Another day

Last night Sam and Isaiah were both coughing pretty badly. Sam was coughing to the point he was turning red and crying. This morning I knew I had to take them to the sick clinic our doctor's office runs in the winter. (I just LOVE this idea, by the way. From 8:00-9:00 am, you can just show up with your sick kids - no appointment necessary). I
saiah has a bad infection in one ear. His lungs are clear.
The doctor, Dr. DiCenzo, looked at Sam having difficulty breathing and decided to give him a double dose of albuterol. This meant he had to breathe the nebulizer vapors for about a half hour. Thankfully, Isaiah was an angel during that wait.
Following the albuterol, she still wasn't happy with Sam's breathing, so he had an oral steroid and one more dose of albuterol. We were there for over an hour and a half and I have to say that the boys' behavior was better than I would have expected. Finally, she decided that she had done all she could for Sam and that he wasn't responding well.
So we dropped Isaiah off with Lorrie, met up with Dan, and headed down to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. We got a little confused because we thought the hospital had already moved to its new location. Turns out that it doesn't move for another two months. When we got near the old location, there was a long line of cars trying to get into the Children's parking garage. And that was the emergency entrance too! Good thing it wasn't a real emergemcy! I hope they have a much bigger parking garage in Lawrenceville. Eventually, Sam and I just got out at the curb and Dan met us later.
After a PA evaluated Sam, she had us give him an albuterol treatment for an hour. The first half hour wasn't bad. He was actually pretty cooperative. The last 20 minutes was pretty tough. Anyone that knows Sam, have you ever tried to hold him for AN HOUR?! The PA still wasn't satisfied with Sam's breathing, so she had us give him one 15 minute treatment of alavert. After that, she wanted us to give him ANOTHER HOUR of albuterol. I really didn't think that was going to happen. Dan, Sam, and I were all exhausted. I try to be nice and cooperative, but I asked that a second doctor evaluate Sam to see if it was really necessary.
The physician was so wonderful and actually knows Sam's pediatrician well. This seemed to help in some way that I don't quite understand. So she sent Sam for a chest x-ray to see if that would show anything. The x-ray showed that Sam does have a spot of pneumonia. So it seems that the other hour of albuterol wasn't really necessary and might not have helped that much.
While we were there the nurses and PA kept checking Sam's oxygen level. 100 is ideal. Sam was fluctuating between 89 (this only happened when he was drinking his juice) and 97. He often hovered around 93-94.
The physician said that he's in a gray area, that he could be admitted and observed more. We really didn't want this but didn't say anything. She agreed to let him go home as long as we give him an albuterol treatment every four hours, even at night, and follow up with Sam's pediatrician in the morning. Much better than staying in the hospital overnight - especially since I hadn't showered since Saturday morning!
Isaiah is with Vern and Lorrie tonight, and I'm hoping that the rest of us can get a decent night's sleep. I'm going to give Sam his treatment at 11:15, 3:15, and 7:15. That way I only have to get up once.
I took some pictures on my phone, and I'll try to put them up soon. I took a few of Sam when he conked out on Dan around 4:00. The kid was so exhausted! There's another one of our minivan with a white suv parked right behind it. We really didn't know what we were going to do, but luckily someone who worked in the parking garage came to move it. Apparently they are so short on parking spaces that they valet park cars right behind other ones. Weird!