Sick again

The sniffles & slight cough of last week has turned into a big cough this week.

Thursday morning he woke up coughing pretty hard. I checked on him at day-care midday and they said he'd been doing a lot of pretty miserable coughing.

I got lucky and found a clinic I could get him an H1N1 vaccine that afternoon, so I took off work early and went to get him. When I picked him up, he really did seem uncomfortable, so I called the doctor. He didn't seem to be struggling to breathe and wasn't wheezing, so I felt okay not taking him in, but wanted to know what I should do.

Dr. P recommended albuterol (we keep it in the house at this point) for 24 hours. If he improved, keep it up until it was gone. If it didn't, bring him in.

By Thursday night he really seemed miserable. I gave him breathing treatments every few hours, and he still wasn't wheezing or retracting, but he just didn't seem right. At bedtime, he coughed and coughed until he inevitably puked all over his bed. We got him cleaned up, I got him elevated & then listened. He finally fell asleep and seemed to be breathing okay.

It was a long sleepless night for me. I kept thinking we were headed to the ER. I even did the laundry expecting to need to pack a bag for a hospital stay. But he seemed to be holding his own. By morning, he sounded a bit better.

I took him to daycare and told them about the rough night & that he seemed a bit better. I'd check on him midday again and see what they thought.

When I checked, Katie said he just didn't seem like himself. He didn't sound bad, but he was fairly lethargic and just not right. He didn't want to sit up, wouldn't play. I called the doctor right away and got an appointment for the afternoon.

When we got there, he started wheezing. When we got into the exam room I held my breath waiting for the pulse-ox to come up. I just knew the hospital was in our immediate future. Much to my pleasant surprise, he was saturating about 97%. Phew!

They gave him another breathing treatment which improved him a little, though not dramatically. She checked him over and found yet another ear infection to go along with his lung issues.

The combination won him inhaled steroids to be added to the albuterol & antibiotics for the ears.

He's scheduled for the tubes this coming Wednesday. She thought it was possible he could clear up enough by then to get them, but honestly, I would be surprised. We'll make that decision on Monday.

For now, he's doing a bit better. Still wheezing, still crusty. But not struggling and his energy seems to be a good bit better. He's been sleeping a lot, but that's probably at least partially due to the interrupted sleep from having to be up to do breathing treatments.

It's an ugly cough. I'm quite certain he's sore from the physical act of coughing as well.

We could use some prayers that his lungs clear.

--Trish