ER visit and teeth stuff

Yesterday was a heck of a day!

First of all, when I got up, Ricky was still in bed, which is never a good sign. He was tired and his chest was tight. I let him sleep until he was ready to get up and then canceled his bus. He was only going to go for a couple of hours anyway because he had two appointments scheduled for yesterday.

Got Andrew off to school and then took Misty to day care. Meanwhile Ricky did his treatments and took his shower. I called the pediatrician's house while I was out and got Ricky an appointment for 10.

At the appointment, Ricky's lungs apparently sounded not so great, and he was working harder to breathe and talk. The pediatrician said he'd call the lung doc and get back to me.

Ricky and I then went up to South San Francisco for a market research study about nebulizers, for which we got $150 ($100 for him and $50 for me for Misty's day care and my gasoline). We had lunch and on our way back, the pediatrician called me.

The lung doc (not Ricky's, but the one on call) had called him back and informed him that there were no beds and the only way Ricky would be admitted was if they could admit him somewhere else. She did not suggest any meds and didn't say anything about Ricky coming to clinic. (Apparently no clinic today and she said nothing about tomorrow.)

I called the CF nurse and she called me back later. She basically said that we should go to the ER if I was concerned. I eventually decided to do that.

In the meantime we picked Misty up from day care and took Ricky to the orthodontist. Right after he was called back she threw a major league hissy fit and I had to take her outside, where she screamed and howled. I have no idea why aside from the fact that she is 2. Ricky came out eventually and I learned that the orthodontist wants four more teeth to be pulled out (he had four pulled out a few years ago). Poor Ricky with the congenitally bad teeth of an 8 year old... at age 13. They just don't fall out and grow in when they are supposed to, so the professionals have to help them along.

So we popped next door to the dentist's office (our fourth time in three weeks going there!) and made an appointment... But not before they took some more x-rays (the ones they had were from a year ago). We finally got home around 4:45 and Andrew arrived with the family specialist a few minutes later. I'd already decided that we were going to the ER so I got everything packed up and we left after the kids had dinner.

I dropped Misty and Andrew off at my mom's and took Ricky up to Stanford. Eventually, after blood tests and a portable chest x-ray and exam by a couple of docs, the verdict was that he would go home on Bactrim and Prednisone and we would go to clinic in a few days. Basically his x-rays looked okay. So that is good. "Just" reactive airways again it sounds like.

So after he had a breathing treatment and first dose of the two meds, we got to leave, and went to the house to get the other two kids and then go home. I am still exhausted. I was short on sleep to begin with and now it is worse!

Today Ricky stayed home to recover and he seems to be doing well. He also had two teeth pulled today; as usual he bled longer than most people seem to do after such things, but he's doing fine now. Those baby teeth did NOT look ready to come out; they still have roots!

Enough excitement for one week, I tell ya...