Sick again
Last Thursday Colin was slightly warm in the morning. I took his temperature and it was a little elevated, but nothing serious, so I assumed it was due to the four (yes, FOUR) molars he has coming in. I gave him some acetaminophen to make him more comfortable and sent him off to school.
Around 2:30 the school called and said that Colin was running a low-grade fever, around 99º. I thanked them, and said that he was the same way in the morning but I thought it was his teeth. Boy, was I wrong. At approximately 4:30 the school called again. Colin had started coughing and when they re-checked his temperature it was 103º. Yes, you read that right. An incendiary 103º!!!!
I immediately packed up everything at work and flew out the door, thanking my lucky stars that I had thrown the acetaminophen in my purse before I left that morning. I gave Colin the medicine the moment I walked into the classroom (he was burning up). Not only did he take it willingly, he then asked/signed for "more?" while looking at me all glassy-eyed.
I raced him home and threw him in a cool bath, and he finally seemed to perk up a bit, but no matter what I did I couldn't get his fever under 100º. This was very worrisome as the doctor always tells us that he is less concerned by a high spiking fever that responds to treatment - what worries him is if a fever can't be controlled by meds and/or cooling efforts (bath, compress, etc.). And he had developed a really horrific sounding cough. The best was I can describe it is that he sounded like he was doing a bang-up imitation of a really horribly ill seal.
Knowing that things were not happy-rosy I sent an email so I could work from home on Friday, and left a voicemail for the pediatrician asking if we could get in to see them in the morning. Thursday night was pretty sleepless, and Friday morning Colin decided that the game for the day would be Glom on Mom. He was miserable, and pretty much wanted to be held. Constantly. But when I was holding him he was still unhappy - he would arch his back and cry - clearly still uncomfortable. And when he said "more, more, more" his poor little voice was all hoarse and raspy.
When we got in the pediatrician quickly diagnosed Colin as having croupe. A serious case of it too! By the time we got in it had progressed so that in addition to the horrific cough you could hear Colin's raspy breath with every labored inhale and exhale. I've always heard of croupe but never knew what it was. (For those of you who were like me, croupe is a virus that most kids catch at some point in early childhood. The main symptom is inflammation of the airway, which can cause shortness of breath, a hoarse voice, and an awful barking cough. Lovely, eh?)
The doctor prescribed steroids to help reduce Colin's inflammation (he was worried about Colin trying to sleep, since being horizontal puts more pressure on the airway) and recommended that we use a humidifier and steam treatments to make Colin more comfortable. (Cool air often helps, and while we have kept the A/C on in the house we happen to be in the midst of a heat wave, with nightly lows of about 87º so walking outside in the "cold" wasn't really an option!)
While Colin's appetite has been hit-and-miss through the weekend he has been taking in plenty of liquids. He loves to drink from "sport bottles" and probably had about 1.5L of water yesterday alone. This means we've been changing a lot of soggy diapers (including in the middle of the night), but at least I know he stayed very well hydrated!
Thankfully the steroids seem to have done their job, and while Colin now has a yucky cough and some congestion, he's bounced back quite well and it seems that the worst is past. The raspy breathing is gone, the seal-bark-cough has disappeared, and now we just need a few good nights of sleep to cap off the recovery.
Then I'm looking forward to a long, and well-deserved bout of good health!
Please??????
Around 2:30 the school called and said that Colin was running a low-grade fever, around 99º. I thanked them, and said that he was the same way in the morning but I thought it was his teeth. Boy, was I wrong. At approximately 4:30 the school called again. Colin had started coughing and when they re-checked his temperature it was 103º. Yes, you read that right. An incendiary 103º!!!!
I immediately packed up everything at work and flew out the door, thanking my lucky stars that I had thrown the acetaminophen in my purse before I left that morning. I gave Colin the medicine the moment I walked into the classroom (he was burning up). Not only did he take it willingly, he then asked/signed for "more?" while looking at me all glassy-eyed.
Knowing that things were not happy-rosy I sent an email so I could work from home on Friday, and left a voicemail for the pediatrician asking if we could get in to see them in the morning. Thursday night was pretty sleepless, and Friday morning Colin decided that the game for the day would be Glom on Mom. He was miserable, and pretty much wanted to be held. Constantly. But when I was holding him he was still unhappy - he would arch his back and cry - clearly still uncomfortable. And when he said "more, more, more" his poor little voice was all hoarse and raspy.
When we got in the pediatrician quickly diagnosed Colin as having croupe. A serious case of it too! By the time we got in it had progressed so that in addition to the horrific cough you could hear Colin's raspy breath with every labored inhale and exhale. I've always heard of croupe but never knew what it was. (For those of you who were like me, croupe is a virus that most kids catch at some point in early childhood. The main symptom is inflammation of the airway, which can cause shortness of breath, a hoarse voice, and an awful barking cough. Lovely, eh?)
The doctor prescribed steroids to help reduce Colin's inflammation (he was worried about Colin trying to sleep, since being horizontal puts more pressure on the airway) and recommended that we use a humidifier and steam treatments to make Colin more comfortable. (Cool air often helps, and while we have kept the A/C on in the house we happen to be in the midst of a heat wave, with nightly lows of about 87º so walking outside in the "cold" wasn't really an option!)
While Colin's appetite has been hit-and-miss through the weekend he has been taking in plenty of liquids. He loves to drink from "sport bottles" and probably had about 1.5L of water yesterday alone. This means we've been changing a lot of soggy diapers (including in the middle of the night), but at least I know he stayed very well hydrated!
Thankfully the steroids seem to have done their job, and while Colin now has a yucky cough and some congestion, he's bounced back quite well and it seems that the worst is past. The raspy breathing is gone, the seal-bark-cough has disappeared, and now we just need a few good nights of sleep to cap off the recovery.
Then I'm looking forward to a long, and well-deserved bout of good health!
Please??????
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