It has been a rough week here in the Andersen household this week and it is only Wednesday morning.
It all started Sunday night around 10:00 pm when my son came out of his room and said he itched and was crying as he said it. I started to put hydrocortisone cream on his arm where he said he itched and then realized—I did not have enough cream to cover his entire body.
Off to the emergency room we went. Several hours and some Benadryl later the rash subsided and we headed home. First we had to stop at the 24 hour Walgreen’s for some more Benadryl. Now I don’t expect to find cheery people working at Walgreen’s at 2:00 am on a Monday morning, but there she was, the most cheerful woman I had ever met. As worried as I was about my son I could not help but crack a smile for this lovely human being who was ringing up our medicine and Butterfinger bars.
I woke up at 6:00 am on Monday morning so I could wake my son up to give him more Benadryl. He went back to sleep—me, I was a little worried about the head to toe rash. My son woke at around 10:00 a.m. and an hour later was having difficulty breathing. I called the clinic and they told me to hang up and call 911 immediately.
I called 911 and the dispatcher asked me a series of questions and dispatched an ambulance. Five minutes later a City of Madison ambulance and fire truck was outside my home and I had six or seven very large firefighters in my very small home. One paramedic worked on my son while the other pulled me off to the side and asked me a series of questions that I tried to answer through my tears.
I have often said the worst things in life are phone calls that come in at 2:00 am and taking your child to the ER in the middle of the night. I have one more to add to that: riding in the back of an ambulance with your child and not knowing what in the hell is wrong with him.
My ex-wife met us at the University of Wisconsin Hospital ER and there we sat in the same room we were in the night before, with doctors and nurses who went out of their way to make us laugh and forget why we were there. More Benadryl, a chest x-ray, a nebulizer treatment and some prednisone and we were on our way at 4:00 p.m. We still had no idea why our son had a rash and no explanation for the brief period where he had difficulty breathing.
Tuesday afternoon was spent with our pediatrician and her intern examining our son and going over different treatment options. A course of action was decided upon and a new treatment plan was put in place. The rash virtually disappeared last night.
This morning my son awoke with a terrible headache and is nauseous. I am waiting for a call back from the nurse at this time. Looks like today is going to be a long day as well.
As I look back on the last few days I can say that I am glad that the union nurses at UW hospital were there to take care of my son Sunday night through Monday. I am glad my taxes go to pay for a government-run emergency system that put an ambulance at my front door within five minutes of my call to 911. I am grateful for the union 911 operator and the union firefighters and paramedics that came to my home. I am grateful that our health insurance is through a non-profit medical cooperative so that no one profited off of my son’s illness. I am grateful that I have an employer who understands that it is more important for me to be with my son right now than at work.
While I have a lot to be thankful for today I want everyone to realize that everything that I have been so grateful to have access to is exactly what the Republicans want to take away from us. I pay my fair share, and a little more than I should have to for health insurance, so that my family has access to the care we have had for the last few days. I cannot imagine what I would do if I were unable to get my son the treatment for this ailment. When your child is ill it really puts things into perspective for you.
I will happily pay my fair share. Now it is the one percent’s turn to pay their fair share.