I always thought my first visit to Dell Children's ER with John would be because he had broken a bone. It turns out it would be for croup.
John had been struggling with a dry cough for about 3 weeks when suddenly it began to worsen throughout the day. By the evening, I took him to an after hours clinic and the pediatrician there assured me that he had no wheezing and thought that he did not need any special treatment or medications. After putting him down for the evening, John slept for about 30 minutes when he had finally quit coughing. He awoke around 10:30 pm with terrible stridor, shortness or breath and the classic seal-bark coughing. I immediately put him in the bathroom with me and started the shower. Next, I called my mom and told her "Please come. NOW."
It is a terrible thing to see your child struggle to breathe. I felt so utterly helpless. Plus, to top it all off, Matt is out of town! AHHHHHH!!!
Once my mom arrived, I whisked John to Dell. They saw us immediately and gave him some oral steroids. Then we waited with the assurance that he would get better, probably in about 90 minutes. We were even given the OK to go home. Thank you dear Lord, that I did not go home.
Because about 60 minutes later, he began to worsen. To the point that I stood outside our room at the ER and called for a nurse to come evaluate him again because he was worsening. The RT came and gave him a racemic epi neb (which really peeved him) and made him shaky. It was starting to become more evident that we would probably be admitted at that point.
He received another epi neb about 4 hours later but was still struggling with significant stridor and retractions so we were admitted around 5 am. I felt so alone without Matt there. I am sure I was quite the sight - incredibly pregnant, alone with my sick 20-month old child.
We are home now and John seems to be doing better. I know we will struggle with the cough for awhile, but he no longer has the seal-bark or the stridor - YAY! Oh, and Matt comes home tonight. Double YAY!
