Visit to the emergency room & Dr. Elmer Fudd

Emma has had a bit of a cold since New Years Eve. It started mostly with congestion and sneezing. As the day went on her nose was running more, sneezing more frequent and coughing. We had kept a close eye on things and continued to check in with the 24hour line through our doctor. She never had a fever and continued to eat well. On Sunday night (Jan 3rd) she started to make a wheezing sound and her breathing seemed more labored. So we call the 24hr line again and the nurse listened to her breathing over the phone. Based on what she heard, she said we needed to take her to the emergency room to have her looked at right away. At this point I tried to stay very calm, but in my head was very scared. We took Emma to Wake Med Hospital which has a Children Emergency room. Once we got check in, we went to a private waiting room. Since Emma is an infant, they didn't want her to risk being exposed to other children. That in itself helped calmed my nerves. Within about 20 min, a nurse took her vitals and gave an initial check. She still didn't have a fever, her oxygen level was 100% and her color was good. After this first assessment, Jason and I were feeling pretty good about her condition. They didn't hear fluid in her lungs, so the wheezing was mostly related to congestion.

We went back to our waiting area before being moved to another room to meet with the doctor. While we waited we called the hospital Chaplain who came to visit with us. She was a Campbell student and all around nice person. If you ever have to go to the hospital, I recommend calling the Chaplain as they are always such sweet people who know the ins and outs of the hospital. Also, while waiting the nurse brought us a gown to change Emma into. This was very funny to me and Jason. Here is this itty bitty gown that ties in the back just like a regular gown...(it was so cute that when we left the hospital, I took the gown with me. :)

So we have our little gown on Emma and began to wait for the doctor. He knocked on the door and came in and first impression was wow "Dr. Hottie." He was young and in my opinion very cute. But then he started to talk and it took everything in me not to laugh in his face, because he sounded just like Elmer Fudd.

"You see, wittwe Emma has a cowd. Hew congestion makes it hawd fow hew to bweathe which awso makes it hawd fow hew to eat. You can hewp hew by giving hew an inhawew and cweaning out hew nose. Hew oxygen wevews awe good and ovewaww she wooks vewy heawthy. But we do want you to fowwow up wif youw weguwaw doctow tomowwow."

Translation... "You see, little Emma has a cold. Her congestion makes it hard for her to breathe which also makes it hard for her to eat. You can help her by giving her an inhaler and cleaning out her nose. Her oxygen levels are good and overall she looks very healthy. But we do want you to follow up with your regular doctor tomorrow."

So Emma got a breathing treatment, they watched her eat and we were given a lesson in using an inhaler. She is still very congested and continues to rest, but we hope she in on the mend.

Be vewy vewy qwiet, the baby is sweeping