Hospital

Wednesday I received a message on my cell phone when I came back to my office following morning report, the call had been from the school, informing me that Brendon had come in from playing basketball outside during gym (in 90+ degree weather) and had been complaining of chest pain.

I called back to the school, requested that they go get Brendon and let me talk to him...they did. Brendon informed me that he was complaining because his chest felt like it was being squeezed and he was having trouble breathing, which was apparently in the way he was breathing.

At no point did they get his inhaler and give it to him!

I left work and picked him up. When I arrived at the school, one of the district nurses had been called over, she informed me that Brendon really was fine, even though he was sweating and hunched a bit and breathing in gasps. She said his O2 was ok, his bp was okay, and it was probably just the heat. She also indicated that she had "felt" his heart because he had complained that it felt that it was squeezing but also that it was palpitating again (he had the palpitations quite a lot during Bob's chemo), but that she didn't feel any palpitations.

I left the school with him and took him to the hospital, where while walking in he was leaning on me and struggling to breathe. They put him in triage right away, shortly thereafter had him on Oxygen and then began Nebulizer treatments on him. 7+ hours in the hospital and his discharge papers indicated that he had been seen for Exacerbated Asthma.

To say I think the nurse was dead wrong and put my son's well being in jeopardy would be an understatement! I am very angry.

The following day I had to have him to his specialists, an hour away, the pulmonologist put him on a steroid for 5 days....Brendon's big concern was if the steroids were going to make his penis smaller!

Monday he will see his cardiologist and be fitted with a heart monitor to wear for a month to try to capture the palpitations and figure out what is causing them.

I believe that the school staff certainly doesn't want to see a child harmed, however, I believe that they lack the education regarding asthma, attack prevention and heart conditions...I say this because this is the second time Brendon has had a big asthma attack and they have not recognized it because he isn't WHEEZING! The nurse at the school actually had the nerve to tell me that his heart condition, pulmonary stenosis, is a lung condition not a heart condition....I had to explain what his pulmonary stenosis was and educate her...her response "Oh, I'm going to have to do some research on that." My response to that "I would suggest you do, and I would suggest next time you do that research prior to arguing with a parent about their child's diagnosis."

Day 3 following the attack and he's up with me this morning...sitting on the couch, feeling a little better, the humidity has broken and this morning is actually a little on the chilly side. Here's hoping he feels 100% soon!

Today I will be completely cleaning my upstairs and trying to find out if I can pull the carpet from his room to assist in giving him some relief from possible allergens that would contribute to his asthma (specialist says really silly to do the tests...we have cats, it probably doesn't help...I think the specialist has a thing against cats lol!).