A "business trip," of sorts ...

Seeing the husband was in New Orleans for a 2-day business trip, I guess Sam wanted to make sure we had some excitement here in our lives. After clearly not feeling well all day Thursday, not sleeping on Thursday night, and waking up in a horrible mood on Friday, Sam started telling me that his ear hurt. He had tubes put in his ears shortly before his first birthday, and they are due to fall out at any time (12 months is actually a great result from tubes, and they were still in at the 2-year appointment). I wasn't too concerned about his ear, but was concerned about getting through the day because Sam was a limp little blob plopped in my lap and refused to move. If I tried to do anything but sit and hold him, he would scream. We were totally out of milk, bread, and other toddler-essentials, so we absolutely had to go to the grocery store. When I put Sam down, I realized that he had his head tilted in a funny position, almost like his ear was attached to his shoulder. I hadn't noticed it before because of the way he was laying against me, but I figured he would straighten up after being up and around for a few minutes. Carrying him downstairs, in his carseat, in the stroller, back to the car, Sam refused to move his head. Hmm, strange.

I called the pediatrician to make an appointment to have his ears checked, stopped and grabbed the boys a bagel and a cup of coffee for myself, ran home to put away groceries and feed the boys (Sam ate nothing, Ben licked the cream cheese off the bagel), and then off we went to the doctor. The doctor checked Sam's ears, they were both clear and the tubes are both still in place. Sam was a hysterical mess, as he was for most of the morning, and when the doctor tried to touch his neck, Sam had a total meltdown. This worried the doctor for two reasons. First, Sam has had a lot of ear infections, and none caused him to act like this. He is usually pretty happy-go-lucky, and his non-stop screaming was a cause for concern. Second, even though Sam's neck was still "supple," the doctor's inability to touch it or move it without Sam screaming in pain was an indicator of a possible very serious medical situation. Dr. Matt, giving me a sympathetic look, told me that he was not comfortable with concluding that it was simply a virus and sending us home, that this required a trip to Children's Medical Center for at least some bloodwork and a few hours of observations, and if Sam did not improve over the observation period, a lumbar punch. Uh, what??

The doctor called the hospital to tell them we were on our way, and asked if I had anyone to leave Ben with for the afternoon. I didn't, so off the three of us went for our afternoon at Children's hospital. The boys both fell asleep in the car, and Ben stayed sleeping during the transition to the jogging stroller, thankfully. Sam screamed through triage, refused to stand or move on his own, and was generally a miserable little man. However, the non-stop screaming got us into a triage room very quickly, and prompt medical attention! Ben stayed sleeping for the first hour of our visit, which was great because Sam screamed that entire hour and I needed to hold him for the various exams that the doctor and nurses needed to conduct.

It was so bizarre -- after an hour of screaming at CCMC, it was like someone flipped a switch -- and Sam told me I was "stinky" (his favorite word), and all of a sudden, the crying stopped, he stopped holding his head in that weird position, and he seemed generally okay. Ben, however, woke up in a horrible mood and screamed his head off. At that moment, the ER pediatrician decided to come back in for another evaluation of Sam, and the mere sight of the doctor made Sam start screaming. I was sitting on the bed in our room, holding two toddlers shrieking at the top of their lungs. It was honestly one of those, "Calgon, take me away!" moments! The doctor and nurses are all pediatric-specialists, which really helped, and the wonderful nurse, Paula, actually asked what I needed, what she could do to make things more manageable for ME. I told her I was okay -- but she returned a few minutes later with orange popsicles and a 10-pack of Pl*y-Doh. Brilliant! Because it is a hospital only for children, they had so many great things for the boys to play with -- puzzles, books, and the magical Pl*y-doh.

The boys were very entertained by this new product, and spent an hour sitting on the bed, playing nicely. During this time, we had several additional evaluations, and the doctors determined that Sam had enough mobility in his neck to be discharged with the diagnosis of a nasty virus. The ER pediatrician laughed about the magics of Pl*y-Doh, and I put a handful of the containers of this magical substance in the diaper bag for future miracle cures! After a 3 hour stay, Sam was discharged.

On the drive home, the boys both fell asleep. Sam stayed sleeping as I carried him up to the couch, but Ben woke up and was screaming. I put him on the floor with his milk and his stuffed monkey, and he dozed. I decided to make myself something to eat, I was starving after not eating much all day -- and as I made myself some cereal, Ben came out into the kitchen, screaming -- and then puked all over the kitchen floor. I picked him up and he puked all over me. He and I both had a good cry, I cleaned up all the puke, put him in the bathtub, and we got on with the night.

I looked up the symptoms of Meningitis, the pediatrician's main reason for sending us to the ER -- because I thought that this condition always had a high fever. Wrong. According to W*bMD, toddlers and other small children will often present with flu-like symptoms and a stiff neck. No wonder the pediatrician was concerned -- after me telling him that Sam hadn't eaten for several days, had diarrhea, and was unable to move his neck. I'm glad that the pediatrician, who is the least alarmist doctor I have ever met, decided to take the extra precaution and send us for further evaluation. I am also thankful that Children's Medical Center had so many great things to distract Sam and Ben, and thankful that the triage rooms at CCMC are glass-encased so that toddlers cannot escape!

ER score -- Ben - 1; Sam - 1