sickness

We had our first ER visit the other night with Corbin. It's weird because I have been thinking about what I would do if we had to go to the ER after our doctor's office after hours closes. One of the great things about the kids pediatrician office is that they are open till 9pm at night and on the weekends, therefore hopefully limiting the amount of time that we might need to visit the ER. But Corbin woke up at 10pm the other night with a definite Croup cough. He has developed a regular cough that day and had coughed a couple of times that I heard on the monitor while Adam and I were downstairs watching TV. I headed to bed and was in our room puttering when I thought I heard him coughing. Our upstairs has been turned into a wind tunnel with the sound machine and huge fan going full blast for a noise buffer for Eliza while she sleeps in our "hallway". So needless to say, it's hard to hear what is going on unless the fan is off and doors are open.

I went into his room to check on him. He was shaking in his bed, standing, having trouble breathing, throwing up, gasping for air, and trying to cry. I wisked him out of his bed and ran down the stairs to go outside. As I went by Adam, I cried, he has croup, call Daylen right away. My friend Daylen's little boy, Luca, had a scary case of croup one night too that landed him in the ER too, so I knew she would know what to do. As I stood outside with him, he was having such a hard time breathing. His chest was retracting so badly, I could feel it on my body. He was throwing up and gagging on the air he was trying to take in. I was in total panic mode. Daylen said that being outside for 10 minutes or more should help but I didn't know if I could wait that long. I decided we needed to go the ER, even if he got better on the way there, I wanted them to check him out and give him the steroid for his lungs. I told Adam to go and wake Eliza up and meet us in the car. As I was putting Corbin in the car, he started to get better. He was able to talk and was trying to tell me he was all better. But he was still coughing and his whole body was just shaking. As we were driving we saw a deer in the road and Corbin said "watch out for the deer, Daddy!", so I knew he was feeling a little better. We kept the windows open in the car to let the cool air in while we drove. It helped him a lot.

By the time we got the hospital he was breathing almost normally with just the seal bark cough that comes with croup. But he wouldn't let go of me. He was still shaking and obviously a little freaked out by what we were doing and where we were. He wouldn't let the nurse put on a bracelet or get his heart rate with the finger monitor. The first nurse who came and checked in on us once we were in our room made him a chicken balloon out of the hospital glove. That seemed to make him relax a little. Adam and I were doing our best to try to talk about all the things around us and help him relax. Eliza just sat in her car seat quietly for almost an hour! Emergency Rooms are funny. We saw about 3 different nurses, one doctor, then other staff taking our paperwork etc. One person would come in and do something and then another person would come in to do something else. I guess in ER standards, we were there for only a short time but it seemed to take forever. About half way through, Corbin started to really relax. He let me let go of him and he sat on the bed by himself. By the end, he was playing soccer with Adam and his balloon and jumping all over the place! They gave him the steroid for his lungs and told us about what we could do if it came back. Going into the bathroom and turning on the hot water as hot as it will get and sitting in the steam is their first suggestion. Then outside, then driving around with the windows open, then the hospital.

We finally got home and everyone in bed by midnight. Corbin ended up sleeping till almost 9:45 am! But then he didn't want to take a nap. It was a long day!

Then last night he was up at 11:15 coughing and wanting to come into our bed. He was almost asleep again when he had another coughing spell. Then he decided he wanted to be awake. He started tapping me on the head, talking, asking to go downstairs. Finally I had to take him back to his room and rock him and put him in his own bed. By that time it was 12:30. He woke up again at 4:45 am with the strider breathing again. It was not nearly as bad this time, so we went down to the bathroom and sat with the shower going in the steam for 30 minutes. He was wide awake! He was being so funny once he could breath again. It was amazing how fast the steam worked. Then we went outside and sat with a blanket wrapped around us for a while. He was just talking up a storm and asking such funny questions. At 5:30, I decided to take him back upstairs. I had to lay with him (in his toddler bed) for a while before he would go to sleep. Then he was up again at 7 am coughing and wanting to be up and in bed with me. I sent him with Melissa to Brody's house just so I could get some rest while Eliza took her morning nap. Melissa brought him back here and he is finally sleeping.

It was so scary. Even though I know what croup is and Corbin has even had a mild case of it. There is nothing like holding your child who is having trouble breathing. I was so scared and yet trying to relax him at the same time. The "middle" of the night also throws a different aspect into it, as opposed to during the day and daylight hours. I am glad we all made it through and now have that first ER visit behind me. Now we just have to cross our fingers that Eliza doesn't get it.