Urgent Care Clinic With James

Our sweet James has been sick the past few days with fever and congestion/cold, which always creates respiratory struggles for him because of his mild asthma. I have been giving him breathing treatments with a nebulizer and also puffs from his inhaler, along with cold medicine. Yesterday, his albuterol(asthma medicine) for his inhaler ran out and the pharmacy didn't carry it or medicine for his nebulizer. Then in the evening he was feeling better and started running around, which caused his asthma to act up bad and he was struggling to breathe and coughing so hard that he threw up a little. I tried to give him a breathing treatment with his nebulizer using a saline solution that was recommended to us as an alternative to the medicine and has worked before, but he was too worked up and scared cause he couldn't breathe and was not calming down, which made it worse. Anyways, with him struggling so much to breathe, I decided that the best course of action was to take him to urgent care. I went to our pastor's house and talked to his daughter, our good friend, Nohemy who graciously called a taxi and went with us to Urgencia. Such a blessing!! I was so thankful that Nohemy went with us and stayed with us the whole time.

James had calmed down by the time we got to the clinic and was breathing better, but I was glad we went. At the clinic, the doctor examined him and hearing a slight whistling and rattling in his chest, the doctor ordered an x-ray, medicine to be given in his vein, a blood exam, and nebulizer breathing treatments. He did amazing for the x-ray. I told him that they needed to take a picture of his chest, then put him on the table for the x-ray. Once the technician put the x-ray under him and lined everything up, I was told that I needed to leave the room, much different than I was expecting. I am only familiar with getting my kids x-rays in the states, where I stay by their side and wear a big heavy drape to protect myself, so this was a new a different experience. I wasn't sure how James would do, but I told him to lay there very still and that I would be outside waiting for him and be right back. I wasn't sure if he would lay still, but he did, perfectly still. And then when we went into the room, the doctor took the x-ray out from under his back and James said, "Mom, I had to lay on that book. Why did I have to lay on that book?" And he giggled. I told him that the picture was in the book. Later he told his dad that they took a picture of his bones and put the picture in a book, lol.  Next we went to another room where they inserted an IV needle so they could give him some medicine in his vein and take a blood sample. I told him that they were going to put a needle in his skin and that he just needed to lay very still and look at me. And so he just lay there looking at me, said "ow" once, but other than that just lay there. He didn't cry at all, but didn't really like it and sat still in my lap afterwards. Before that point, since he was feeling better, he was trying to move all over the place and didn't want to sit still at all, but then my active little boy was finally still!! WOW! If you know James, you understand how amazing that is for our always on the go little guy, lol. Later he told his dad that the "doctor girl" put an IV in his hand. He said, "The doctor girl didn't put a needle in my hand, she put an IV in my hand." Finally after all of that, I sat with James in the respiratory treatment room and gave James his nebulizer treatments. They ended up giving him 3 treatments to help him breathe better; the only time he cried was during the second and third nebulizer treatments because it was late and he was tired and just wanted to sleep without the mask on his face. But he was quite the little trooper. I was so proud of our little guy. The chest x-ray showed that his lungs were clear and pneumonia free. The doctor said he sounded much better after the nebulizer treatments and gave him a prescription for medicine for his asthma inhaler and an antibiotic for a respiratory infection.

There were lots of little ones and adults at the urgent care clinic with respiratory issues. We were told it's because of the rain and wetter conditions we have been getting. Nothing keeps James down for long. He is our little trooper and always on the go. Today he has been much better, a little tired, but no more fever and is breathing better. Knyanna and Trinity have the fever and cold/congestion too and are a little miserable, but are doing much better than James has been. He always tends to have a tougher time with respiratory issues. K and T are also taking the antibiotics. Chris was sick yesterday too with a stomach bug, but is better today. Please pray that God continues to heal all our sick ones and keep the rest of us well.