There and Back Again

Little did we realize that just a couple of weeks later we'd have to return our little Hobbit back to the Stollery...but this time to emergency. Over the course of the day, she had started to show signs and symptoms of coming down with a cold or flu. Though she had received the first part of the flu immunization, she wasn't scheduled to receive the second part until the following week. Because everyone else had been immunized, I hoped that the cold would be contained and short lived. Turned out my hope was the only thing that was short lived.

It didn't take long for her cough to get worse and her breathing more laboured. By evening she was wheezing at every breath and was nearly at a whistle. I was going to take her to the bathroom and run the hot water to help steam out the congestion, when Todd made an inspired suggestion to call the HealthLink. The nurse asked a couple of questions about her breathing ( i.e. finger nails turning blue - no- , skin either around her ribs or between her shoulder and neck sinking in with each breath - yes- )

The nurse then asked if she could listen to Maylia through the phone. I put the receiver next to Maylia's mouth for a few moments and then back to my ear.

" You need to take her right in to emergency", the nurse said.

We didn't waste a minute, quickly dressed and readied a bag, reassured our kids and gave them instructions to put themselves to bed. Todd followed me to the hospital just in case one of us needed to stay with her over night.
As we registered through the triage station we mentioned to the attendant there that the nurse had listened other on the phone and told us to come in. He said , "normally I laugh when they say they can hear how bad it is over the phone, but I can sure hear her. It's incredibly tight," is the way he described it. By this point Maylia, though tired, had enough energy left make it pretty clear that she wasn't happy about being checked over by a nurse or doctor . Those darn white coats again!!
Thankfully he didn't have to do much before we were told to wait until our name was called. We walked past several people and found a couple of chairs, sat down...and then they called our name.

Todd hadn't even sat down at this point.
I dared not look anybody in the waiting room in the eye, knowing exactly what they were thinking -- " How did they get ahead of us??"

"It must be bad," I sort of half-joked to Todd as we followed the nurse to a room. The nurse gave her a quick check-up -- much to Maylia's annoyance -- and then we sat for several minutes waiting for the Doctor.
She finally arrived, only to make Maylia mad again. I thought how much I really needed to get a toy doctor's kit for her to play with as the stethoscope seemed to elicit an immediate panicked reaction from her. As the Doctor listened to her breathing she determined that Maylia was having an asthmatic-like reaction to the virus she had. She couldn't be sure if she was asthmatic -- only time would tell -- but they would treat her symptoms as if it were an asthma attack. She also said that it wasn't uncommon for internationally adopted children -- particularly those from asian countries to show asthma-like symptoms when they come to Canada. 'Perhaps their lungs couldn't handle all that clean air! ', I thought to myself.
She asked a little more about her health history and we told her as much as we knew at that point-- what Maylia had been diagnosed with and what we had learned so far: No heart condition but still unsure about the Thallessemia. The doctor said she would see if the blood results had been posted and that the nurse would return shortly with the medicine.

A few minutes later the nurse came back, this time with an inhaler and a small handheld ventilator in order to help administer the medicine. She would need to have two types of medicine and take about 5 breaths per dose . I was sure glad Todd was with me as I knew it would take at least two of us to give her the medicine. I was wrong. It took three of us.

Maylia screamed and struggled as we pinned her down and the nurse calmly pointed out the positive side of Maylia's loud sobs -- deeper breaths yielding more intake of the medicine.

About every 45 minutes for the next 2 and a half hours we did the same MMA routine, us using our best wrestling moves to keep her pinned, Maylia using all her strength to resist. In between doses she was quite content -- even happy -- and definitely more energetic than either of us felt. On the second dose the nurse mentioned to us that the medicine would have a stimulating effect and we saw immediate results. Todd and I were starting to tire out but she was happy, playful and her mischievous self. It was good to see Miss Maylia return to normal.

The doctor told us that Maylia would have to test nearly perfect to be released. Just after midnight she came in one last time and checked her over. Hardly a trace of the congestion. It seemed even her flu symptoms had nearly disappeared.


We thanked the nurses and the Doctor and even Maylia had a wave and a "Bye -bye" for them. No hard feelings. The Doctor waved goodbye and then said, " oh, by the way " her blood tests came back. She's negative for the Thallessemia and and they screened her for one other thing. She's negative for that too."

As we walked out of emergency - once again passed worried waiting parents as they sat with their sick or injured children -- we just shook our head again, amazed and grateful at " the multitude of tender mercies" we had been shown.