I’ve been talking and thinking about it for a year now. The past decade has been one which is likely hard to out do. In my 20′s I graduated college, got married, had a son, got the job of my dreams, traveled far and abroad, bought a home, if that wasn’t enough I got hurt on the job and I should have died. This past ten years has been full of memories to say the least. But now it is on to a new chapter, the story of my 30′s
The Pediatric Ward
When taught about Pediatrics in EMS it is always said that kids have an amazing ability to compensate in order to maintain homeostasis. Though when they decompensate they go very fast. If you ever want to experience this see if you can spend some time on a Pediatric unit. It becomes evident in a matter of a few days sometimes.
It was Easter weekend and my son had been running mild fevers at night but during the day seemed to not have much to complain about other than not enough trampoline time at his Grandmothers. That Sunday night he tossed and turned and ended up running a fever of 105. We had done the Tylenol and Motrin thing for hours and by Monday at 3 we were in the Pediatricians office after a rebound fever of 105.6 that day. My little guy had unknowingly gone over that ledge of compensation. Drastically he went from a fun loving independent ball of energy to a sick little boy. He had went from asking us to hold his juice cup to not wanting to drink at all, that along with not peeing was the Proverbial do not pass go, go straight to the hospital.
After Three full days it was like flipping a switch, he was laughing and bouncing off the walls being rather hard to contain in a hospital room. As quickly as he went over that compensation cliff, he got back in health. It was eye opening from an EMS aspect, it is drastic how quickly it can happen. Even more so it was a reminder of if a kid looks sick he’s bad off.
failed ER Visit. 
A Junkie Update
Well its been 8 weeks today since I was discharged. 2 Months oddly flies when you are more or less confined to being a prisoner of a medical condition. The good news is I’m improving over all, or at least I feel that things are getting better. I still have episodes of trouble breathing and shortness of breath but not nearly like I did.
As I tell my Coworkers when I stop in for a visit, this is just to squash any rumors of my death which may be circulating.
