We just returned from three weeks in Thailand: two weeks of an amazing medical and spiritual conference for medical workers overseas, and one week of time at the beach as a family with my (Leona's) mom. It was so lovely, medically, relationally and spiritually.
We were to spend our last night in Bangkok before flying back home to Nepal. But that afternoon Jack started breathing hard and fast and had an increase in his cough. I didn’t have my stethoscope or oxygen monitor, so we all went to the nearest emergency room. He was given two rounds of albuterol nebulizations and improved, so we returned to the hotel for the night.
But two hours later, Jack was much worse! For the medical people: his respiratory rate was 70, heart rate 160, he had audible inspiratory and expiratory wheezing, he had retractions all over the place, and he was coughing a lot. Tim was having dinner with an old friend from college, and that friend recommended a different hospital. I got in a taxi to take Jack and meet Tim at the hospital.
Of course, the traffic was horrendous! Meanwhile, Jack was starting to grunt and tripod. Oh, Lord, I didn’t have the medicines he needed! I just tried to keep him calm. Finally we arrived to the ER, and the doctor was fantastic and immediately gave him another nebulization. Although he mostly improved, his SpO2 stayed around 91%, so we remained in the hospital overnight and canceled all our arrangements (two flights and a car) for getting home the next day.
Fortunately Jack improved with regular nebs and was discharged the next day, although he started having fevers. We flew to Kathmandu the day after that, giving Jack an inhaler and Tylenol, although his fever remained high despite Tylenol. We could not get further than Kathmandu due to no plane or car seats, so we stayed the night there. The next day, Jack had improved dramatically, and we were able to fly then be driven the rest of the way home, arriving that night. Jack’s fever went away, his cough improved, and Leona went to work the next day without having unpacked anything!
We were to spend our last night in Bangkok before flying back home to Nepal. But that afternoon Jack started breathing hard and fast and had an increase in his cough. I didn’t have my stethoscope or oxygen monitor, so we all went to the nearest emergency room. He was given two rounds of albuterol nebulizations and improved, so we returned to the hotel for the night.
But two hours later, Jack was much worse! For the medical people: his respiratory rate was 70, heart rate 160, he had audible inspiratory and expiratory wheezing, he had retractions all over the place, and he was coughing a lot. Tim was having dinner with an old friend from college, and that friend recommended a different hospital. I got in a taxi to take Jack and meet Tim at the hospital.
Of course, the traffic was horrendous! Meanwhile, Jack was starting to grunt and tripod. Oh, Lord, I didn’t have the medicines he needed! I just tried to keep him calm. Finally we arrived to the ER, and the doctor was fantastic and immediately gave him another nebulization. Although he mostly improved, his SpO2 stayed around 91%, so we remained in the hospital overnight and canceled all our arrangements (two flights and a car) for getting home the next day.
Fortunately Jack improved with regular nebs and was discharged the next day, although he started having fevers. We flew to Kathmandu the day after that, giving Jack an inhaler and Tylenol, although his fever remained high despite Tylenol. We could not get further than Kathmandu due to no plane or car seats, so we stayed the night there. The next day, Jack had improved dramatically, and we were able to fly then be driven the rest of the way home, arriving that night. Jack’s fever went away, his cough improved, and Leona went to work the next day without having unpacked anything!
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| Jack taking a break from nebs to listen to this dude on the piano. Nice! |
Jack is doing much better now. We are so thankful that he was okay and that we were able to obtain quality medical care. Tim had severe asthma as a child, so we are praying (and I’m still breastfeeding!!) in hopes that this is not the first round of asthma for Jack.
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