all the time prior to this illness.  I told Doug the other day that I think she may still have sleep apnea due to her night time breathing.  Guess we will discuss that with the ped this week.  This is really a great hospital and I would not have left if I did not feel comfortable and that it was safe for Sarah.  I would never risk her health to get home.  I think that she was just so improved that they thought she was well enough to go and would do much better at home, which she is!  At any point and time things can seem bad, but some of it is our perception.  I am way over tired and I get stressed and over protective of my kids especially when they are sick!