? Our Family Christmas Tradition?

Apparently we have been counseled to create our own family traditions and Braden has decided that he has one that he wants to be part of our annual Christmas routine. He has decided (on his own) that a tradition that he wants to share with our family involves his annual hospital trips at Christmastime.

His first Christmas he decided that going to the instacare while we were in Salt Lake would be lots of fun. We got ended up with a nebulizer, and were in the ER at the hospital back home within a week.

Last year he decided that if he was dehydrated enough then we would take him back to the hospital. Since we stayed over Christmas Santa visited him in the hospital in Utah. He must have decided that he really liked all of the attention that he gets while he is there, or something.

Tuesday he decided that he really wanted to pull out the big guns this time. He had a mild barking cough sporadically through the day, so I called the doctors office to have him seen (since Sasha had been though it last week, and his history with croup). I was told that the practitioner didn't feel that it was pertinent to see him. He was doing just fine when we put him down for bed. I started working on some Christmas projects and Brit headed out to play some basketball. When he got home we talked for a little while then heard a little coughing from Braden's room. Brit was going for the humidifier when he realized that the coughing wasn't stopping, Braden was really struggling to breathe in. We ran him outside to see if the cold air would help. I checked his chest for retraction, it was prominent. I called 911 for help. When the medics arrived he was "cianotic" ie, turning blue. We are thankful to live within a couple of blocks of the fire station, and for their quick response! (even though it felt like a long time - I'm sure it does anytime there is an emergency). We are very thankful for the Racemic Epinephrine that they quickly got into his system. Then we got to take our first and hopefully last ambulance ride to the hospital. After a couple doses of steroids and a couple of hours of monitoring we were able to go home. His energy level is back up, he is probably feeling a little jittery from the meds, other than sleep schedules being really out of whack things were back to normal by Wednesday.

He got his new buddy "Cotton" on the "amulanc" ride, and has hardly put him down.

Thank you to one of our good friends for being willing to come over when we called after midnight so someone could be here with Sasha so that she didn't have to be woken up. Thank you to others who stayed up waiting to be informed of the events of the evening and more than willing to jump in and help in anyway they could.

I am smiling in this picture because Braden was breathing ok by now, and we were at the hospital.

His new buddy "Cotton"

If you have any opinions on Braden's idea of great holiday activities please share with him, maybe we can change his mind.