Or maybe I should title this, 'Our Unneeded Trip to the ER".  

Here's my story.  I was at a friend's house, helping her pack a couple boxes up because she's moving soon.  I had my 4 kids with me and all was good, besides the messes that kids tend to make when they're playing.  We were getting close to ready to leave and my 22 month old started crying and breathing more rapidly and in a way that I thought seemed a bit obstructed.  I asked her if she had swallowed something or if something hurts and she points to her neck.  So..then, I keep thinking, maybe something's lodged in there and she's still able to breathe.  Or maybe she swallowed something, it made it all the way down, but it shouldn't be in her body.  I get her home to have my dh take a look at her and he decides that she's getting plenty of oxygen, so it's probably not anything that is stuck.  So.. we decide not to take her in yet.  Later, he leaves, to take the kids to Autumn's softball game and Savannah starts sobbing uncontrollably as soon as they walk out.  At the prompting of my husband, I call my mom to see what she thinks and she hears her breathing over the phone and urges me to take her in to get checked out just in case.   

I get to the hospital and as I'm walking in, I feel my emotions start kicking in.  I bat back the tears, knowing that she's not really in any real danger, telling myself, please don't make a scene, she's fine, if you cry, they're going to think something huge is going on.  The nurse comes out to ask me what happened and for some reason (besides being overly hormonal and emotional that week), I'm not able to control my tears.  I'm feeling stupider than ever as I try to control my tears and tell the story of being at my friend's house and how she suddenly started breathing funny.  My MIL was telling the lady that I'm usually not a worrier, so I must be REALLY concerned.  I was concerned, but really, overall, I felt it was all OK, I just wanted to make sure it was for peace of mind in the upcoming night.  She had never acted quite like that.

She takes us into the exam room and we go through the checking process and discover that her throat is really red and sore.  I hadn't been able to get her to open her mouth wide enough for me to see anything, so that was such a relief!  Not that she was hurting, but very glad there was a reason she was acting like that that didn't involve something swallowed!  At that point, I was pretty satisfied that she hadn't swallowed anything and must've been breathing funny because it hurt.  She was also acting funny because she had a slight fever.   I hadn't checked her fever because I couldn't find the thermometer and she didn't feel that hot anyway.  Her breathing that was concerning me was not a problem unless she was upset.

While we were there, there was an inmate in the ER who tried to escape twice!  The first time, we were very close to his room, getting Savannah weighed when he starts tearing out, right for us.  The nurse, grabbed Savannah and ducked into the nearby bathroom.  I quickly follow and all of us are pretty shaken up, but we make it back to our room soon after.  Later, we're waiting the results of the strep test that we had done on her throat and we hear another loud scuffle in the hall, coming right towards our room.  I guess the inmate had tried to escape AGAIN!  This time the nurse, after quickly running to our room and shutting the door became very angry and ordered him to be restrained to his bed.  He was, they checked us out and we were very glad to be going home!

Savannah didn't have strep and didn't have anything stuck in her throat, just had a sore throat that has since gone away!  Her breathing was back to normal the next day and all seems to be fine in her world.  I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, but I always hate it when I make an unneeded trip to the ER!