FIRST HOSPITAL SCARE

Monday I came home from work to find Troy with a raspy croup type cough.  I hesitantly packed a few bottles & diapers & headed to the emergency room.  Figured better safe then sorry.  After arriving at Upstate Medical Center I parked my car in the Emergency room section of the parking lot.  Pausing to stare at the sign that said 15 min parking only. We quickly gathered his belongings & headed toward the emergency room door to be greeted by a set of metal detectors & a security guard room.  SIGHS!!! What is this world coming to.  We half heartedly threw are belongings on a table & scurried through the metal detectors.  Pausing briefly half expecting the thing to erupt in a shrilling sound. Intruder Alert!!! Intruder Alert! When nothing happened we gathered our belongings (purses, diaper bag) only to have to pass them to the security guard who quickly rummaged through them asking if we carried any weapons, nail clippers, pocket knifes, metal etc.  When we passed  all security points we were allowed to go to the reception area where we were able to tell a nice person the reason for our visit.  I can tell she was not overly impressed when I told her Troy had a really bad cough, along with stuffy nose & congestion.  I could read her thoughts as she reflected on what I said...obviously she thought we were overreacting to what was obviously a minor cold.  Then I dropped the bomb shell.  By the way our doctors have insisted when we visit the emergency room to state right up front that Troy has endocrine insufficiency.  That perked her interest.  I quickly explained that he was cortisol deficient & thyroid deficient & had billateral septo optic dysplasia. We then sat a very brief few minutes & then he was whisked into a room where he was greeted by several doctors & had a battery of test.  Poor kid was invaded in every end possible.  He had blood work via an IV, urine test after being catheterized,  temperature taken rectally, tube shoved up his nose to see if he had the flu, thrown in some device that held him immobilized while they did a chest x-ray.  Every part of my being just wanted to whisk him from there, as he screamed endlessly while they poked & prodded him.  I felt so bad for him but knew it was necessary.  I was alarmed when they told me he had a fever of 100.5.  They quickly game him a stress dose of cor-tef & then some tylenol to bring the fever down.  We sat & sat waiting for all the results to come in.  I was relieved when he doctor finally said that everything came back fine & he had an upper respitory infection & was able to go home. First they checked with his endocrinologist to see how they wanted to proceed with the stress doses of the cor-tef.  We were told as long as he didn't present again with a fever, just to give him his regular dose every 8 hours.  We spent 6 hours in the emergency room but it was worth it all to know that it was safe enough to keep him at home.  We were all dead tired but relieved to be able to bring him home.......