Early Morning ER Visit

We took Jack to the ER this morning. It all started yesterday afternoon. He started to have a cough and I thought he was just getting the cold that both Jim and I have been fighting this week. So when he went to bed, I gave him some Tylenol and Pedia Care for the cough. I checked on him before I went to bed and he wasn't sleeping very well. He was tossing and turning.

I woke up at 3:30 am to him crying and making this god-awful sound in his chest. I picked him up and put him in bed with us. He was hot and just plain miserable. His breathing was really labored and I watched his chest sink in every time he tried to take a breath. Of course, my mind jumps to the worst. I remember Pat telling me that they came close to losing her granddaughter when she was around 18 months to RSV and it was pretty scary for a couple of days. So, yes I am thinking of all these horrible things in my mind as I am watching him.

So about 4:30 we get up and drive to the hospital. When we get there, his temp is 102.7, his cough is sounding absolutely horrible, and his heart rate is racing at 165! We see the doctor and he says to us that it is only Croup and not dangerous. Talk about relief. Of course I had heard of croup, but it didn't even occur to me that is what was wrong with Jack. The evil nurse gave him a shot of steriods to reduce the swelling of the airway and hooked him up to a tube of cool mist oxygen to open up the airways. He was such a trooper. He was so pitiful when they gave him the shot because he really couldn't cry very well without coughing and sounding like a seal barking. But, even the nurse said that he did really well.

We took his stuffed dog, Doggie, with us. At one point when he was breathing the oxygen, he gave some to Doggie to help Doggie breath better also. So cute!

So after we came home, we were THE laziest people on the planet today. All we did was sit around in our jammies (all of us) and watch tv. Jack played with his blocks, legos, choo-choos, and cars. He is doing better, but they say that it takes about a week for it to go away and it is always worse at night. I plan on having a long night.

In other news, our microwave is still out of commission. We couldn't get somebody to come to the house until this coming Wednesday. Hopefully it is the magnetron thingy because then it is still under warranty. If not, then we may have to buy another one. It came with the house and is one of those over the stove kinds. Argh. And tonight we had to heat up leftovers like the Pioneers did in the olden days. We had to use the oven! Gasp! Can Wednesday get here any sooner?