An Emergency Hospital Trip - by Corey (Ethan's Dad)

This week I have been at our church's Vacation Bible School every night. On Tuesday night when I came home, this is what Corey shared with me about his evening with Ethan.....in Corey's own words......

OK so last night was a little rough. Ethan had already been sick for a few days. His nose has been running and he has been sneezing. Two nights ago I noticed his eyes had some goop in them. Last night I noticed his eyes were looking kind of pink. I just figure he is fighting some bug he picked up from church or family, no big deal. Well, then Ethan starts to kind of whimper and whine to me. I noticed it was about dinner time so I start to make us something to eat. Ethan comes in crying and pulling on his right ear and says. "You bonks your ear." So I thought he must have hit his ear on something. I kiss his ear and he says, "All better," and walks away. He comes back into the kitchen a few minutes later, "You bonks your ear," and this time he is crying a little. So I sit down with him in the rocking chair and comfort him. He just lays back and relaxes on me. Now keep in mind Ethan doesn't usually do this. The only times Ethan will sit and cuddle while you rock with him is when he is tired or sick and feeling really rough. So we are rocking and while Ethan is sick and feeling like garbage, I am secretly enjoying the time I get to rock and comfort him. Then Ethan tells me "You bonks your ear." Finally it clicks with me..he is telling me his ear hurts...DUH! So I get his ear drops from when he had tubes put in his ears and lay him on my lap. I put in 2 drops. He starts crying REALLY hard and pulling on his ear. So, worried that I just made my son deaf in one ear, I call the doctor's after hours call center. I explain all of the symptoms/time line, and they said, "We can get him in at 7:45pm." It is 6:45pm right now. So I start packing a bag for Ethan (cereal bar, chewing items, toys, drink, etc.), and preparing for the trip ahead. He is literally climbing and pulling on me crying at this point. When we get ready to walk out the door...all of a sudden he stops crying.

We drive to the hospital (about 25 minutes away). We park the car and head into the office. I comfort and console/distract Ethan offering to let him push the button to the elevator as I describe things around to him. The elevator doors open and he starts to turn away from them saying, "NO NO NO NO," in a panic/anxious voice. (He doesn't like elevators.) So I pick him up and take him in. He whimpers a little bit but he is fine for the 1 floor up that we need to go. We get to the waiting room at the hospital after hours, and I check him in. We are the only people there. Ethan is surprisingly calm. He walks around the waiting room exploring his environment. He finds a fish tank...which he immediately runs to. This is great because the calming sounds will help ease his senses....or so I thought. They call Ethan's name, and we proceed to go back to the exam rooms. We have to get his weight so they take us to this little cubby-hole of a room. Ethan immediately starts crying. I try to calmly comfort him as we try to get his weight. Finally after 5 attempts to keep him on the scale the nurse decides it is close enough. Then we leave this room to go to the examination room. He kind of walks down the hallways holding my hand. I can tell he is very timid so I continue to speak to him trying to comfort him. We get into the exam room and the nurse asks if a student can observe. I say yes that is fine. I decide to try to give Ethan some deep pressure to help calm him from the cubby-hole room. So I pick him up, give him a snug hug and start to sway back and forth with him as I answer the nurses questions. Ethan laid his head on my shoulder and is actually squeezing me back the entire time (not typical). I tell the nurses that Ethan has autism and sensory issues. I let them know that odds are this will not be a pleasant experience but let's just do what needs to be done. After answering 9 billion questions, they say they need to take Ethan's temperature and would like to do it under his arm. The second the nurse lifts Ethan's shirt he panics and starts really crying hard. I hold on to him tightly and make sure the thermometer doesn't fall out. Finally it beeps. The nurse tells me that he is not running a fever, and that the doctor will be in to see Ethan in a few minutes. So I continue to comfort Ethan as we wait for the doctor. He noticed his chew brush in his bag and asks for it. So I hand it to him and think to myself this is great...he knows this will calm his senses. (What a smart boy!)

The doctor comes in shortly after and I explain the entire symptoms/time line to her. I then warn her, "He has autism with sensory issues. He is sick and not in the best mood. This isn't a patient you need to have a good bed side manner with. This is a let's get this done and power through it." She smiles and says, "OK let's do this." She puts her stethoscope to Ethan's back and he immediately starts crying and screaming. I continue to talk to him as I hold him snugly to try to soothe him. The doctor tells me, "I need to examine his ears could you sit down with him so he is at my height?" So I sit down, and she looks in his ear. By this time Ethan is screaming as I hold his head and body still so the doctor can do her job. She asks to see the other side. So I turn Ethan around and continue to hold his head & body still. Then the doctor says "Can I see in your mouth buddy?" I look down and tell Ethan "Say AH!" He SCREAMS "AAAHHHHHH!!!!!" The doctor and I kind of laugh as she says "That'll work." So the doctor and I try to talk as Ethan is still crying pretty loud. She tells me that Ethan has pink eye in both eyes, an ear infection and strep throat. We continue to discuss treatment options for what would work best for Ethan as I still continue to console and comfort him....meanwhile he is still crying pretty loud. The doctor leaves the room to call in the prescriptions. I try all of my tricks: books, toys, food, drink, etc. Nothing is working. So I just continue to hold and rock and speak softly to him. Finally after about 5 minutes of waiting for the doctor he calms down. Ethan says "We go home?...Yes!" (That's how he phrases his needs/wants unless prompted otherwise.) I tell him in a minute we have to wait for the doctor. A few more minutes go by and the doctor knocks on the door & comes in. Ethan immediately starts to cry and scream again. The doctor being a good sport just smiles at me and talks in a loud voice telling me about the medications and treatment etc. I thank her for her time and powering through. She smiles and says "It's no problem, I hope your night gets better. Bye Ethan." Ethan while still crying says "BBBYYYYYEEE!"

I tell Ethan we need to pack our bag and then we will go home. So he starts to calm down. I take him by the hand and walk out of the exam room and down the hall and back through the waiting room. Ethan is no longer crying and is waving bye to all of the nurses that are saying bye and waving at him. I kind of feel myself relax...the worst is over. Let's get him his medicine so he can feel better...not thinking about the elevator we are walking towards. Sure enough Ethan hears the elevator ding and immediately starts crying and screaming again. So I pick him up and walk into the elevator. The door opens 1 floor down and there is a nurse standing down the hallway just outside the elevator. She says, "Boy, someone sure doesn't like elevators huh? I could hear him coming the entire way down!" I smile and tell her, "No, he doesn't care much for elevators...or doctors." I step out of the elevator and put Ethan down. I hold his hand as we walk down the hallway to the exit. I point out & say to Ethan "There is Daddy's blue car. We are going to get in and go home." We walk out the doors and walk across the parking lot. Ethan is calm by now as I can tell he is anxious to get back home.

All of a sudden these sirens start going off all around us. Ambulances are going by several police cars and a life flight helicopter takes off. Are you kidding me?? Ethan starts crying and screaming while holding his ears. I quickly pick him up and open his door. I put him in his seat and buckle him in. I hand him his new TAG reader Cars 2 book and his drink and quickly close the car door. I get in and start the car. By now the sirens are at a distance and Ethan is starting to calm down again. I speak softly to him telling him "You did a great job at the doctor buddy. Very good job Ethan!" I back out of my parking spot and start to follow the exit signs. The exit signs lead me down through a parking garage. By the second loop around Ethan again starts to cry saying "We go home?...Yes!" I tell him "It's OK buddy we are almost out and we are going home." We finally hit the exit to the street and start heading home. Ethan is now calm playing with his TAG reader book. We were both quiet the entire ride home. I decided to go through the drive thru to pickup his medicines on the way home. We stop at Walgreens and his prescriptions aren't ready just yet. So we head home and unload from our adventure for the evening. Jessica ended up coming home from VBS at our church a few minutes after we got home. I tell her of our adventure and all the great times we had...*hint of sarcasm* . Then I head back over to pick up his prescription at Walgreens. When I get back, Jessica changed Ethan into his pajamas and we give him all his medicines. By now it is about 1 hour past his bed time. He takes his antibiotics, eye drops, Tylenol, and allows Jessica to clean out his nose. He was crying while she was doing it but after the evening he had...I would be too :)

Finally it is time for bed. Jessica reads him several books. His eyes look so tired as he starts to kind of fall asleep fighting it the entire time. Normally when Jessica and Ethan are done reading books Ethan will yell "DAD!!" and I will come running down the hall to pray with him. Usually, he laughs as I run and jump on his bed....Not tonight though. I hear this little soft voice "dad." I come walking in. Jessica leaves the room and turns out the light. I say our prayers with him while holding his hands. I give him a kiss on the cheek and start to leave his room saying, "Good night buddy, I love you." I hear Ethan say, "And one on the head?"....his way of asking for one more kiss on the head before I leave. So I kiss him on his forehead & his head and tell him, "Good night Ethan. I love you." He says, "I love you too Dad." Rough night but knowing he is on his way to feeling better is totally worth it.

GREAT JOB DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Jessica)