Late night adventure

Elizabeth woke up at 1:30am unable to breathe. She has been asthmatic since she was a baby, so it was no surprise, but it was still scary.

She was really fighting to breathe, and her albuterol puffer didn't have an effect, nor did sitting outside, which I didn't want to do much because she was making an ungodly racket. But she really couldn't breathe, so there was nothing for the single dad to do but roust the other kids out of bed and have a family adventure to the emergency room.

Miranda and Parker were both understandably distraught to be woken up, and then stuck in a car next to a nearly hysterical and heaving Elizabeth. But miraculously, they really held it together and stayed pretty calm.

I zipped us over to Kaiser, and discovered that when you show up with three kids in their jammies, one fighting to breathe, you get to skip security and bypass triage entirely. We were led immediately to a room, and at once there were about 5 people running around helping Elizabeth, including within just a few minutes, a doctor.

There was some confusion about her records, which wasn't made any easier by my not having her kaiser card, but they figured who she was, and her history, and then they gave her a shot of a steroid which would reduce the inflammation and allow her to breathe. They also had her wear a mask piping oxygen mixed with sterile water mist.

The other kids were real troupers. I was expecting full meltdowns, but it was just the opposite. Once they woke up, Parker and Miranda just went with the flow. A nurse found some coloring books, they did that for a while, and they took turns playing angry birds, and were generally just a delight. The nurse brought juice boxes and graham cracker, and they had a nice snack.

Elizabeth was pretty unhappy about the shot, and was generally pretty overwhelmed, but once the meds kicked in and her breathing got easier, she turned around and was fine. She did some coloring, too, and had a snack with the other kids.

Overall, we were there for about two and a half hours, before the doc came and told me that it was actually croup, not asthma, which is why the albuterol didn't help. So evidently there's nothing to do if she wakes up again tomorrow night. Cool air and a humidifier is all.

As emergency room visits go, I've had far worse.