Pneumonia hides in X-rays!

My little Bo is such a lovie. He really, really, is. I love how each mom is just in love with her own child. Just as it should be. And I think my Bo is the sweetest little guy around.

Friday the 13th Bo told me, while he was in his bed going to sleep, that his tummy hurt. I got him a bowl in case he threw up in the night. I moved books and debris from the floor because any mother knows the worst thing is for a kid to puke from the top bunk down onto whatever lays below. Uck.

Saturday was a busy day for our family, involving basketball games and a few trips into town. Bo told me about noon, that his stomach hurt and it was making him so he couldn’t breathe. I though, “huh. Strange”. But he was playing around and didn’t seem bad so we went about our day. That night I got home from a major grocery trip and when I finally sat down and watched Bo play, he was holding his little shoulder up super high and kind of walking around contorted. It was quite strange. And as he would talk he would stop to catch his breath a tiny bit but then he would continue on being active. I also saw him just breath strange every now and then. Like he would suck in every so often. And when he would talk he would run out of air.

Watching him I started getting so worried. I get totally freaked out when my kids are sick. I told Corey I wanted to take him to the Dr. but by that time it would have to be the emergency room. That is such a HARD call to make. But by about 11:00 (yea, my kids were still up, no one will sleep at my house!) I just couldn’t contain it any more. I was getting sick inside. I had turned super grumpy and was just sick. "There's yer sign!" So I just got him and decided to run him to the ER. I din't even tell Corey. I just left.

The ER couldn’t decide what was wrong either. SO they did X-rays, didn’t show much. They did blood work, didn’t show much.
My little Bo did not even CRY for the blood work. He just took his IV so great that the male nurse commented about him being tough as nails. We were in the ER about three hours. Thankfully we had a TV and I just held him in the way he was most comfortable. He couldn’t lie on his back or he couldn’t breathe. So sad. He could barely even tolerate the X-ray where he had to lay on his back. He sat up from it and just gasped for breath. I just assumed it was from something causing him pain. He wouldn’t let me carry him. When I tried (because he had to walk all the way to and from the parking lot) he wouldn’t bend his body at all and he just stiffened like a board.

It was really heartbreaking because of the strange way he held is body. And he was very pale and very slow. The Dr. decided he was miserable from constipation. But he was definitely perplexed. He sent us home with magnesium. So by the next afternoon Bo had gone to the bathroom but was still uncomfortable. I did what the Dr. said and called the ER and went back in. It was so confusing because at the same time he had these symptoms of losing his breath and walking with this contorted little body, that I can’t even describe adequately, his hips even looked crooked and his shoulder was raised up so tight to his face it was just strange,, he still played throughout the day.

So back to the ER. They were so very busy. They put me into a room with no TV. The night before I had brought a big book for Bo and I to read. But this time I took it out since we had had a TV. But this time, no TV. So we colored, blew up blue latex gloves and drew faces on them, and fortunately, Rhett had cashed in all his change for two buck in my purse and I had oodles of change. That truly kept him busy for hours. Sorting, counting, recounting, making pictures out of them, etc.

Holding up his shoulder...

The people in the room across from us were getting very angry. How much longer did they have to wait? Not to sound all wonderful or anything but I was just so grateful to be somewhere safe for my boy where they could monitor his illness, whatever it may be, that I didn’t even care about a wait. And it was a good thing too! The nurse came in and told these annoyed people the the average national wait time in an ER was 6 hours. WHAT THE WHAT?????

Guess what? We were there for FOUR hours!

He had to have the IV again. Same nurse did it, same brave little boy didn’t even cry. Had to have X-rays, blood work, the whole bit again. And they found nothing. A little elevated white blood cells that indicate an infection of some kind but they didn’t know what. At some points I was near tears filled with worry and weary, second night at the ER until 2isham. What could this be? His little body was so very contorted.

Here is a not very good picture but you can see how high up his shoulder was.

He could lower it but wouldn’t. Because he had to get up and down several times off the bed, he and I had it down as to how to carry him with the least amount of pain. I would just scoop him without putting any pressure on his stomach or lung area. It was all about holding his weight through his sitting area. Me helping him was really a bit of a bonding time. I couldn’t have loved him more. And he kept telling me, I love you mommy and kissing me and telling me I was awesome. Lol. Love him.

Finally at 3 in the morning they came in and said they were admitting him for observation because they didn’t know what was going on. I hadn’t expected that and hadn’t prepared for that but was relieved to be in their care. What if he coded or something? I was scared of his little breathing issue.

We went up to the peds floor. They put us in a room and the nurse was ready to lift Bo in the bed and hisn body language was very clear and he said “I wan’t my mom to do it”. He knew that I knew the most comfortable way to pick him up.

So we put in movies for Bo and just let him watch TV. I drifted in and out on the bed and Bo kept paging the nurse to take him to the bathroom. And then I would have to tell the nurse that I was there and could do it. Then I would take him and an hour later he would page them again. It was hilarious. So the little booger stayed up until seven o’clock the next day!!!! I just kept putting in new movies for him! It was a long night. He was literally up the whole night. And he was SO VERY proud of that!

So because we played so much in the ER the night before, and he was so lively in the hospital that next day (they finally gave him some pain killers) I was started to second guess the situation. Maybe it was just constipation, and he was feeling better after taking care of some business. They wanted to do a cat scan but because he seemed to be doing better I wasn’t sure what to do. But thankfully, the Dr. wanted to anyway. An hour and a half and one beyblade later, he had finally dranken all the barium for the catscan and was good as gold for the actual scan. He earned a white teddy to add to his orange one.

A few hours later my favorite Dr. P. came in and said “that was an expensive way to diagnose pneumonia!” I was surprised and relieved. That sounded like the lesser of illnesses to me and the Dr. agreed. I had been so worried about what in the world was going on with my sweet boy. Why was his body so distorted and achy?

So we stayed another night. Bo was very happy with a new Lego set from Grandma and Grandpa, a puzzle and coloring book form Aunt Sherri and Uncle Frank.

It was quite a relaxing little hospital stay for me. Just one little sleepy kid to take care of compared to my wild life at home…I quite enjoyed myself. We were released the next day and now he is on the mend.

Thank Heavens. So grateful for medical resources and the people who help us. So so grateful. Did I mention grateful?


He put together this 100 piece puzzle all by himself!

Thanks for all the concern!