Spencer takes an ambulance ride

We had such a scare yesterday.  Around noon,  Spencer woke-up from a 2-hour nap and I nursed him.  We spent about ten minutes hanging out...he was cooing and smiling.  Then he started to grunt a little and drool, which at first seemed pretty normal.  But then the he was blowing bubbles and drooling large amounts and the grunting was continuous and his breathing seemed labored.  He stopped focusing on me and his head and arms were drooping.  As each minute passed, he quickly became worse.  I called Brad after about 10 minutes and told him he needed to come home, something was wrong with Spencer.  We considered going to the ER and having him meet us there, but he said he'd be home in 5 minutes.  When I hung up, Spencer suddenly had a long, loud, strange belch, followed by gagging and choking.  He expelled a very large amount of mucus then gasped and proceeded to stare off into space and take short, gasping breaths.  At this point, I panicked and called 911.  He continued to get worse and his eyes started to close and I couldn't get him to wake up or respond to me.  I called my neighbor to come be with me because I was so scared.  It seemed like at any minute, he was going to stop breathing completely.  Brad came home and we were about to drive him to the ER ourselves when the ambulance got there.  I think it took them 7 or 8 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity.  At this point he started to improve a little, though we then noticed that his legs were purple and blotchy.  They started giving him oxygen and his vitals (pulse, oxygen level, temp) looked really good.  They decided he should still be transported to the ER, so I went with them in the ambulance and Brad followed us.  They gave him a breathing treatment, albuterol, in the ambulance because they thought his lungs sounded tight.  By the time we reached the hospital, he had fallen asleep and was breathing normally.  Once they got him into a room, he woke up and was smiling at the nurses (little flirt...go figure!).  From there, they did bloodwork and a chest x-ray.  They left an IV in his wrist in case they needed it to draw more blood and kept him hooked up to a heart monitor and oxygen monitor.  He continued to improve and act normal from the time we got there and his bloodwork and x-ray came back essentially normal.

On his x-ray, they noticed a large accumulation of air in his stomach, so their theory is that he had a lot of air trapped in his stomach which caused a vasovagal episode.  This is like a fainting episode or a person losing consciousness.  This is their best guess...the only thing that doesn't fit is that he had a cough that started yesterday morning and was getting worse, accompanied by sneezing and a runny nose.  Given that we had just traveled to France and back, he probably has a cold, so we don't know how this factors in.  The other things they considered were a seizure or a near-Sids event, but they think these are both unlikely.  What matters is that he seems to be okay now.

I slept in his room all night with him, just to make sure he was okay.  Yesterday, when things were going badly, I honestly thought he might die.  I cannot tell you how many scenarios and possibilities ran through my head.  They were the scariest minutes of my life thus far, with Brad's mystery illness and breathing problems of his own a year and a half ago coming in a close second.  The thought of losing Spencer is more than I can bear, and I now understand even more the strength of the love we have for our children.

For now, we are just watching him closely.  If it happens again, we will have to do a more extensive work-up.  He has his 2-month well child exam tomorrow, so that will be his follow-up and we'll go from there.