First Visit to the E.R.

Joshua has a had a cough the past few days, no big deal I just figured it was his first cold of the winter season. He sounded like he had laryngitis by Wednesday evening. However, Thursday morning he woke up with a fever and a barking cough and couldn't even get a cry out. I gave him some meds and we laid low all day. I searched around for some information on the internet and when I read about croup I figured this is what he had. Everything I read said to be very careful because children under 3 have small trachea's and croup causes inflammation in the trachea and around the larynx and can cause difficulty in breathing which may need medical care. I did dig out our warm mist humidifier and stuck it in Joshua's room to see if this would help. During dinner he sounded as if he was wheezing. I told him to cough, cough, cough and after he did so it seemed like the wheeze had gone away. After dinner he was playing and started barking/coughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath, he was gasping for air. I immediately took him outside in the cool air and tried to calm him down seeing he was very upset and scared. At this point, every time he coughed he could barely get anything out and he had very labored breathing. Since I'm an asthmatic there is a chance that I passed this on to Joshua so I wasn't going to take any chances. We called the pediatrician's office and got in touch with an on-call nurse who told us to head down to the emergency room. At 9:15 pm we were on our way down to the hospital. We checked in and were put in a room in the DeVos Children's Emergency Room. The nurse came in and checked Joshua's vital signs and said his oxygen intake was good and his lungs sounded clear - good no asthma. He still had a fever at this point and was barking instead of coughing. So after about an hour of sitting there the doctor came in and told us he had croup which was causing inflammation in his trachea making it difficult to breathe. She ordered a liquid steroid called Decadron and some Tylenol, because by this time Joshua's fever had gotten higher. The steroid is a one time dose that lasts for three days, reducing the inflammation in the trachea. After lots of waiting he finally was given the meds and shortly after was discharged. Joshua was a trooper through the whole ordeal and never once cried while at the ER. The ER nurse said he was such a good boy he should have a prize and as we were walking out she gave him a beanie baby crab which Cory immediately named "croup the crab". We arrived back home at midnight and Joshua went right to sleep - we never heard a peep out of him until I woke him up at 10 am this morning. He has no fever today, is breathing much easier and his cough is back to more of a normal sounding cough versus the bark he had yesterday. Here's hoping we are on the road to recovery!

Just a side note for all you moms out there, the ER nurse told us that you can rotate Tylenol and Ibuprofen doses every 4 hours if needed (I already knew this thanks to Erin). However the nurse went on to say that you can even give your child Tylenol and Ibuprofen at the same time due to the fact that they are different meds and target different things and don't interact with one another. Interesting tidbit of information!