ER adventure

Steven has been suffering some of the normal cold symptoms ... runny nose, stuffy nose, coughs, and low grade fever for a few days. Yesterday evening he was showing signs of labored breathing. Initially he was short of breath from a stuffy nose and active play. I gave him Motrin for his fever and he fell asleep peacefully, but checking up on him often. In the mean time, Sophia also suffering from a cold, added the complaint of ear ache. By that time Dave was getting ready for bed since he had to wake up early for work; gave Sophia to me to tend. Shortly Steven woke up asking for milk. Dave tended to his needs. Dave told me that he was breathing heavily. I took Steven to lie with me and Sophia. There lying with my two sick little ones around 9pm I saw that Steven's short of breath had progressed enough that he was using his accessory muscles to breath. I took my stethoscope and took a listen to his lungs and heard wheezing and rales. I carried him in my arms and told Dave that he needed to go the the hospital. Dave said to take Steven while he stayed with the other two. Before leaving we asked Sophia if her ear still ached because I might as well take her too. She denied anymore pain so off Steven and I to the ER. There, we were quickly seen after the triage nurse had assessed Steven. It was the wait in the room for a doctor that actually took awhile (20-30min) and at that time Steven was wide awake happily wanting to get into stuff. When the first doctor finally checked on him, she had ordered treatments and tests. The next couple of hours was spent getting those orders carried out. Oh, when staff started to approach him, ER was no longer fun! The pulse oximeter bothered him, he cried through the mask breathing treatment (at that point, I was feeling as if he's saying to me, "Mom, why are you helping them do this to me?" --horrible feeling!!) and oral steroid medication, no picnic at the nose swab either, but the chest xray turned out to be alright for him ... I told him to look at the light and say cheese as if posing for a picture (just wasn't the kind of picture he thought). In between treatments he was restless so the staff brought in a soft toy monkey, coloring book/crayons, and baby talk but they didn't satisfy his need to want to get into all those medical gadgets around him! Then, the final doctor assessed Steven, read results of the tests, and gave discharge orders. Steven was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. So the final ER adventure was the wait for discharge instructions which took a little over a half an hour later. During that wait, we resorted to watching TV to make the wait bearable. Finally, with discharge instructions provided, we headed home! But the adventure wasn't quite over. I had to find a 24hour pharmacy to fill the prescription. So, I dropped off Steven home to Dave and off I went to the pharmacy only to have to wait another half hour while the pharmacist's took a lunch break (12:50am-1:20am). I browsed the store (CVS) to kill time. Then finally with medications at hand, I went home and prepared the "stat" one for Steven to take. Finally, I got to bed just before 2am ... only to awaken again an hour and half later by Sophia wanting a drink. Took a quick admiring look at my 2 little ones in bed with me and dosed off for almost 4hrs ... awakened again by Sophia telling me, "Mommy, I'm hungry." My new day then began!!