Hasn't He Been Through Enough?

I've been MIA for a few days. It's been very exhausting and hectic around here, to say the least. On Friday I had just returned from bringing T. to Pre-K. I walked into the house and heard the phone ringing. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was W.'s school.

That's never a good thing.

I answered the call and was greeted by the school nurse. She told me that W. was having some chest pain. He had been outside at recess, however, because of the heat the children were not allowed to run around. Even though this was the case, his heart rate was up. I told her I would be right over to get him.

In case some of you don't know, W. was born with a heart defect. The main arteries to his heart were switched. He also had a hole in his heart. When he was 5 days old he went through open heart surgery and it was repaired. He is now a healthy boy and does not take any medications for it. The only restrictions he has is no contact sports, which has nothing to do with his heart but is not allowed because his ribs were wired closed after this surgery. He sees his cardiologist twice a year for check-ups and there have never been any problems out of the ordinary for this type of surgery.

But to hear that he was having chest pains sent me into a complete panic. Mr. Schmitty called the cardiologist while I was gone. I asked W. what was wrong and he said that it hurt to drink, eat, and lie down. He had a pain right in the middle of his chest, which was making him wince. Mr. Schmitty told me upon my arrival home that the cardiologist said that from the symptoms he had, it couldn't be his heart. He suggested we take him to the pediatrician. I wanted to know why he was making a diagnosis over the phone! I was pissed! The pediatrician, of course, didn't want to touch him in case it WAS the heart. They suggested we take him to the cardiologist. Don't you just love it?!

Mr. Schmitty took him to the emergency room instead. And to make a long, long story short, he has Spontaneous Pneumothorax, which is:

"Spontaneous pneumothorax is a sudden collection of air or gas in the chest that causes the lung to collapse in the absence of a traumatic injury to the chest or lung. Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs in individuals with no known lung disease. It affects close to 9,000 persons in the United States each year- most often among tall, thin men between 20 and 40 years old. The cause of this type of pneumothorax is the rupture of a bleb or cyst in the lung.

Symptoms include:

Chest pain on affected side
Dyspnea (shortness of breath)
Cough
Abnormal breathing movement
Rapid respiratory rate
Spontaneous pneumothorax is diagnosed by chest radiographs.

The way the condition is treated is dependant on its size and course. The objective of treatment is to remove the air from the pleural space, allowing the lung to reexpand. A small pneumothorax will resolve on its own in 1 to 2 weeks. Larger pneumothoraxes require either needle aspiration or a chest tube. Hospitalization is required for chest tube management as the reexpansion of the lung may take several days with the chest tube left in place. Surgery may be performed for a repeated episode to prevent recurrence."

Yea, scary, huh? A few key points. His lung didn't collapse, but COULD HAVE. Many people think the pain is a pulled muscle. If we thought that, his lung could have collapsed. Only 9,000 in the US get it and usually it's men 20-40, he's 9. The poor child has been through so much in that time. His heart surgery, another surgery to open up the incision when it got infected, he had sleep apnea and had his tonsils and adnoids out at 4, he has vitiligo, he gets wicked nosebleeds, and now this.

The hospital gave W. oxygen which helped the air bubble get smaller. They kept him in the PICU overnight for observation. The took another x-ray yesterday morning and the bubble did get smaller, though, it's not completely gone. We just have to keep him from any physical activity this week. UM? Have they actually observed W.? He's a a tornado, so wish me luck with that, k?

It seems to me from what I have read, that this can occur again. So, I guess I can add this to my worry-wart-list. What's one more thing, right?

My head hurts, I think I'm going to go take a pill. Night y'all.