We took Andy to the ER on Sunday. He had woken up in the middle of the night, which is unusual for him. He had a temperature of 100.7, so I gave him tylenol and some water. He quickly fell back asleep within 15 minutes. He woke up feeling okay, playful and happy, and ate a normal breakfast. Within two hours, he was coughing and had a runny nose. We listened to him with the stethoscope and checked his oxygenation (the benefits of having a doctor and a fireman for parents). His ears looked okay. And he is still smiling.
And then things went downhill quickly. When he started having respiratory retractions, we took him to Children's Hospital. It takes less than 15 minutes to get there from our house; that was enough time for him to develop the stidor typical of croup. When the triage nurse saw him, we skipped the admissions part and went straight to a room. Within five minutes of arriving at the ER, he was fighting a nebulized racemic epinephrine treatment. His heart rate was 220, respiratory rate 60, temperature 100.5. It took less than 10 minutes for the treatment to take effect. But we were back to the same respiratory distress an hour later. So we held him down for another round of epinephrine. And then we were admitted for observation.
He did better overnight, needing only one more nebulizer treatment. No more fevers, his heart rate and respiratory rate improved, and he slept off and on. We have now been home for 5 days, and while he has not deteriorated to the point of needing epinephrine again, he is slow to recover. We are certain that he has asthma, so he has started daily asthma medication. It's super fun to hold you child down on a daily basis so that he can receive his inhaled medicine. Good times.
We are so thankful that he has the personality he does. Even when ill, he still is easy-going; he makes us look like better parents than we are.
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