Aiden was doing better for hump day this week, and he rode the roller coaster past Wednesday straight into a sicker slump. Wednesday night was bad, Thursday night was worse. For a first time mom to hear her little one cough until he gags and then scream and squirm it is traumatic. Not to be overly dramatic, but it was making me sad that he wasn't really able to find much comfort. We'd get him comfortable bouncing with daddy on the big ball and then all of a sudden he would scream without warning (this is unusual because daddy is a master baby comforter).
Friday morning rolled around and we called the doctor repeatedly until we got through at 8:30am. They suspected an ear infection so they got us an appointment. I was glad I didn't have to beg to have him come in and I was relieved that they would check him out before the weekend. We saw a different doctor that took one look in his ears and said "he's got a double"... It took me a second to realize he wasn't talking about his double chin, but meant a double ear infection - aw, I thought, good they can take care of that with some bubble gum medicine... then he listened to his rattly chest and he went on to say, "and a case of croup"... My aw-poor-baby went into super drive aaaah-that's-a-scary word.
Croup to me is an old fashioned illness that isn't really helped by medicine and can be very, very serious. In Tucson, I volunteered with an organization called Ben's Bells - bensbells.org which was started by a family whose two year old son died of croup without warning. Volunteering with them to help make bells and spread kindness is one of the things I miss most about Tucson. So as he explains that the weezy, out of breath cough that comes straight from his pulsating tummy is croup caused by a virus. Croup narrows the air passage and he explained that when your air passage is so small in the first place it can be very disruptive. He said that they don't know why but it does get worse at night when the body slows down for rest. It is helped by humidified hot air and also cold rushes of air, but he could hear the barky weeze even at lunch time after being carried in through the cold. So he prescribed three nights worth of prednisolone, which is an anti-inflammatory.
We gave him a dose last night and he immediately vomitted three times to be sure that none of it was actually taken in. It is really rancid tasting according to J, and this kid's face of disgust was almost cute. He was throwing up and then giggling, so at least he was in good spirits. We called to ask if we should try to give him another dose. They said to try again in small doses or hide it in food. Since it is impossible to hide it without giving him a bottle (which he wasn't excited to take), we ended up giving him 1/4 teaspoons at a time with a good dose of num nums in between. He got it all down and it was a magic drug! It can make kids restless, but instead it comforted him, squelched his cough, and he slept from 10pm to 3am. He woke up and ate well from both sides and slept again until 7am! (That is the most sleep I've had in at least five months!) He didn't cough much at all until this morning when he was working on all the ear infection drainage (ick). His cough now sounds effective and not as croupy and weezy. The antibiotics will really start doing the trick soon, and we will really have our healthy happy hippo lover back on track. I'm hoping that this will be the worse of the new daycare illness for a while.
I'm just glad that Aiden kept his giggle puss going. He wasn't all that excited to go to the doctor and was fussing as we got through the door. It helps to talk to him while he fusses because then instead of shrieks he will start talking to you. He really sounds like he has a point and he will goo and gaa in response to you. He started doing this as I was checking out at the front counter. I held him up to the window and he had a talk with the woman behind the desk. I think he was thanking her for getting him an appointment at the last minute. He talked as we made our way to the car and as we cruised up to the CVS drivethru (best shopping innovation i'd never used), then he promptly fell asleep. Thank goodness for the good ol car rumble comfort.
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