Tessa's visit to the E.R.

Well, it's Tessa's turn to be sick now! She missed school last Thursday and Friday because she wasn't feeling well (I figured she was getting bronchitis now too). But her symptoms were different than the boys. She fevered and was wheezy, but not coughing a lot. I just kept doing her inhaler, and by Sunday she seemed to be doing better. So she went to school yesterday. They had a walking field trip to the library, and then when they got back, they went to music. She was standing there, singing, and all of a sudden, she got dizzy and passed out. It said on the nurses report "became dizzy and collapsed on the ground. Her body twitched as she was on the ground. Her cheeks looked flushed after it happened." So the teacher took her to the nurses office and called me immediately. The nurse checked her blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen level, and listened to her lungs. When I got there she was very pale and clammy and feeling a little sick. She said her chest wasn't hurting and she wasn't having a hard time breathing, but her oxygen level was really low, so the nurse said I should get her into the doctor. I took her home and called our regular doctor, but they didn't have any openings, but because of her low oxygen level, suggested we take her either to insta-care or the E.R. So I took her to the insta-care place here in town, but because she had lost conciousness, they said she'd need to go to the E.R., so they could do more tests (that was after we had already waited for 45 minutes). So I called Neil to come meet me at the clinic so that one of us could take Tessa to the E.R., so we wouldn't have to take the 2 little boys to the hospital.

So, once she was at the hospital, they ran a bunch of tests (because they were concerned that maybe she had had a seizure when she passed out, because of the description from the nurse). They tested her blood, urine, did an X-ray, and a CT scan. After about 3-1/2 hours, they said it was pneumonia. We were just glad it wasn't anything more serious (not that pneumonia isn't serious, but it could have been worse). So they gave her a couple shots of antibiotics, and sent her home with some oral antibiotics to take every 12 hours for the next 10 days. Hopefully she starts feeling better soon, poor little sweetheart.

So, I guess we'll be lucky enough to meet our $2000 deductible this year. If that's the case, we might just try to have Clay's tonsills removed, since he'll probably need it done, just like all our other kids have (his tonsills are already getting pretty big). At least then we won't have to pay another couple thousand dollars (since our deductible will have been met). This spring has been kind of a bummer with everyone getting so sick so much--we normally aren't all this sickly!