Up until Christmas, I kept making jokes that on Christmas Eve we were going to go back to McMaster Children's Hospital because they give away gifts to children who have been to the E.R. I know this because last Christmas Eve, we were there because Aidan woke up from his nap with swollen eyes, and the only thing that was open were hospitals. I didn't think, and wasn't serious that I actually wanted to go there.
I woke up on Christmas Eve exhausted from the night before from being up all night with Aidan who had a terrible cough. Glen and I cleaned the house in the morning trying to get it ready for Christmas since my family was coming over for breakfast and gift opening. I did last minute errands and even baked Santa some
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies . While I was doing all of this, Aidan laid on the couch watching the same movie, over and over again, The Polar Express. It's not normal for Aidan to be laying around while sick. It doesn't matter if he has a bad fever, or bad cold- he is still a maniac. I decided to take his temperature again around 4:30pm and it was at 39.4 Celsius. I told Glen that I wanted to take Aidan to the hospital because I knew something wasn't right.
Aidan and I got to the hospital around 5:30pm that night and shortly after seeing the triage nurse, we were asked to come into the E.R. The E.R doctor came over to us immediately, listened to Aidan's chest and told me he'd be right back. Suddenly, nurses came over to us and started him on a medical ventilator, drew blood, started an IV and took a chest Xray, all in under 5 minutes. I asked the nurse what was going on and she said he is being treated for pneumonia. It was heartbreaking seeing Aidan go through all of that, but he was a trooper- my strong boy. An hour later an E.R nurse came in and put him on oxygen since his O2 levels were 89%-92%. The E.R doctor came back in and told us we'd be admitted and should expect to stay for 1-2 nights over Christmas. Around 1:30am we were admitted to the Paediatric Ward. I felt awful- no child should have to be in the hospital over Christmas. I knew Aidan was so excited for Christmas as well, especially since we got him an Elf on the Shelf and we were also on the last day of his Advent Calendar. He knew exactly what was going to happen when he went to sleep that night- Santa was coming.
During the night, while we tried to get to sleep, "Santa" surprised us with a bag full of presents. I had no idea the hospital did this for children, and a smile came to my face right away- Aidan will get Christmas in the hospital. He had a rough night, waking up a few times crying while nurses came in to check on stats. When we finally woke up in the morning, I showed Aidan that Santa had been in the room. He smiled but asked me to open it for him because of the IV in his arm. There were quite a few toys inside the bag but his most favourite toy was the CAT dump truck in the picture below. He loves toys like that, so I pulled that one out of the bag last. He played with it his entire stay in the hospital. During the day we had a visitor from Daddy and Dylan and also a visit from an ex Tiger-Cat football player,
Jeff Croonen. He gave Aidan a couple more presents and signed a football for him. I was so surprised of the excellent care the hospital gave Aidan. It was amazing compared to other hospitals I have been to before.
We tried to make the most of his stay and I'm pretty sure Aidan actually enjoyed being in there because of all the pretty young nurses that kept checking on him, and he also loved playing with his bed because of the up and down buttons on it. I stayed with Aidan the entire time, and never left his side. At the end of Aidan's 2 day hospital stay and 2 x-rays later, a virus nose swab, and 2 blood lab work requests, the doctors never figured out what he actually had. They first thought it was pneumonia but the chest x-rays came back clear. They also told me it could have been an asthma attack but since it was Aidan's first one they can not say that so the doctors are calling it a virus for now. At home he is still on a flo-vent puffer for about another month.
When we finally got home from the hospital we did presents right away. Aidan was so happy to see that Santa had brought him this
kitchen that he loved from the book store. I have no pictures from Christmas except the two below. We're all so happy to have Aidan home and all better. He gave us quite a scare.
*Next year I plan on donating toys to the hospital so other children who are in the hospital can have a Merry Christmas as well. If any of you would like to do the same or make a charitable donation to McMaster Children's Hospital please click on this link
http://www.mcmasterchildrenshospital.ca/
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This picture is from Christmas morning, and it breaks my heart when I look at it. I hated seeing
Aidan hooked up to the monitors and having oxygen on him. |
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| Crazy Aidan getting better and going back to his nutty self. |