On the Mend

So as you know our son has been really sick (thanks for all the kind words, thought, and prayers). He seemed to just have a lingering cold for the past couple of weeks but by Christmas Day had gotten much worse. I probably should have taken him to the doctor sooner, but we were out of town and for viral infections there is nothing they can really do anyway. Christmas night our son was having difficulty breathing, uncontrollable coughing, wheezing horribly, so we started to get worried.

We'd been down this road before and he ended up being hospitalized for three days last February with RSV and Bronchiolitis. We debated if we should take him to the ER Christmas night and in retrospect probably should have. Friday morning we took him to the doctor. She listened to him, checked his oxygen levels, and sent us off to the hospital. We spent the day there with him receiving breathing treatments every 30 minutes for four hours. Unlike last time, he responded to the treatment and his oxygen levels slowly increased and we were fortunately released, with yet another Bronchiolitis diagnosis, instead of admitted. They had us continue the breathing treatments at home all weekend every four hours.

Unfortunately, our son hates the mask that administers the medicine. He screams and fights and it ends up taking much longer because he holds his breath. By day three he resigned himself to the inevitable and while he no longer fights to the death, he begins to cry the second he sees me pull out the mask and medicine. It's rather sad. He looks at me and cries, "No, no mama."

There is nothing worse than having a sick kid and feeling so helpless. Truly, I don't know how parents of terminally ill children find the strength and courage to go on day after day. As sick as my son is he was/is not close to dying and yet still I have worried non-stop about him. I continue to worry about him and what this means for his future health.

Monday morning I took both kids back to the doctor for a follow up. Our daughter's lungs are clear even though she is still battling a virus, but our son's are still squeaky. Fortunately, his oxygen levels were not low enough to warrant a trip back to the hospital. But, we were sent home with a nebulizer and inhaler treatments for the duration of his illness and they prescribed further treatment anytime he starts coming down with a cold in the future. He apparently is susceptible to respiratory complications; the doctor is hoping it will be something he will outgrow but only time will tell. He was also put on antibiotics for two ear infections. The nebulizer came with a cute duck mask and a spare fish mask so our son is very receptive to the treatment now and will even sit there holding the mask to his face by himself.

So, for now we continue to be housebound. I did manage to shower and dress myself in something other than sweats and an inside out, snot encrusted shirt for the past two days now. Hopefully by weeks end he'll have responded to the treatments and be much better.

Our son has managed to fight some with his sister today so he must be feeling better. He also mustered the strength to tell me "no, no, no", which he's been not feeling well enough to do lately. So, those are both good signs. On a random note my daughter taught him to say, "Happy Birthday" so he's been saying that all day. (I age yet another year tomorrow).

It seems like respiratory viruses are going around. Our friends' son ended up in Urgent Care with bronchitis, and the Pediatric ER was filled with kids all receiving breathing treatments. What's the deal?

So, I thank you all again for your kind words and it looks like little man is on the mend.