Wednesday Night's ER Visit

My plans and God's plans aren't always the same. I had planned on attending a board meeting, but God's plans led me to the ER instead. Simon awoke this morning with a cough, which had me nervous. I went to a meeting at Warren's school, and then to work for a couple of hours. Bob stayed with Simon, checking his temperature every couple of hours, and answering phone calls from me.

When I arrived home, Simon was doing great. His cough was better, and he was more energetic than he has been in the last 5 days. In good spirits, I prepared dinner and made plans to attend a school board meeting. As I pulled the biscuits out of the oven, Simon called out that his nose was bleeding. We have had several false alarms over the last 4 weeks, so I wasn't too concerned.

When I walked into the living room, I knew this time was different. The tissue in Simon's hand was bright red. There was more blood than I had expected, and the color was wrong. Fruit punch was coming from his nose. It was lighter in color than it had been only 2 days earlier. I got the nose clip put of Simon's fanny pack and started watching the clock. I tried to remove the clip after 5 minutes. Still gushing. 10 minutes. No change.

Mom fed the other kids while I gathered up needed items for the trip into town. 15 minutes and I called the clinic. Then we waited for the call back. After 15 minutes, I called the service back and told them we were headed to the ER, leaving my cell phone number for a call back. From the end of the driveway until the school, we are in a cell phone dead zone. It is only a 10 minute drive, but tonight it seemed to take forever. At one point, I saw that I had a message, but was unable to retrieve it.

As soon as we cleared the trees, I listened to the message from the doctor, confirming our decision to head to the ER. He also asked that we have the ER doctor contact him as soon he examined Simon.

Hurry up and wait. The ER staff took Simon's vitals, and now we sit and wait in the waiting room. We have been here for close to an hour, sitting in the waiting room with my vulnerable son and sick people. Just as I finished typing that last sentence, they finally sent us to a room.

Now we wait for the doctor. Simon's poor nose is going to be black and blue by the time they remove the clip! I need to read my book, "The Promise: God's Purpose and Plan For When Life Hurts." My precious Simon is hurting right now and my mother's heart is aching for him and his future.

The above was typed into my blackberry last night as we sat in the waiting room in the ER. It was about 45 minutes after we had a room that someone finally came to check on Simon. By then, I had taken the clip off and his bleeding had stopped.

Frustration was my constant companion last night. When my oldest 2 boys were around 7 and 4, they had been playing in their room and Oliver came out to tattle on his brother. Warren had a plastic suit of Christian armor. Oliver came running into the kitchen. "Mom, Warren hit me in the head with the belt of truth!" Ever since then, I always recall that story when I feel someone has a deep need to be hit in the head with the belt of truth!

Being a non-violent person, I am, by nature opposed to violence. However, last night, I seriously would have liked to smack a physician's assistant over the head with the belt of truth! She entered the room, looked up Simon's nose with her light and saw no source for the bleeding. Her suggestion was to give Simon some saline and send him home! No blood work, no talking to his doctor, no nothing.

While she did not say it, I felt that she was thinking we were stupid people who just spent $100 dollars on an emergency room co-pay for a simple nose bleed. She just didn't get it. She was condescending and left me feeling very frustrated. I told her that Simon's doctor wanted a call from the ER doctor before we were sent home. She agreed, although some what grudgingly, to speak to the doctor on the floor.

I don't know if he explained to her exactly what aplastic anemia was, or if they actually spoke to Dr. Cook, but after that, they did come and do some blood work. Then we waited for another hour for those results to come in.

Simon's platelets were only down slightly from Monday's counts and the bleeding had stopped. Dr. Cook gave the ER doctor instructions for us to pick up some Afrin to shrink the blood vessels in Simon's nose and to follow up with him, and we were sent home.

It was after 10 by the time we left the ER, 11 by the time we stopped at the store and reached home. I was exhausted, frustrated, and angry. I took a very sick child to the ER and left feeling belittled and stupid. It was all I could do to hold myself together on the ride home. I just wanted to cry and scream and rant and rage. Only God gave me the strength to keep it together. (I probably wouldn't have bothered, but did not want to upset or scare Simon.)

This morning, Simon had and appointment at the clinic. They were flabbergasted by our treatment. The fact that they would make such a vulnerable child wait in the small seating area with several sick people was inexcusable. This morning's counts showed Simon's granulcytes down to .6, with .5 being the critical number, requiring special treatment. His hemoglobin was also down, probably from the blood loss of the night before.

In future emergencies, we will take the extra time to drive to the other side of town, where they have a pediatric ER. It is also the hospital where Simon had his surgery and has already received 2 transfusions, so they have his information on file with the blood bank and standing orders if he needs platelets.

I was thankful for today's clinic visit. It helped me to be reassured that I had not over-reacted in last night's trip to the ER. I was reassured that Simon is still okay, in spite of the bumbling of last night. He does have a nasty cough, but his lungs sound fine and he has not had any fever, so it is not something to worry about at this point in time.

This morning, before the doctor's appointment, Bob and I were able to attend a worm expert day in Beau's kindergarten class. I am amazed by the knowledge those little children possess! Perhaps some of those scientists will grow up to become doctors or researchers who can help children like Simon.

Tomorrow, I have to miss my weekly coffee with my girl friends, but I am blessed to have the opportunity to substitute in the fourth grade classroom. I have missed teaching since Simon became ill. It is so hard to believe that we are only 4 weeks out from the beginning of this whole ordeal. (In fact, yesterday was EXACTLY 4 weeks from the day we learned that something was seriously wrong with Simon. We were even in the same room in the ER where we first heard those words which so changed our lives.)

Now it is almost 8 o'clock. All of the kids, except for Warren, are in bed. Bob is already asleep, and I am going to post this blog and call it a night myself. It has been a VERY long day, and I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Next Thursday, the whole family is scheduled to have our blood tested as possible bone marrow matches.