Sick, sick, sick

My littlest guy has had some kind of crud for about a week now.  He developed a cough last week.  A few times at the end of the week last week DH and I debated whether or not it warranted going into the clinic.  But then he would sound better, etc. so we never took him in.

Last night around 1 a.m.  he scared the living crap out of both of us though.  He started with a coughing spell that was pretty bad.  He has never coughed that much ever before.  He was coughing so hard each time that he almost puked each time.  And he sometimes seemed like he couldn’t catch his breath.  I picked him up and tried to calm him down and get him to cough stuff up if he could so he could relax.  He finally calmed down enough that I could lay him back down.  But I tell you, from then on I did not sleep well trying to listen for his breathing, etc.  🙁  Sometimes it’s hard to be a parent.

So we called the clinic as soon as they opened this morning to see if we could get him in to see his regular Dr.  Got lucky and got a 9:45 appt. for him to see her.  Took him in because we were afraid he possibly might have whooping cough or pneumonia after the spell he heard during the night.

He was so "noisy" that the Dr. said she was going to order a chest xray to make sure there wasn’t anything going on in his lungs since she couldn’t clearly hear a crackle.  He did great with the xray.  The good news is that he doesn’t not have pneumonia…yet.  His lungs looked decently clear.  So it was determined he has a respiratory illness of some type at this point.  Dr said bronchiolitis (children’s version of bronchitis).  They had me give him a nebulizer treatment in the office to see if that helped at all.  Since they thought it did, I was given a machine to take home and  a prescription was ordered for meds for him.   So at least now we know what we are dealing with sort of.

Man, was it a long tiring day though.  We spent over two hours sitting in that stupid Dr office.  NOT something I like to do.  Seems people get more sick after being at the Dr then they were to begin with.  So I am not a fan of taking the kids in there unless it’s really necessary.  Obviously, this was necessary, but still.

Not to mention how much fun it is to keep an active 2 year old busy being cooped up in a small exam room for the majority of a 2 hour visit.  Yikes!  He was doing ok in the beginning and then he started to get loony.  lol  By the time we went down for the xray he was rearing to go.  I can usually convince him to slow down and be good if I ask him if he can be my helper.  Then he will carry things, walk slowly, and behave pretty good on his own.  He did that for a while.  But then we got to the elevator…..   He asked if he could push the button, so I let him.  We got on and he wanted to push the button to where we needed to go, which he did.  But not before the big red button that says ALARM on it got his attention!  Oye.  Thankfully it only rang a few times and then miraculously shut off and the elevator started.  We got to xray and the tech asked J to come with him behind the protective wall while they were taking the pictures.  He told him he could help take the pictures, J was all over that!  All I kept thinking is ‘please don’t let him actually touch anything, I don’t want a xray machine added onto my bill!’  lol  But he did ok, thankfully, and earned some stickers for being such a good helper.  Went back to the clinic waiting room to wait and he pulled all fo the kiddie chairs over to the fish tank and crawled up on them to look at the fish.  When we finally got taken back to the exam room again he was done with being there and I could tell it.  While I was going through the paperwork to get the machine we were taking home he managed to crawl up on the exam table.  I told him to get down, the nurse said ‘oh he’s ok, don’t worry there’s nothing he can get into’.  HA!  Famous lasts words!!  lol   Wasn’t long before we were sitting there and we could hear this alarm going off.  At first we both ignored it, then it finally hit the nurse that it was an alarm that usually indicates someone is in trouble in the exam rooms.  She looked and said ‘oh no you didn’t….." and looked and sure enough, J had pushed the button on the wall that set that off.  So she jumped up to shut it off and cancel it.    When she stepped out to do something else I hear "uh oh light bulb Momma’ and looked at J holding a light bulb in his hand from the exam lamp.  I tried to put it back in, but it wouldn’t screw in, wouldn’t push in so I don’t know how the heck they put it in.  So I laid it on their desk and left it alone.  The last time the nurse had to step out to ask a question she decided it would be a good idea to take J with her as her helper.  I could hear his little feet stomping and running along side of her where ever she went.  then he finally asked "where’s my Momma?" just before they got back to our room.  For being her helper he earned some more stickers.  She brought another nurse along with her to explain some of the paperwork I was still filling out and J slammed the door behind them when they came in. Actually, I don’t think he intended to, it kind of got sucked shut at the same time that he was shutting it.  But anyway, it was LOUD.  Those two nurses about jumped out the window.  They looked at me and I was still rocking the baby with one foot and filling out the paperwork without a flinch. They asked me why that didn’t scare me.  I told them with two boys in the house that are always on the go, I’m used to doors being slammed and noise.  lol  So yeah, it was an interesting time.  I was REALLY glad when we finally could get out of there. 

E has had a couple of treatments now.  It seems to help some, not sure exactly how much.  They gave us an adult face mask instead of a pediatric one.  So I have to see if I can maybe get a smaller mask.  It seems like it would be more effective if it actually fit him better.   The Dr said he will likely feel a little loopy, almost like a high, after a treatment.  And because so much of it leaks out of the mask becuase it desn’t fit right, she said so will you.  lol  But she said not to worry, it only lasts about 15-20 minutes and you should be back to normal.  lol 

So hopefully we are on the path to everyone being healthy again.  It’s bad enough when we are sick, but there is stuff we know to do that can provide relief and make us better.  It’s bad when the kids get sick because there seems like there is only so much you can do to make them feel better and sometimes you just feel helpless.  But when a baby is sick, that is the worst because there is so little that can be done for them.  With the geniuses that took all of the OTC medicines off the shelves that used to help it really limited a parent’s ability to provide relief to their child when they  are sick.  And unless

they get an ear infection or something of that nature that requires a prescription drug there really isn’t much to be done.  Helpless, that’s the only word that describes how a parent feels with a baby that is sick.   🙁