Helicopter ride!

I'll bet no one else got a helicopter ride for Christmas~
Well, Eli and I did. We rode life flight from the E.R. in Annapolis to the Peds emergency dept. at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Driving takes about 30-45 minutes (depending on traffic) but FLYING takes 10 minutes. Much more efficient.

Seth and Logan went to cub scouts on Wednesday night and Eli and I had a relaxing evening planned. HAH!

At 7:30 that evening Eli became really fussy. Fussy became frantic, frantic became melt-down (vintage Logan style), and melt-down become demonic pained scream. My 6 week old was literally climbing up my body with his legs....I fed him, he threw up and got really sweaty.

I got really worried and we both were crying. I decided to check his temp (the bum kind) and that's when I found it.

Things were wrong in little man land, so we headed to Annapolis to the E.R. Apparently it's a popular Wednesday night hang out, because it was standing room only. They whisked us back quickly (when you're only 6 weeks old you get special treatment). The doctor said Eli was the first real emergency he'd seen all night. We saw a pediatrician who informed us that we would be life flighted to Johns Hopkins. Eli had either a twisted man part, or an incarcerated hernia. Both require surgery. WHAT?

When the flight nurses arrived all expertly clad in Johns Hopkins flight suits, I was a nervous wreck. But I held it together, Eli's "issue" had improved and it wasn't life or death, it never was life or death ever. We were flown because time is of the essence when things go wrong down yonder in a dude (even in a teeny dude). Because it wasn't life or death, I was actually kind of excited to fly in the helicopter.

Eli wore teeny ear muffs and rode on the gurney (sp?). I had left the house in such a frenzy that I was only wearing a zip up fleece jacket and sweat pants, they were red but 2 different shades of red. I also was sporting the nursing mother look (no bra, yep I left in that big of a hurry). So one of the flight nurses lent me his coat. I looked like one of "the team" and admittedly I felt pretty cool. I got to wear a head set with a mic. I really really wanted to blurt out "Maverick this is Goose," but felt it would be entirely inappropriate to joke around in the life flight chopper. So I just imagined myself saying that.

We arrived very speedily to JH and the condition was no longer an emergency. We had x-rays and ultrasounds and we got to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG! Eli was such a trooper, he didn't even really cry when they placed his I.V. and he was pretty tolerant of not being able to eat (pretty tolerant for a 6 week old who weighs 13 pounds). I saw about 47 doctors (not really, but we did see a lot). There's nothing like 7 doctors doing rounds in a very tiny room. They poked and prodded and one was expecially arrogant. Eli peed on the arrogant Dr. (yeah!).

Diagnosis: He had a stragulated hernia, it retracted. He needs surgery but they don't want to do it until he is 12 weeks old. They will if it's another emergency, but they don't want to put him under general anesthiasieioaoeoseo (way too tired to attempt spelling that one). We are visiting the urologist next week and they'll decide when to do the surgery. In the mean time I'll be a bit freaked out wondering if it's going to come back.

I did have one ego-stroking moment. The peds urologist asked me if I was in the medical field. I said I was a dietitian and he said "you are very savvy." Ahhh, well, yes I am doc, thanks for noticing. I also think the other E.R. clientele helped me seem even more awesome.

A special thanks goes out to Dave and Kerry for taking Logan at a moments notice and for keeping him all night long. Also, thanks to Ronda for taking Logan the next day so that the zombie parents could sleep. I love our ward.

It was one LONG ordeal. I hope my third child is a girl :)