In and out of the hospital

Alex was admitted to the hospital overnight. I took him to urgent care at Children's Mercy after talking to the nurse information line. He was having constant pain and we were nearly sitting on him, just to get the pain meds down. He said they burned his throat. That made it increasingly difficult to get him to swallow anything and we were getting worried about dehydration.

Also, he sounded like he had croup. I had asked the surgeon on call about it, and he indicated it was probably just all the drainage coming out of his head onto his vocal chords. Turns out, it was strydor, inflammation of his upper airway from the breathing tube during surgery. It was bad enough that the doctor heard him as soon as we arrived in the urgent care and told me we'd likely be staying overnight so they could make sure his breathing was not being compromised.

The pain medication issue, was solved almost immediately. Alex's body was NOT metabolizing the tylenol with codeine, so they tried a different med, which usually works better with kids, oxycodone with codeine and it was a HUGE difference! Not only did it not burn, so he gulped it down like a champ, it controlled his pain immediately and lasted for the full time until his next dose. This made things SOOO much easier.

He started drinking like a champ and had powerade, apple juice and water all in a 1 hour period.

They gave him a breathing treatment and an oral steroid which cleared up his breathing noise but it was about 3am by the time this was resolved. He had a chest xray to make sure there was no pneumonia and everything looked good, but the doc still wanted us to stay overnight, to make sure he would not need additional steroids or IV fluids.


Alex slept for quite a bit in his wagon in the urgent care. We finally got into a room upstairs around 4 this morning and we both collapsed into his hospital bed together until about 730 when the nurses came into check on his breathing again and give another dose of pain meds.

The doctor saw us around 11 and by 1, we were headed home.

He's had a nap and some cheese pizza and pudding and is doing REALLY well. We hope this will be a much different and more restful night, for ALL of us!

Thanks to Daddy for holding the fort down at home! He had Max all to himself for the last 2 nights since Alex's surgery and that's a job we've been tag-teaming. Max was having reflux issues, needed to poop and was generally crabby and missing his mom! It was a rough night for them as well. Luckily, Ella was very cooperative and gave him no trouble overnight.

Thanks to my friend Tara, who showed up at the hospital this morning with a much needed chai! Mommy was tired and it kept me going until I crawled into bed with all 3 of my babies this afternoon.