Crisis averted

OK, maybe not averted. More like endured.

Sam was discharged yesterday evening after a distressing two days back in the Hematology unit. We still don't know definitively what happened or why Sam was off the rails. ER staff seemed pretty confident that Sam was in withdrawal from having been weaned off of Ativan and Methadone a couple of days prior. But Hematology staff were, apparently, never fully on board with that diagnosis because Sam's WAT score ("an assessment instrument for monitoring opioid and benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms in pediatric patients") wasn't high enough.

Ultimately, Sam was left essentially untreated. Staff "watched" him for 48 hours, gave him prophylactic antibiotics, and made sure he didn't have a fever--all important and appreciated, but a bit unsatisfying given that we knew how distressed he'd been (and, at times, continued to be during our stay).

The doctors were, understandably, very hesitant to put him back on either drug, but they never offered a reasonable alternative diagnosis other than to bandy about theories that he was perhaps colicky or just fussy, because, you know, babies can be fussy. To be fair, Sam was anemic, and they did give him a transfusion. But another of their theories--that the anemia was making him feel bad--felt like a stretch. And I think it was. Two hours after the transfusion was done, Sam was back to behaving like he'd been when we came to the ER in the first place: highly agitated and generally inconsolable.

Take. Me. Home.

Bottom line: we are home again with a smiling little boy.

It's worth saying that on balance, Children's has been terrific. They saved Sam's life last month, and we have every confidence that he is where he should be for the transplant. The weekend was crappy, but I can't complain too loudly.